Gender equality and empowerment: a statistical profile of the ESCAP region.

The purpose of this paper was originally to assist the deliberation of the High-Level Intergovernmental Meeting Beijing +10 (Bangkok 7-10 September 2004) by presenting a summary of the current situation of women in relation to men in a number of key areas in the Asia-Pacific region. This revised version forms the first volume in a series of two papers all aimed at addressing major developments in the situation of women in the Asia-Pacific region. The Asia- Pacific region as defined by ESCAP’s membership includes some 50 countries in the region and some 9 territories covering East and North-East Asia North and Central Asia South and South-West Asia South-East Asia and the Pacific. It has repeatedly been demonstrated that data are key to catalyzing and monitoring progress as well as supporting country-level planning and local accountability. Gender statistics has therefore been a priority area in ESCAP’s statistical capacity building work for many years. As a result considerable statistical progress has been achieved in the region since the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action in 1995 adopted the strategic objective “to generate and disseminate sex-disaggregated data and information for planning and evaluation”. (excerpt)