2. INDICATORS

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This method brief describes each of the indicators used in this study to capture human rights or development. They come under six main themes: education, personal activities, health, standard of living, insecurity and subjective wellbeing.

2.1 Education

W omen who have ever attended school

This indicator reports the share of women who have ever been to school.

The highest level of educational attainment achieved is reflected in the following three indicators:

W omen who have less than primary school completion

This is the share of women who have not completed primary school. Some may have attended preschool. Some may have attended primary school but did not complete it. Women who never attended school also belong in this category.

W omen who have completed primary school

This is the share of women who have completed primary school. Adults who completed primary school, attended secondary school but did not complete secondary school belong in this category.

W omen who have completed secondary school or higher

This is the share of women who have completed secondary school. Adults who completed secondary school belong in this category, whether or not they also attended tertiary school.

L iteracy rate

The literacy rate is defined as the share of women with the ability to read a short simple statement about everyday life or who attended secondary or higher education

2.2 Personal activities

Exposure to mass media

This is the share of women who read a newspaper or magazine, listen to the radio, or watch television at least once a week.

Computer use

This is the share of women who used a computer in the past three months.

Internet use

This is the share of women who used the internet in the past three months.

Ownership of mobile phone

This is the share of women who own a mobile phone.

2.3 Health

Women In Households Using Safely Managed Drinking Water

This indicator is based on the UN Statistics’ (2017a) definition of and background to SDG indicator 6.1.1. It refers to the proportion of the population using safely managed drinking water services. Water sources considered as safely managed include: piped water into dwelling, yard or plot; public taps or standpipes; boreholes or tubewells; protected dug wells; protected springs; packaged water; delivered water and rainwater. Water sources that are not considered as safely managed include: unprotected well, unprotected spring, tanker truck, surface water (river/lake, etc), cart with small tank” UN Statistics (2017a).

Women In Households Using Safely Managed Sanitation Services

This indicator is based on the UN Statistics’ (2017b) definition of and background to SDG indicator 6.2.1. Members of the household are considered to have safely managed sanitation service if the household’s sanitation facility is improved and is not shared with other households. ‘Improved’ sanitation facilities include: flush or pour flush toilets to sewer systems, septic tanks or pit latrines, ventilated improved pit latrines, pit latrines with a slab, and composting toilets” UN Statistics (2017b).

Women With Family Planning Needs Met

This is the share of women who self-report that they have their family planning needs met, i.e. who want and have access to modern contraceptive methods.

Women who did not participate in activities due to menstruation

Share of women menstruating in the last 12 months and who reported that they did not participate in social activities at school or work due to menstruation

Women who think husband is justified to hit wife

This is the share of women who think a husband is justified in hitting or beating his wife for at least one of the following circumstances: (1) she goes out without telling him, (2) she neglects the children, (3) she argues with him, (4) she refuses sex with him, and (5) she burns the food.

Women who have ever heard of HIV

This is the share of women who have ever heard of HIV (awareness).; (ii) correctly identify all three means of mother-to-child transmission of HIV; and, (iii) have ever been tested for HIV.

Women who identified means of mother-to-child transmission for HIV

This is the share of women who identified three means of mother-to-child transmission for HIV: transmission during pregnancy, delivery, and by breastfeeding.

Women who have ever been tested for HIV

This is the share of women who have ever been tested for HIV.

2.4 Standard of Living

Women In Households with Electricity

This indicator is based on the UN Statistics’ (2017c) definition of and background to SDG indicator 7.1.1. Specifically, Indicator 7.1.1 refers to the proportion of population with access to electricity. Access is “only considered if the primary source of lighting is the local electricity provider, solar systems, mini-grids and stand-alone systems. Sources such as generators, candles, batteries, etc., are not considered due to their limited working capacities and since they are usually kept as backup sources for lighting (UN Statistics, 2017c).”

Women In Households with Clean Cooking Fuel

This indicator is based on the UN Statistics’ (2017d) definition of and background to SDG indicator 7.1.2. It refers to the share of the population with primary reliance on clean fuels and technology for cooking. Clean fuel includes electricity, gaseous fuels (e.g. natural gas, biogas). Unclean fuels include kerosene and solid fuels (biomass (wood, crop waste, dung), charcoal, coal).

Women In Households with Adequate Housing

Adequate housing refers to a household living in a place with quality floor, roof and wall materials. Quality floor conditions include laminates, cement, tiles, bricks, parquet. Poor floor conditions include earth, dung, stone, wood planks. Quality roof conditions include burnt bricks concrete, cement. Poor roof conditions refer to no roof or roofs made of natural or rudimentary materials (e.g. asbestos, thatch, palm leaf, mud, earth, sod, grass, plastic, polythene sheeting, rustic mat, cardboard, canvas, tent, wood planks, reused wood, unburnt bricks). Quality wall conditions include burnt bricks, concrete, cement. Poor wall conditions refer to no walls or walls made of natural or rudimentary materials (e.g. cane, palms, trunk, mud, dirt, grass, reeds, thatch, stone with mud, plywood, cardboard, carton/plastic, canvas, tent, unburnt bricks, reused wood.

Women In Households Owning Assets

Adult who own assets is the share of adults who live in households owning at least a radio, TV, telephone, bike, motorcycle, refrigerator, car (or truck) and computer.

Women In Households with A Mobile Phone

Adult who own assets is the share of adults who live in households with a mobile phone.

2.5 Insecurity

Women covered by health insurance

This is the proportion of women with health insurance coverage.

The share of women living in households receiving social protection is the share of women in households who have received social transfers and benefits within the last year.

Women feeling safe walking alone

This is the share of women feeling safe walking alone in their neighborhood after dark.

Women who felt discriminated against based on disability

This is the share of women who felt discriminated against or harassed within the past 12 months on the basis of disability.

Women who felt discriminated against based on gender

This is the share of women who felt discriminated against or harassed within the past 12 months on the basis of gender.

Women who felt discriminated against based on any ground

This is the share of women who felt discriminated against or harassed within the past 12 months on a ground of discrimination prohibited by international human rights law. There is a list of over 20 grounds protected under international human rights law as follows: race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national origin, social origin, property, birth status, disability, age, nationality, marital and family status, sexual orientation, gender identity, health status, place of residence, economic and social situation, pregnancy, indigenous status, and other status. For MICS6, the grounds asked across the countries were ethnic or immigration origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability and any other reason.

2.6 SUBJECTIVE WELLBEING

Happiness

This is the share of women who report being very happy or somewhat happy. The set of responses include: ‘very happy’, ‘somewhat happy’, ‘neither happy nor unhappy’, ‘somewhat unhappy’ and ‘very unhappy’.

Perception of a better life

This is the share of women who report their life has improved during the last one year and that they expect that their life will be better after one year.

Mean life satisfaction for women

MICS6 uses a visual ladder-of-life scale, with explicit reference points (10, for the best possible life, and 0 for the worst possible life) and respondents are asked on which step of the ladder they feel they stand at this time.

References

UN Statistics (2017a). Metadata 06-01-01. Accessed April 10^th 2021 at:

UN Statistics (2017b). Metadata 06-02-01. Accessed April 10^th 2021 at:

UN Statistics (2017c). Metadata 07-01-01. Accessed April 10^th 2021 at:

UN Statistics (2017d). Metadata 07-01-02. Accessed April 10^th 2021 at: