Knowledge Hub

Every year the Women’s Aid Annual Impact Report serves as a harrowing and poignant reminder of the level of domestic violence and abuse against women and children that prevails in homes and relationships across Ireland. Unfortunately, 2023 was no different. This report provides an insight into the coercive and controlling emotional, physical, economic, and sexual abuses inflicted upon women and their children at the hands of current and former intimate partners, whom we supported during just...

This paper assesses the methodologies of the new national surveys of violence against women, including those in the US, Canada, Australia, Finland and the Netherlands, as well as the British Crime Survey. The development of large‐scale quantitative survey methodology so as to be suitable for such a sensitive subject has involved many innovations. The paper concludes with recommendations for further improvements including: the sampling frame, the scaling of both sexual assaults and range of...

Initial research into new questions aimed at identifying controlling or coercive behaviour. These crimes are less likely to be reported to the police, therefore it is important we find an effective way to measure these offences. This will provide insight for policymakers, service providers and charities.

The Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) is a representative population survey that since the early 2000s has provided ongoing measurement of domestic abuse via a dedicated domestic abuse module, with regular publication of headline prevalence and other descriptive data. At the same time the measurement of domestic violence in the CSEW has also been the subject of ongoing debate and critique, in particular whether it is appropriate to use catch-all prevalence measures in the context of...

The purpose of these Guidelines is to assist humanitarian actors and communities affected by armed conflict, natural disasters and other humanitarian emergencies to coordinate, plan, implement, monitor and evaluate essential actions for the prevention and mitigation of gender-based violence (GBV) across all sectors of humanitarian response.

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) have newly developed “Caring for Child Survivors of Sexual Abuse Guidelines” for health and psychosocial providers in humanitarian settings – “CCS Guidelines”. The CCS Guidelines are based on global research and evidence-based field practice, and bring a much-needed fresh and practical approach to helping child survivors, and their families, recover and heal from the oftentimes devastating impacts of...

This resource aims to set standards for quality, compassionate care for GBV survivors in humanitarian settings, with particular focus on the provision of case management services. It builds upon and should be used in conjunction with other GBV response resources, such as the Caring for Survivors of Sexual Violence in Emergencies Training Package and the Caring for Child Survivors of Sexual Abuse: Guidelines for health and psychosocial service providers in humanitarian settings.

This background paper was developed to synthesize evidence, including divergent expert opinions, on the collection and use of VAW administrative data. It was used as the technical document for an Expert Group Meeting (EGM) on Administrative Data on Violence Against Women convened in September 2019 by UN Women. The background paper and the discussions and recommendations coming out of the EGM will inform the development of global guidance on the collection and use of VAW administrative data.

This document provides a comprehensive statistical framework for measuring gender-based killings of women and girls (femicide/feminicide). In addition to the statistical definition of such killings, the framework identifies a typology of gender-based killings of women and girls and the list of variables that can be used to identify and quantify the different types of such killings.

UN Women conducted Rapid Gender Assessments on the impact of COVID-19 on violence against women (VAW RGAs) in 13 countries, in collaboration with Ipsos and with support from national statistical offices and national women’s machineries.The VAW RGAs provided a first opportunity to test existing guidance and recommendations on remote data collection for VAW, and as a result, gathered learnings and empirical evidence, both in terms of safety protocols and VAW measurement. This guidance offers a...

The global database is a unique “one-stop site” for information on the following types of measures undertaken by Governments to address violence against women: Institutional mechanisms; Research and statistical data; Laws; Policies; Budgets; Services; Prevention; Perpetrators programmes; Regional/International initiatives; Monitoring and evaluation

This guidance is intended to help policymakers develop survivor-centred programming on ending violence against women and girls that meets the needs of diverse groups of women and girls, including those who are at higher risk of experiencing violence and discrimination. It is applicable to programming across the health, justice and policing, and social services sectors, as well as coordination of these sectors, and will help improve the standard and delivery of essential services for women and...

This global technical guidance has been developed by the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women), in partnership with the World Health Organization (WHO) through the Joint Programme on Violence Against Women Data and with invaluable advice from an advisory group of experts from UN agencies as well as independent experts.

Pooled analysis of baseline data from 8549 adult women participating in seven IPV prevention studies in five countries across Africa and Asia that used collaborative, comparative measurement strategies to assess both disability and IPV.

