Gender in Nigeria’s development discourse: relevance of gender statistics

In spite of the various regional and international initiatives to promote gender equality, Africa remains a continent with poor gender statistics. This paper presents a reflective explorative discourse on the status of gender and gender statistics in Nigeria, using secondary data as well as a rapid assessment of six key organisations identified as drivers of the “gender agenda”. Our study shows that organisations and sectors mandated to provide leadership for the production and use of gender statistics in Nigeria lack basic technical competencies and show very little commitment to the engendering process. Production and access to gender statistics is still plagued by misunderstanding of the concept of gender as a planning tool, especially in the non-traditional sectors which have remained the domain of men. Extensive capacity building on gender statistics is necessary and urgent so as to document and begin to address the systemic imbalance caused by gender inequality both at national and regional levels; and to attain international goals on gender statistics. Advancing the goals of gender statistics in Nigeria is prime to its development agenda.


Introduction
The need for gender statistics across the globe is critical for appraising developmental indicators and responding to gender issues in development agendas. Increased gender equality requires a genderfocused national/sectoral statistics with a recognition that women play different roles in the society because of cultural and social factors, which implies that they have differential access to and control over resources. Without the production and use of gender statistics, the planning and implementation of policies, programmes and projects will not adequately take account of the different status of men and women, including their interests and concerns. Gender statistics are required to monitor and evaluate policies, programmes and projects, and to provide empirical evidence needed for social transformation and policy change. Africa is one of the major continents with poor gender statistics. The Fourth World Conference on Women, which adopted the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (BPfA) in 1995, called upon national and international statistical organizations to "devise suitable statistical means to recognize the full extent of the work of women and all their contributions to national economy, including their contributions in the unremunerated and domestic sectors" (BPfA Annex1, Action #68b Page 25). African countries have been active in the various regional and international initiatives to promote gender equality. Yet, a large number of African countries reporting on the status of the implementation of the Dakar and BPfA declarations during the Beijing + 10 Decade Review in 2004 indicated a lack of adequate data to reflect achievements and gaps where these exist.
Insufficient gender-disaggregated data and statistics make it difficult for African countries to fulfil their reporting commitments to regional and international declarations to improve gender equality and women's empowerment. Most African National Statistical Systems are unable to adequately address gender issues in their production or use of statistics because of their lack of capacity as well as a limited understanding of and mainstreaming of gender related issues and concerns into statistical processes 1 .
The global report to the 37 th Session of the United Nations (UN) Statistical Commission (March 2006) identified inadequate statistical capacity, lack of gender mainstreaming in national statistical systems and inadequate concepts and methods as major challenges hindering the production and dissemination of gender statistics and sex-disaggregated data. Lack of gender statistics has restricted countries' ability to make gender-inclusive informed decisions for policy formulation, planning, programme implementation and monitoring. Several years after the adoption of the National Gender Policy for Nigeria, lack of gender statistics has remained a bane in the implementation of this policy (Aina, 2013). This paper aims at documenting the status of official gender statistics in Nigeria, using both secondary and primary data, in particular, data from an assessment of six (6) key organisations at the forefront of the production and utilisation of gender statistics in Nigeria.

