UNDP and Office of Women’s Affairs Launch Thailand’s First Gender-Focused National Database
4 June 2007: A press briefing took place at the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security on 4 June, at which the Ministry’s Office of Women’s Affairs and UNDP Thailand launched an eight-month project to put together Thailand’s first “Gender-Disaggregated” database.
Participants pointed out that the lack of gender-specific data in Thailand seriously affected development planning for women. National statistics generally do not distinguish between men and women, making it difficult to estimate the extent of problems that women face, such as health issues and violence against women and girls.
As UNDP Thailand Deputy Resident Representative Yuxue Xue put it at the press conference: “When development is not ‘en-gendered’ it is ‘endangered’. Gender inequality is an obstacle to progress, a roadblock on the path of human development. … [the] database will be a valuable tool for gender advocates, policy makers and other working on gender-related issues.”
The database is expected to help Thailand fulfil its obligation to several international commitments, including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the Bejing Declaration and Action Plan of 1995, and the Millennium Development Goals.
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For more information, please contact:
Nick Keyes:
nicholas.keyes@undp.org; UNDP Thailand; 02 288 1814; (Mobile) 085 115
7236
Punnipa Ruangtorsak: punnipa.ruangtorsak@undp.org; UNDP Thailand;
02 288 2130; (Mobile) 081 398 6064
