Introduction
This questionnaire has been designed to obtain information from Governments and
to facilitate national reporting on implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action. The
information supplied will be analysed and compiled for the comprehensive review and
assessment which will be submitted by the Secretary-General to the Commission on the
Status of Women at its forty-fourth session in the year 2000, and to the special session
of the General Assembly to be held at the United Nations, New York in June 2000.
For the special session, several reports will be prepared. The comprehensive review
will contain a factual assessment of the status of implementation of the Platform for
Action since its adoption. It will show progress and shortfalls, and provide an indication
of areas where further actions and initiatives within the framework of the Platform for
Action might be most urgent. Another report will contain suggestions for further actions
and initiatives that might be considered during the review for the outlook on gender
equality and advancement of women beyond the year 2000.
In order to prepare these reports, the United Nations Secretariat will draw on a
variety of sources of information and statistics available to it in addition to the
responses to this questionnaire. Among the sources to be used will be the national reports
by Governments prepared for the Beijing Conference, the national action plans designed to
implement the Platform for Action, reports submitted since 1995 by States parties under
the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, and
information generated since 1995 during the review by the Commission on the Status of
Women of the Platform's twelve critical areas of concern. Official statistics available
from the United Nations Statistics Division, the Population Division and other statistical
information available in the UN system (WHO, ILO, UNESCO etc.) will be used as well. We
will also coordinate with other UN offices responsible for follow-up to other global
conferences to exchange pertinent country information.
Responses to this questionnaire should be sent by no
later than 30 April 1999 to:
UN Division for the Advancement of Women
Two UN Plaza, Room 1216
New York, NY 10017
Fax: (212) 963-3463
E-mail: daw@un.org
Please note that the information being sought through this questionnaire is more
qualitative than quantitative in nature. However, respondents wishing to update
quantitative information disaggregated by sex and age or to report on indicators used at
the national level to monitor activities for gender equality and advancement of women may
do so. The United Nations does not currently have an agreed list of indicators on gender
equality and advancement of women. Annex II to this questionnaire contains a list of data
sets/indicators for reference only used by the United Nations for planning and
monitoring development activities, particularly at the country programming level.
The attached questionnaire consists of three parts. In Part One, respondents are
invited to provide a brief (3 to 6 pages) analytical overview of trends and experiences in
implementation in the reporting country. This overall picture should highlight major achievements and obstacles encountered since the Platform for Action was adopted.
Part Two focuses on overall implementation in relation to the national action plans and
in particular, on resource allocations and institutional arrangements
Part Three of the questionnaire focuses specifically on implementation in the twelve
critical areas of concern of the Platform for Action. In this Part, respondents are
invited to describe policies, programmes and projects which have been undertaken to
implement the Platform for Action including, for example, legislation, positive action
measures, development of new or improved services and/or awareness creation. Where
specific targets or strategies have been set, progress in achieving those targets and
strategies should be reported. Respondents are also invited to indicate future actions or
initiatives to be taken, nationally and or internationally, to ensure full implementation
of the Platform for Action in each of the critical areas of concern. In this regard you
are encouraged, in particular, to indicate any new commitments made to further implement
the Platform for Action and a vision for women's advancement and gender equality in your
country in the next millennium.
QUESTIONNAIRE
Part One
Overview of trends in achieving gender equality and women's advancement
1. Give a brief analytical overview (3 to 6 pages) of trends in your country in
implementing the Platform for Action. This overview or broad picture should, for example,
describe the country's policy with regard to achieving the goal of equality between women
and men and should be linked to your national action plan or other plans or strategies.
Your response could, for example, address questions such as:
What have been the major achievements and/or breakthroughs in concrete terms in
implementing the national action plan and/or policies and programmes for gender equality
and advancement of women?
Is the situation of women and girls in sectors not covered by the national action plan
better or worse than in 1995? Why?
Are the goals of gender equality and advancement of women being pursued as a priority
in relation to other public policy goals? Please explain.
What were the country's priorities in terms of the critical areas of concern of the
Platform for Action? Explain.
Identify areas where mainstreaming a gender perspective has been most/least successful.
In which sectors is a gender approach being applied? Please illustrate with examples of
legislation, policies, best practice and lessons learned.