Framework for the production and use of gender statistics
Gender equality and the empowerment of women are enshrined in international and regional declarations, commitments and development frameworks to which many African countries are signatories. At the international level, these include the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) of 1979, the Beijing Platform for Action (BPfA) of the Fourth World Conference on Women of 1995, and the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of 2000. Regional initiatives include the New Economic Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) and its gender component as well as the African Union (AU) Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality of 2004 which have also provided mandates for fostering greater gender equality. In addition, many national governments have promulgated legislative and regulatory frameworks, policies and programmes aimed at promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women. The availability of gender responsive data is essential for an effective implementation of these international, regional and national commitments. Under strategic objective H.3 ("generate and disseminate gender disaggregated data and information for planning and evaluation", p.87), the BPfA made a long list of recommendations for actions to be taken by governments as well as by national, regional and international statistical services and relevant governmental and United Nations agencies, in cooperation with research and documentation organizations 2 . It recommended that Statistical agencies, Research Organisations and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) in member countries are to: • Ensure that statistics related to individuals are collected, compiled, analysed and presented by sex and age and reflect problems, issues and questions related to women and men in society; • Collect, compile, analyse and present, on a regular basis, data disaggregated by age, sex, socio-economic and other relevant indicators, including number of dependants, for utilization in policy and programme planning and implementation; • Involve centres for women's studies and research organizations in developing and testing appropriate indicators and research methodologies to strengthen gender analysis, as well as in monitoring and evaluating the implementation of the goals of the Platform for Action; • Designate or appoint staff to strengthen gender-statistics programmes and ensure coordination, monitoring and linkage to all fields of statistical work, and prepare output that integrates gender statistics from the various subject areas; • Improve data collection on the full contribution of women and men to the economy, including their participation in the informal sector(s); • Develop a more comprehensive knowledge of all forms of work and employment through the following: (i). Improve data collection on the unremuner-ated work which is already included in the United Nations System of National Accounts, such as in agriculture, particularly subsistence agriculture, and other types of non-market production activities; (ii). Improve measurements that at present underestimate women's unemployment and underemployment in the labour market; (iii). Develop methods, in the appropriate forums, for assessing the value, in quantitative terms, of unremunerated work that is outside national accounts, such as caring for dependants and preparing food, for possible reflection in satellite or other official accounts that may be produced separately from but are consistent with core national accounts, with a view to recognizing the economic contribution of women and making visible the unequal distribution of remunerated and unremunerated work between women and men; • Develop an international classification of activities for time-use statistics that is sensitive to the differences between women and men in remunerated and unremunerated work, and collect data disaggregated by sex. At the national level, subject to national constraints: (i) Conduct regular time-use studies to measure, in quantitative terms, unremunerated work, including recording those activities that are performed simultaneously with remunerated or other unremunerated activities; (ii). Measure, in quantitative terms, unremunerated work that is outside national accounts and work to improve methods to assess its value, and accurately reflect its value in satellite or other official accounts that are separate from but consistent with core national accounts; • Improve concepts and methods of data collection on the measurement of poverty among women and men, including their access to resources; • Strengthen vital statistical systems and incorporate gender analysis into publications and research; give priority to gender differences in research design and in data collection and analysis in order to improve data on morbidity; and improve data collection on access to health services, including access to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services, maternal care and family planning, with special priority for adolescent mothers and for elder care; • Develop improved gender-disaggregated and age-specific data on the victims and perpetra-tors of all forms of violence against women, such as domestic violence, sexual harassment, rape, incest and sexual abuse, and trafficking in women and girls, as well as on violence by agents of the State; • Improve concepts and methods of data collection on the participation of women and men with disabilities, including their access to resources. The next section shows how gender inequality is ingrained in Nigeria by presenting the status of Nigerian women as a backdrop of the need for adequate gender statistics.

Brief overview on the status of Nigerian women
Nigeria's socio-cultural system is dominated by male values and largely reflects a patriarchal society. Women are usually in a subordinate position and male children are preferred over females. The influence of both parents is particularly significant in shaping and perpetrating patriarchy. The mother provides the role model for daughters, while the father demonstrates to sons what it means to 'be a man' (World Bank 2006). Despite a general commitment to the principle of non-discrimination as enshrined in Section 2 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the country falls short of the desired result of giving males and females equal opportunities to advance socially, educationally, politically and economically. By the Nigerian Constitution, civil and political rights (Chapter 4 of the 1999 Constitution) are actionable in a court of law whilst economic, social and cultural rights (Chapter 2 of the 1999 Constitution) are not (Aina, 2012). Section 43 of the constitution permits both male and female Nigerians to own and acquire movable and immovable property. In spite of this, a large proportion of women in Nigeria are barred from owning land (an immovable property) by customary laws of inheritance. The history of development policies in Nigeria is also that of a general neglect of the gender variable. The first twenty years of development planning of the Republic remained largely welfarist, with women's interests being subsumed within the national interest, along with a trickle down approach to development practice. Under such an arrangement, development policies and planning remained gender-blind.
A recent health profile study by the Federal Ministry of Health reported that over 55.7% of people living with HIV/ AIDS in Nigeria are women and women account for over 56% of adult illiterate Nigerians 3 . In terms of work, women's participation in productive formal sector labour force in the country remains low with women found largely in vulnerable employment either as owner-account workers or contributing family members. They are rarely employed in jobs with power, authority and status. Relative to total employment, women are under represented among legislators, senior officials and managers in the public sector. Northern Nigeria reports the gloomiest gender indicators in the country. In many Northern states, women's adult literacy rate hovers around 20 per cent 4 Lack of gender balance in decision-making positions in government is the norm in Nigeria with sharp regional differentials. Data from the Northern zones report a very low participation of women in politics and public life. While women in Southern Nigeria gained the right to vote in 1959, it was not until 1979 -twenty years after -that Northern Nigerian women were allowed to vote (Aina, 2012). Women continue to be under-represented in the National Assembly where they occupy only 6.4% of seats. Women's low representation in positions of power and authority has been linked to many factors, including poor access to education, early marriage, traditional prejudices, poverty and lack of economic empowerment. For example, Nigeria embraced gender-biased economic policies of the 1980s, pursuing economic growth through structural adjustment and broad liberalization. This largely led to what is today referred to as the 'feminisation of poverty', with the Nigerian women bearing the brunt of the economic melt-down exacerbated by the high rate of unemployment and loss of jobs for many traditionally acclaimed 'breadwinners' (husbands) in homes.

