Very few countries systematically collect data on the various grounds of discrimination covered by national and international legislation on equality and non-discrimination. And yet, such statistics are indispensable in many ways, including: 

1. To assess the implementation of relevant national legal and policy frameworks on equality and non-discrimination
2. To monitor trends in equality between different groups across different areas of life so as to enhance evidence-based policymaking (e.g. employment rate across different groups, percentage of persons in tertiary education across different groups, percentage of early school leavers across different groups, etc.) 
3. To monitor the compliance of countries with relevant international human rights standards, such as the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination
4. To support advocacy and awareness-raising in the field of equality and non-discrimination
   
    

 In November 2021, the Praia Group created this Task Team to help develop the methodologies and guidance needed by NSOs to compile robust and internationally harmonized statistics on discrimination and inequality. Co-led by the NSOs of Finland and Peru, and supported by UNDP and OHCHR, the Task Team is constituted by more than 150 members, including national statisticians but also other governance data practitioners from international and regional organizations, academia and civil society/advocacy organizations.

 

The conceptual and measurement framework elaborated by the Task Team is anchored around 6 sub-dimensions of Discrimination:

1. Experiences and Perceptions of Discrimination and Harassment 
2. Hate Crimes and Hate Speech 
3. Reporting and Sentencing of Discrimination, Harassment and Hate Crimes 
4. Attitudes Towards Minority Groups 
5. Promotion of Equality and Non-Discrimination
6. Indirect Discrimination / Inequalities in Outcomes
   
    

At the core of this framework is the distinction between direct discrimination, which occurs when an individual is treated less favourably than another person in a similar situation for a reason related to a prohibited ground (e.g. job applicants with a certain skin colour or ethnic origin are systemically excluded), and indirect discrimination, which refers to laws, policies or practices that appear neutral at face value, yet are discriminatory for population groups with certain characteristics and result in inequalities in outcomes (e.g. a requirement of a birth registration certificate for school enrolment may discriminate against ethnic minorities or non-nationals who do not possess, or have been denied, such certificates, and may result in lower enrolment rates for these ethnic minorities or non-nationals).

 

The Task Team aims to develop two products. The first one is a model survey questionnaire, with core and optional questions, to enable the production of comprehensive survey-based statistics on Discrimination that are comparable across different cultures, languages and development contexts, and over time. Given the considerable under-reporting of discrimination and the frequent non-recording of hate crimes by the police, surveys as critically important to make visible the ‘hidden figure’ of discrimination (i.e. unreported discrimination) and to measure the overall prevalence of direct discrimination. This model questionnaire is intended to be used as stand-alone survey or as a survey module integrated in larger surveys run by NSOs. A modular approach may be favored in view of its cost-saving benefits, which is critical for NSOs to be able to produce such statistics on a regular basis.

 

The second product is a Guide on the collection and use of administrative data to produce statistics on Discrimination, with recommendations on data registration practices, data comparability, quality assurance, data-sharing, linking with other sources, indicator calculation, and data use, among other issues. Large administrative data sets are particularly well suited to measure indirect discrimination, which results in inequalities in outcomes. For instance, this Guide will show how the wide range of data collected by health care services – on access to treatment, treatment outcomes, other health outcomes (healthy births, healthy life years, etc.) – can be used for equality analysis and to show differences in terms of ethnicity, for example.

 

After an expert appraisal of the draft questionnaire conducted by the EU’s Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA), the cognitive testing of the questionnaire will be carried out by selected NSOs from diverse national contexts in 2023, including Cabo Verde, Colombia, Côte d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ireland, Madagascar, Nigeria, Peru and Vietnam. A revised version of the questionnaire will be field-tested in 2024.

A detailed account of the work undertaken by these two Task Teams can be found in an article published by the Statistical Journal of the International Association for Official Statistics (IAOS) – Volume 39, Issue 2.

Please contact group.praia@gmail.com if your NSO would like to participate in the cognitive testing of the questionnaire or if you have any question about this process.