Lome, Togo 19 December 2013: The Republic of Togo launched its African Gender and Development Index (AGDI) report on 19 December 2013 following its implementation in 2012 with the technical and financial support of the African Center for Gender (ACG), which has been working with 24 countries to implement the tool.
The AGDI - a gender equality planning and monitoring tool - was developed by ECA in 2004 with the objective of responding to the lack of statistics within African member States to implement their global and regional commitments on gender equality and women's empowerment.
The first of its kind in Africa, the tool is designed to measure a range of issues such as time use, unpaid care work and ownership of rural/urban plots, houses or land that so far are not included or taken into account in international indices.
The AGDI is a composite index that combines both a quantitative assessment of gender equality in the social, economic and political spheres using a Gender Status Index (GSI); and a qualitative evaluation of governments' performance in their implementation of specific treaties, declarations, and resolutions through an African Women’s Progress Scoreboard (AWPS).
The launch of the report brought together more than 100 participants including 9 Ministers and representatives from all ministries; UN agencies, bilateral and multilateral organizations and CSOs.
ECA was represented by the Chief of Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment, Ms Ngoné Diop who led discussions on the positive linkages between gender equality, women's empowerment and inclusive growth and sustainable development in Togo. She demonstrated how the AGDI report for Togo can be used by the government to strengthen the effectiveness the country’s National Strategy for Accelerated Growth and Promotion of Employment, which is the country's main development framework.
Following the launch, the Minister of Action Sociale, Promotion de la Femme et de l'Alphabetisation" expressed Togo's gratitude for ECA's support to the implementation of the AGDI and its official launch.