Bridging the gender gap in nation building 5
Nigeria has demonstrated a commitment to many international conventions by signing and ratifying several major global treaties, including the International Civil and Political Rights Covenant -the International Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Covenant, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the Children's Rights Convention, and the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (Convention against Torture) (Aina, 2012). Since the Women's Decade (1975 -1985), Nigeria has recorded a number of bold steps towards bridging gender gaps in nation building, including: • (now adopted in many states in Nigeria).

The gender framework remains peripheral to core government resources
Many of Nigeria's gender sensitive policies remain on paper, rather than in practice. Both cultural and religious factors are often used to block gender equality in the country. A case in point is the recent controversy on the age of marriage in the National Assembly. It is ironic that the issue of child marriage is yet to be resolved in Nigeria, despite the recent efforts at Constitutional review. The issue resurged in the national discourse because a well-known political figure, Mr. Yerima, the former governor of Zamfara State, pressured the Senate to pass a vote retaining a section of the constitution 7 which says that a married woman (even when she is a child) could be deemed to be of 'full age' for the purpose of renouncing citizenship 8 . Had she not been married, 'full age' would be 18 years and above, hence the controversy. The vote (of 16 July 2013) to retain this ambiguous section of the constitution sparked a national debate about legal age at marriage including strident reminders that Nigeria has ratified many international agreements protecting children and promoting gender equality 9 . One of these is the child Rights Act (see sections 21-24) passed by the National Assembly in 2003 and which states that "No person under the age of 18 years is capable of contracting a valid marriage and accordingly, a marriage so contracted is null and void and of no effect whatsoever" 10 . Progress on the implementation of the various policies (either at the Federal and/or State levels) is very slow to measure because of the weak use of gender statistics. Absence of gender statistics makes gender frameworks almost irrelevant, and far from core governance and management of national resources. This is heightened by such operational issues as: (a). Lack of a gender responsive budgeting framework for the country; (b). Lack of gender disaggregated data and gender statistics to monitor gender gaps, to ensure appropriate policy actions; (c). Weak legislative support for gender issues, and failure to see gender issues as crosscutting in all sectors (both at the levels of policy and prac-5. The bulk of the review is credited to the inaugural lecture delivered by Aina Olabisi (2012). 6. National record on gender mainstreaming is still relatively poor. Gender frameworks have not been fully mainstreamed into any of the sectors. A recent field survey sponsored by the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs on the Review of the National Gender Policy shows that only the Ministry of Agriculture has gone beyond the Gender Desk Officer template, to creating a critical mass for gender mainstreaming in the sector -still an on-going field survey. 7. Section 29(4) (b) 8. Mr Yerima reportedly married a 13 year old Egyptian girl. It is therefore a case of legalising illegality, to cover up his track record of child marriage. 9. http://premiumtimesng.com/news/141612, accessed on 14/10/2013 tice

Data and methods
Six (6) lead organizations that actively produce or use official statistics were assessed to document their responsiveness to gender statistics. The assessment involved the administration of a standard questionnaire which was either self-administered or, when possible, served as the basis for an in-depth interview (IDI). Respondents were all senior officials (Directors or Deputy Directors) of their organisations, who were the most directly involved with the production or use of official statistics. The research instrument included questions about the organisations' programmes and activities in the area of gender statistics, data storage and dissemination, capacity building, etc. The the IDIs provided an opportunity to gather more detailed information on the programmes of the organizations. IDIs were conducted with three senior officials of the National Population Commission, one senior official of the National Bureau of Statistics and with the UNFPA Gender Focal Person. The other organizations: the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology, the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development and the National Planning commission preferred to self-administer the questionnaire. The research team encountered some challenges during data collection especially in terms of organizations' responsiveness to gender statistics. These were mostly in relation to organizational protocols, delays in booking appointments and getting official response to letters and phone calls, and sometimes deliberate uncooperative attitude. Sometimes, respondents completed the questionnaire but had to wait several weeks for their responses to be vetted by the unit director before releasing the completed instrument to the research team. Despite this, the team persisted and got adequate response from the organizations.
The six selected institutions for this study are described below. The short description of the respective organisations is to show the main functions and responsibilities of each organisation and whether a gender focus is intrinsic in them.

National Population Commission
The National Population Commission (NPopC), was established by the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) in 1988. It has the statutory powers to collect, analyse and disseminate population/demographic data in the country. It is also mandated to undertake demographic sample surveys, compile, collate and publish migration and civil registration statistics as well as monitor the country's Population Policy.
The commission has the power to 11 : • Undertake periodic enumeration of population through sample surveys, censuses or otherwise. • Establish and maintain machinery for continuous and universal registration of births and deaths throughout the federation. • Advise the President on Population matters; • Publish and provide information data on population for the purpose of facilitating economic and development planning; and • Appoint and train or arrange for the appointment and training of enumerators or other staff of the Commission. The Commission was reconstituted in 2001 with a Chairman and 37 members representing each state of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). It has a network of offices covering all the administrative tiers of the country: Federal, State and Local Government Areas (LGAs). The major difference between the NPopC and the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) is that NPopC is the repository of the national sampling frame.

National Bureau of Statistics
The NBS is a merger of the former Federal Office of Statistics (FOS) and the National Data Bank (NDB). Its creation was part of the implementation of the Statistical Master Plan (SMP), a programme document of the Federal Government. The merger gave the agency a national outlook as the apex statistical 10. The Child Act is a federal act that is yet to be adopted in 12 of Nigeria's 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory 11. http://www.population.gov.ng/, accessed on 22 April 2010 agency for all the three tiers of Government. NBS is expected to coordinate statistical operations of the National Statistical System in the production of official statistics in all the Federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), State Statistical Agencies (SSAs) and Local Government Councils (LGCs). Nigeria is the only country where the Bureau of statistics is not responsible for conducting population censuses. This poses a real challenge, as the Bureau of statistics has to depend on the NPopC for census data and the national sample frame with which to draw its samples for all surveys. There is a healthy rivalry between the NBS and the NPopC for the conduct of surveys of a national scale and the production and dissemination of official statistics.

Federal Ministry of Science and Technology
(FMST) The mission of Nigeria's Federal Ministry of Science and Technology (FMST) is to facilitate the development and deployment of science and technology apparatus to enhance the pace of socio-economic development of the country through appropriate technological inputs into productive activities. Its vision is to make Nigeria one of the acknowledged leaders of the scientifically and technologically developed nations of the world. The programmes and activities of the Ministry are designed to implement government development agenda through the exploitation of applied Science and Technology. However, nowhere in its website 12 does it mention gender, nor recognise the vulnerable position of the Nigerian woman or girl child in relation to science and technology.

The National Planning Commission
The National Planning Commission (NPC) established in 1992 has the mandate to determine and advise the Nigerian Government on matters relating to National Development and overall management of the national economy. Its main functions are mainly to: • Set national priorities and goals and engender consensus among Government agencies; • Formulate and prepare long-term, mediumterm and short-term national development plans and to co-ordinate such plans at the Federal, State and Local government levels; • Monitor projects and progress relating to plan implementation; • Advise on changes and adjustments in institutions and management techniques as well as attitudes necessary for the alignment of actions with plan targets and goals; • Manage multilateral and bilateral economic cooperation, including development aid and technical assistance. The National Planning Commission (NPC) developed frameworks including a Gender Mainstreaming Manual for engendering development indicators in Nigeria. In spite of these, evidence continues to point to low technical skills in gender mainstreaming applications amongst stakeholders. A major flaw is its failure to build on the gains of the engendering process and framework developed within the country's macro economic framework (NEEDS) during President Obasanjo's regime's all inclusive and gender friendly development agenda. For example, the preparation of the country's subsequent macro economic frameworks (the Y'Ardua 7 Points Agenda; and Jonathan's Vision 20:20) lack the rigour of demonstrable commitment to gender.

The Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and
Social Development Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development was established through a Decree in 1989 initially as the National Commission for Women. In 1995, the Commission for Women was upgraded to a full-fledged Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development, which meant that Nigeria had achieved one of the critical areas of concern of the Beijing Platform for Action. In line with the current country's repositioning and reform agenda, the Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development announced a clearer vision statement as follows: "To help build a Nigerian Society that guarantees equal access to social, economic and wealth creation opportunities to all, irrespective of gender, places premium on protection of the child, the aged and persons with disabilities; focuses attention of key operators in both private and public sectors on mainstreaming the concerns of these groups of people in national development process" 13 . The Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development (MWSD) has signed all UN conventions, treaties and protocols as well as the charters of other Regional and Sub-Regional bodies like the African Union (AU) and ECOWAS. It undertook an assessment of the level of gender mainstreaming /gender budgeting performance across the various sectors of government (Aina, 2009), but the lack of gender statistics makes the oversight functions of the MWSD on gender matters practically impossible. Also, this ministry is under resourced, yet it has been saddled with so many functions around the protection of women, children and the disabled that it is unable to 12. www.fmst.gov.ng 13. http://fmwasd.y-host.net/the_ministry/about_the_ministry.htm focus on any specific agenda.

United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)
It is important to note that a number of Development Partners have played very key roles in building infrastructure and capacity for the use of gender frameworks and gender statistics in the country. Prominent in the UN Family are: UNFPA, UN Women (formerly UNIFEM); UNICEF, UNDP. Other Development Partners are -the World Bank; the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA); DFID/British Council; United States Agency for International Development (USAID); and a number of Embassies. However, for this study, only UNFPA was targeted. Hence the report remains silent on the roles of other Development Partners.
UNFPA is working with stakeholders in Nigeria to promote the 35% affirmative action for women's participation in governance and decision-making. Following the support to a national summit on women in politics in Nigeria, UNFPA is working in partnership with UN agencies and Civil Society Organisation (CSO) partners on advocacy with political parties and the electoral commission to increase space for women's representation and participation in elective positions.
UNFPA is also playing a major role in supporting the national gender machinery in Nigeria to develop tools to maximize the skills of gender officers to undertake gender mainstreaming at sector planning and budgeting level. The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has given a directive for mainline ministries to establish/appoint gender focal units/persons to promote the achievement of gender equality objectives. UNFPA has provided financial and technical support for the development of gender mainstreaming tools and handbook and the development of Terms of Reference to institutionalize the roles and responsibilities of gender focal persons/units. UNFPA is also continuing to build the capacity of project officers at national and state levels to mainstream gender into plans and activities of sectors. The organisation is contributing to the improvement of programming data on Gender Based Violence (GBV). UNFPA is also supporting the process of further analysis of the GBV data to improve its usefulness for GBV programming.

Key findings
This section presents the results of our assessment of six frontline organizations' programmes, activities and institutional frameworks, data storage and dissemination and capacity building and training.