Has attention to gender equality and advancement of women changed since 1995 -- in
Government policies, in public perception, in the media, in academic institutions? Please
explain concretely the nature of the change.
How has the global situation, for example, structural adjustment, the global financial
crisis and/or globalization of markets affected women and girls in your country?
Part Two
Financial and institutional measures
2. Discuss how equality and women's advancement are addressed in the national
budget. This could include an indication of the percentage of the overall budget that is
allocated for women-specific policies/programmes, and any increases/decreases since 1995.
What percentage of this allocation comes from international or bilateral donors? Describe
efforts to monitor budgetary allocations related to achieving gender equality and
advancement of women.
3. a. Discuss structures and mechanisms that have been put in place to institutionalize
follow-up to, and implementation of, the Platform for Action. Describe whether similar
mechanisms have been established for follow-up to other conferences, such as the World
Summit for Social Development or the Vienna World Conference on Human Rights.
b. Describe the arrangements that have been made to coordinate the various follow-up
efforts to global conferences.
c. Describe the role of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in planning and shaping
the follow-up activities. Do members of NGOs participate formally in the mechanisms
established to follow up the Beijing Conference?
Part Three
Implementation of the critical areas of concern of the Beijing Platform for Action
A. Innovative policies, programmes, projects and good practices
4. In relation to each of the twelve critical areas of concern, describe best
practices and innovative actions taken by the Government or other actors (NGOs, civil
society, the private sector) to achieve the objectives in each critical area of concern in
the Platform for Action. Your response should refer to the country's national action plan,
and could include examples of legal measures, reforms, media campaigns, and pilot
programmes or projects. Please cite, in particular, any targets which were set in the
Government's national action plan or other relevant plans, and indicate how far these were
met. (For example, a target may have been to appoint more women to the cabinet. To what
extent was it achieved?)
B. Obstacles encountered
5. What obstacles were encountered and what lessons were learned in implementing
policies and other measures in each critical area of concern? (For example, despite new
legislation to limit traditional practices harmful to the health of women and girls, these
practices continued, showing that an education campaign was also needed to bring change in
behaviour, or customary law was adapted to fit modern legislation when it was learned that
women were more discriminated by customary laws than men).
C. Commitments to further action and initiatives
6. Many Governments made commitments to action at the Beijing Conference. Describe
steps taken by your Government to fulfill any specific commitments it made at Beijing.
7. List any new commitments in each of the twelve critical areas of concern which your
Government has made since Beijing and how these are being implemented, including any new
targets which have been set and the time frame for meeting them. (For example, to increase
resource allocations to primary education and to local governments to conduct an awareness
campaign among parents on the importance of sending girls to school; to review the
regulations governing land rights for women and men; to increase by 50 per cent the number
of police officers trained to handle domestic violence cases and cases of rape.)
8. List any further actions and initiatives which your Government believes should or
could be taken to fully implement the Platform for Action beyond the year 2000. Among
these, identify which ones your own Government intends to take and when.
9. Briefly describe your vision for women's advancement and equality for women in the
new millennium.
ANNEX I*
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Critical
Areas of Concern
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Examples
of successful policies, programmes and projects to implement the critical areas of concern
of the Beijing Platform for Action (Indicate any targets and strategies set and related
achievements |
Examples
of obstacles encountered/lessons learned |
Commitment
to further action/new initiatives |
Other |
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I. Women and poverty
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II. Education and training of women
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III. Women and health
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IV. Violence against women
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V. Women and armed conflict
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VI. Women and the economy
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VII. Women in power and decision-making
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VIII Institutional mechanisms for the advancement of women
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IX. Human rights of women
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X. Women and the media
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XI. Women and the environment
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XII. The girl child
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ANNEX II
Common Data Sets/Indicators for Measuring Development Progress
The following is a consolidated list of data sets/indicators which have been
identified by the United Nations for use in planning and monitoring development
achievements. It is supplied here for reference only. Much of this information is
already available to the United Nations. To be useful, all data should be disaggregated by
sex and age in order to show any gaps between men and women. Should any recent censuses or
surveys in these areas have been conducted, you are requested to supply this information.
Population and fertility
Population size
Population aged 0-4; 0-14; 15-49; 60+
Population by urban/rural distribution
Population growth rate
Total fertility rate
Fertility rate for women aged 15-19
Mortality