Existence of a gender unit
The National Population Commission (NPopC) identified two core departments responsible for the development and production of gender statistics. These are the Census department and the Vital Registration department. There is no unit or division in charge of gender statistics. Gender statistics is mainstreamed into routine data collection processes and capacity building in gender studies is one of the interests of NPopC. All data are presented as disaggregated by sex so as to sensitise data users to specific findings as they relate to males and females. NPopC receives both technical and financial support from national and international institutions to develop gender statistics and to train and collaborate in the conduct of surveys. Some of the collaborative efforts involve UNICEF, UNFPA, DFID, USAID etc. NPopC collects, collates and disseminates data on gender statistics at various levels: local government area (districts), state and national levels.
Although National Bureau of Statistics, like other MDAs, has a Gender Desk Officer, with responsibilities for gender statistics, the extent to which this officer is able to engender a system-wide approach that could better facilitate the development of appropriate gender statistics is doubtful without the requisite institutional support. Also, it is doubtful if NBS has the requisite technical capabilities and infrastructure to mount gender statistics for the country. An officer at the NBS said: "... we surely need more technical support to produce gender statistics for the nation, and more importantly, gender work does not attract any budget line at the agency, hence, development of gender statistics cannot be on a large scale" 14 The Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development (FMWASD) relies mostly on other agencies including the NBS and NPopC for the development and production of gender statistics. The department of Research and Statistics within the organization is in charge of gender statistics and also coordinates all research and statistics activities of the ministry. The ministry's major achievement in gender statistics was the production of a gender statistics publication in two volumes in 2006 and 2008 respectively. Though recognized as a government institution, FMWASD's activities have tended to be rather ad-hoc with no specific or adequate budgetary allocation. The wife of the Head of State usually dictated the type and pace of activities.
Interventions by successive Nigeria' First Ladies on FMWASD were basically welfarist in nature, tar-14. Review of National Gender Policy -Field Survey, Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development, 2013.
Field interview with a staff at the NBS, Abuja Office.
geting women for their immediate needs without tackling the age-long problem of lack of integration of gender awareness and competence into mainstream development planning. This has led to an institution credibility gap, which has negatively affected the Ministry. For instance, when the Commission was upgraded to a Ministry status, it was not really at par with other Ministries and therefore still lacks the requisite institutional identity and resource base. Other problems were lack of adequate budgetary allocations and a recognized technical cadre. The Federal Ministry of Science and Technology has a Gender Desk Officer charged with the responsibility of mainstreaming gender in Science, Technology and Innovation (ST&I). Their gender statistics programme is focused on organizing stakeholders for collation, advocacy, and a baseline survey of women in ST&I. It is also involved in capacity building, mentoring girls, scholarship capacity development, funding and sensitizing for political will and support. Sensitization for advocacy is through the stakeholders' forum. The ministry networks with other agencies like the Ministry of Women Affairs and the Federal Ministry of Environment.

Production and use of gender statistics
Organizations mentioned to be involved in the coordination, compilation, training, production of statistical outputs as well as consultations on gender statistics include NBS, NPopC, FMWASD, Federal Ministry of Health, Federal Ministry of Education, Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Federal Ministry of Labour, UNFPA, UNICEF, USAID and the European Union. Assessment of institutional capacity domains showed that only National Planning Commission has a dedicated budget for gender, while NPopC, FMWASD, National Planning Commission and UNFPA all have ad hoc funds for gender statistics activities. Only the National Planning Commission has a coordinating body for gender statistics. Except for FMST, which has none, the others have a formal/ informal coordination of gender statistics (Table 1).
The assessment of the organizations in terms of the production of gender statistics, as displayed in Table 1, showed that NPopC has gender statistics as part of its regular programme in all of the 22 checklists in section b except for satellite accounts and entrepreneurship. The Federal Ministry of Women's Affairs and Social Development has all the 22 items as part of its regular Gender programme 15 while the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology has only 8 of the items as part of its Gender programmes and these are on an irregular basis. The National Planning Commission has information on gender as part of a regular process in seven of the 22 target areas. NBS covered 5 of the areas in gender statistics as part of its regular programme, while UNFPA covered six areas. The Ministry of Science and Technology and NPopC reported future plans to cover more areas in gender statistics as part of its regular mandate. NPopC is particularly interested in conducting surveys on Violence Against Women and children. Also, the National Bureau of Statistics is interested in covering more areas not currently covered including violence against women, morbidity, and entrepreneurship. The MWASD is interested in expanding regular data generation to cover issues on environment and gender.
15. As indicated earlier, in spite of its good intentions, this organisation has very little output in the area of gender statistics Only NPopC reported having a gender statistics and indicator database. Both NPopC and MWASD have existing sensitization and advocacy mechanisms and a platform for dissemination of gender statistics. NPopC and NBS post gender data and reports on their websites while the FMWASD collaborates with the National Committee on Women and Development and the University of Abuja in Gender studies. Apart from the Population Census, the Demographic and Health Surveys 16 and the Living Standards Survey 17 , the primary sources for the production of gender data mentioned by the organizations were: NPopC: Establishment Surveys, Violence against women survey, and Civil Registration. NBS: Establishment Surveys, labour force survey, Health/Education administrative records, Judicial/ parliamentary and media records. NPC: Agricultural censuses, Establishment Surveys, labour force survey, violence against women sur-veys, Health/Education/labour administrative records, media records. UNFPA: Violence against women survey, Health administrative records, media records, police records and Shelter records. FMST: Agricultural censuses, Establishment Surveys, labour force survey, Education and labour administrative records.

Collaboration and dialogue between users and producers of gender statistics
All six organizations assessed have mechanisms for collaboration and dialogue between users and producers of gender statistics. The extent of influence of such dialogue on critical areas of gender issues as well as their level of success is presented in Table 3 below: Unlike the National Bureau of Statistics, the NPopC, FMWASD and UNFPA report major influence in the five areas of gender statistics from choice of gender topics to dissemination of data and they also recorded a high success rate in their design and conceptual framework as well as gender statistics data collection and dissemination. The overall response of NBS to these questions is surprising as it is Nigeria's main producer of statistical data and has a long history of collaboration with various stakeholders and users. However, it would seem that sensitivity to gender statistics is only slowly awakening at the Bureau of Statistics. Gender was the theme of the NBS' Africa Statistics Day celebration of 2012 (21st November, 2012) and the Statistician General of Nigeria, on that occasion made a commitment to create a gender division at the Bureau of Statistics 18 . The new approach should enhance NBS' capacity for more prompt update of relevant Gender data sets for the benefit of its numerous clientele.

Mainstreaming gender into the national statistical system
NPopC and NBS have a mandate for the generation, analysis and dissemination of national population and socio-economic data. Publications from the NPopC and NBS are archived within public domains in hard copies and on the website. The FMST and the FMWSD have programmes targeted towards women and activities that are gender focused. The priority areas identified for the next three years in the respective organizations are as follows: for the National Planning Commission, education (particularly girl-child education in ICT), health (focusing on maternal and child health care), and violence against persons. UNFPA will be interested in pushing the affirmative action of 35% employment for women in governance and decision making, health and education. The FMST is interested in developing and upgrading of a sex disaggregated database in ST&I sector. This includes education, research, employment and entrepreneur. It will also be looking at improving capacity for gender desk officer and staff in gender statistics as well as advocacy and awareness creation. UNFPA is particularly active in providing technical and financial support for the production and dissemination of gender statistics in Nigeria. Outcome 7 of its Country Office Work Plan deals with improved data availability and analysis resulting in evidence-based decision-making and policy formulation around population dynamics, Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) including family planning and gender policy. UNFPA, therefore, supports the production of data like in the Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS), making sure that the gender based violence module is broadened and more variables are included. They also support the Census, the MICS, Household surveys by the NBS, among others, in which the dynamics of gender concerns are addressed and data are gender disaggregated. They have done some specific qualitative studies on the assessment of the root causes of gender-based violence and the barriers to family planning.

Summary of findings
This section presents the summary of findings and implications of the findings. In all, six organizations were assessed in terms of their mandate, programme activities, data storage and dissemination, capacity, institutional arrangement, production and users-producers interactions on gender statistics. The assessment showed that the organisations: NPopC, NBS, UNFPA, FMWASD and FMST have very clear mandates on gender statistics. However, their output and its impact remain marginal in the national discourse on gender. NPopC and NBS are charged with data generation, analysis and dissemination of population and socio-economic indicators of the country. Such data are disaggregated by sex and gender indicators can be produced from the datasets. UNFPA, FMWASD and NPC require gender statistics in delivering on their core mandate. The three organisations collaborate and partner with other organizations in promoting the production and dissemination of gender statistics. UNFPA and FMST have a dedicated gender desk officer and FMWASD collaborates with the National Committee on Women and Development.
UNFPA is playing a major role in supporting gender mainstreaming by championing the development of tools to train gender officers at Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to undertake gender mainstreaming at sector planning and budgeting level. This has been done through the provision of financial and technical support, the development of gender mainstreaming tools and handbook and the development of Terms of Reference to institutionalize the roles and responsibilities of gender focal persons/units. UNFPA is also continuing to build the capacity of project officers at national and state levels to mainstream gender into plans and activities of sectors. The priority areas in gender statistics identified for the next three years include education, health (focusing on maternal and child health care), violence against persons, environment and upgrading of a sex disaggregated database in ST&I sector. Generally, apart from NPC, responses from NPopC, NBS, UNFPA, FMWASD and FMST showed high potential for gender-responsive data collection and statistics. However, implementation remains a major stumbling block.

Challenges of producing gender statistics in Nigeria
The Nigerian Statistical System has witnessed some improvements in the availability of gender statistics in recent times. Data producers like the NBS and NPopC are now able to produce sex-disaggregated statistics in population, education, employment, parliamentary representation, land ownership, human trafficking, etc. Also in many agencies, gender statistics in some previously unavailable areas like violence against women, time use/domestic unpaid work, access to credit and entrepreneurship are becoming accessible.
The improved data situation has been the result of collaborative efforts by various partners in promoting gender statistics. The role of UNFPA, UNIFEM (now UN Women) and the Women Affairs Ministry as well as the development of the National Gender Policy cannot be underestimated.
There are however vital domains, such as power, petroleum, environment and infrastructure in which gender statistics are not yet available. Production and access to gender statistics is still plagued by misunderstanding of the concept of gender as a planning tool, in particular, in the non-traditional sectors which have remained the domain of men. Other inhibiting factors are poor funding for gender work, lack of awareness of the need for gender disaggrega-tion of data, and non-mainstreaming of gender issues and concerns into data collection instruments.
Across the organizations, some major factors are obvious as constituting impediments to gender statistics. Firstly, there was a general lack of capacity and shortage of staff in many of these organizations that makes it very difficult to develop a good template for gendered data. Also, mainstreaming gender requires a qualified desk officer in each organization who sees to the processes and makes the gender issues clear to all stakeholders. Many organizations were not able to hire or train a dedicated deskofficer on gender data due to financial challenges.
Lack of national capacity for mainstreaming gender The most formidable challenge of gender statistics production in the country, however, is the issue of capacity. Many agencies (including NBS, and NPopC) are yet to have their staff trained on how to collect and use gender statistics. There is also lack of infrastructure and enabling structures for gender statistics production in both NBS and NPopC, which are two agencies charged with the production of national data. The situation is worst in other sectors, in particular, the non-traditional gender sectors, such as power, petroleum, transport, works, and Science and Technology.

Conclusion
The importance of gender statistics for national and sectoral development cannot be over-emphasized. Non-availability of reliable and comprehensive sexdisaggregated statistics leads to the exclusion of gender issues in the formulation and implementation of national policies. Liberal and gender blind approaches to developmental initiatives and statistics will not only fail to achieve desired goals, but will also produce haphazard results where certain groups will be left out as a result of poor gender statistics. Arising from the findings of the study, it was obvious that organizations are at different levels of gender-focused statistics and programmes. Each level also has peculiar opportunities and challenges. Besides, there are opportunities for leveraging across ministries and organizations in improving gender statistics in Nigeria.
Arising from the findings, there are general recommendations across the MDAs and organizations in order to respond effectively to improving gender statistics. There is the need for development, engendering and mainstreaming gender concepts with very clear mandates across the ministries. There is also the need for oversight function in monitoring organizational compliance to specific gender issues including the production and use of gender statistics.
Specifically, organizations such as NPopC, NBS, UNFPA, NPC, FMWASD and FMST have relatively high capacity and some evidence of gender-responsive data collection and statistics. Yet, this is still at a low level and can be considerably improved. NPopC and NBS disaggregate data by sex, but this is not sufficient. Training staff in gender focused research and analysis is fundamental. Gender issues should also form a major thematic area of focus in NPopC and NBS research agenda. There is a very low gender based focus and attention at the NPC, which is the institution charged with developing macro-economic frameworks to guide the country's development plans. No doubt, Nigerian macro economic policies remain very gender blind, and at best gender neutral; they have often failed to take into cognisance the unique conditions, interests, and needs of women. Also, the institutions with mandates for collecting national statistics such as NBS and NPopC need to devote special attention to correcting gender blind research and activities. It is important that the Ministries, Departments and Agencies of government respond to national directive to establish a Gender Unit in their respective institutions. Such Units can only function effectively with staff who have competency in gender diagnosis/analysis and gender mainstreaming techniques. The success of such units also depends on readily available gender statistics, and line budgets for gender work. The Federal Ministry of Women Affairs must be strengthened in its oversight functions, to ensure the success of the country's gender mainstreaming agenda.
In response to the pressure from international conventions, Nigeria has recently initiated mechanisms to mainstream gender into policies and programmes but this is still at an embryonic stage. In spite of efforts made at producing gender statistics in the country, a lot still needs to be done in the articulation of contemporary global and regional declarations including the Beijing Platform for Action (BPA 1995) and the Millennium Declaration of 2000. Adequate profiling of the situations of women and men within the same environment and circumstances is the most powerful form of advocacy to expose the existing gender gaps that require strategic and targeted policy actions to redress. Our study has shown that Nigeria has a long way to go in gender mainstreaming. Extensive capacity building on gender statistics is necessary and urgent to address this situation in order to attain national, regional and international goals on gender statistics.