This is an overview of key concepts on violence against women data that can be applied globally. It is intended to serve as a complementary resource to a longer technical report entitled "A Guide to Better Understanding and Using Violence Against Women Prevalence Data."

Guidelines in this publication provide concepts and principles for the process of interpreting, understanding and using violence against women prevalence data that can be applied globally. A case study with survey data from eleven Pacific island countries is used to illustrate how VAW prevalence data can be analysed and compared to reveal interesting and nuanced patterns in violent behaviour and its drivers of violence.

This document aims to help other program and project coordinators and researchers undertaking violence against women prevalence surveys to anticipate and address some of the challenges they may face. It contains lessons learned gathered after completing the Mongolia study and launching the results.

This brief report conveys key findings from the study “Children and young people bereaved by domestic homicide: Understanding home, relationships and identity,“ with a focus on Australia.

How internet-connected devices can affect victims of gender-based domestic and sexual violence and abuse

This resource list is intended as supplementary material to better inform and guide victims and survivors of technology-facilitated abuse as well as those working with them.

Toolkit and templates for multi-sector data collection on gender-based violence. Designed in collaboration with Pacific multi-sector organisations.

This publication compiles and analyses the results of Rapid Gender Assessment surveys on the impact of COVID-19 on violence against women (VAW RGAs) in 13 countries.

Somebody’s Life, Everybody’s Business is a national research on women’s health and life experiences in Fiji (2010/2011). It is a survey exploring the prevalence, incidence and attitudes to intimate partner violence in Fiji.

The Due Diligence and State Responsibility to Eliminate Violence against Women: Standards, Indicators and Good Practices project is a research-advocacy project that is collecting good practices and State actions in the formulation, implementation and enforcement of policies, laws, procedures and processes in relation to violence against women.

The Individual Deprivation Measure (IDM) is a new, gender sensitive and multidimensional measure of poverty. The measure assesses deprivation at the individual level, in relation to 15 key dimensions of life, making it possible to see who is poor, in what way and to what extent. This study explores what additional insights could be gained by individual-level, gender-sensitive poverty measurement in Fiji

Lessons Learned from Field Research on Violence Against Women in the Solomon Islands and Kiribati

This decision tree helps organisations with gender-based violence programmes, national statistical offices, policymakers and researchers decide when and how to best collect data on women's experiences of violence and their access and use of relevant services during the COVID-19 pandemic.

2020 map of violence against women prevalence in Asia-Pacific region

kNOwVAWdata's overview of the Sustainable Development Goal indicators on violence against women

As this leaflet sets out to show, administrative data, while having their utility as a source of information on violence against women, cannot provide an estimate of the prevalence of violence against women taking place within a population.

kNOwVAWdata's explanation of commonly used terminology related to violence against women

Surveys are the only way to collect data on the prevalence of violence against women (VAW) and thus to get an estimate of the magnitude of the problem in the population. There are two major approaches to collecting population-based data on violence against women using surveys; dedicated surveys or a set of questions/modules added to a large-scale survey.

Data visualizations and reports from the latest national violence against women prevalence surveys in the Asia-Pacific region; Resources on violence against women data measurement, analysis and uptake; kNOwVAWdata updates; Real-life stories of the brave and compassionate individuals involved in measuring vitally important, nationally representative data on violence against women.

UNFPA across Asia and the Pacific outlining progress towards our transformative results of zero maternal deaths, zero unmet need for family planning, and zero gender-based violence and harmful practices against girls and women.

UNFPA’s ultimate data source and tracker for population and development data. It combines the newest population data on topics like sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights, family planning, maternal health, or gender based violence gathered from a multiple sources.

The shadow pandemic: Violence against women and girls and COVID-19. Data on violence against women during the COVID-19 pandemic

Ethical and Safety Recommendations for Research on Domestic Violence Against Women

This article draws upon the experiences of four researchers in the field of femicide, family and intimate partner homicide - and offers insights into processes, impacts and unintended consequences of fatality reviews and research initiatives

The aim of the study was to establish the association between the experience of maternal and/or paternal emotional or physical abuse and current severe physical partner violence perpetration or victimization among a cohort of Pacific women.

Objective: A trend analysis of associations with induced abortion. Methods: Secondary analysis of the Australian Longitudinal Study of Women's Health (N=9042). Conclusions: Abortion remains strongly associated with factors affecting women's control over reproductive health such as partner violence and illicit drug use.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has issued new practice and policy guidelines to help health care practitioners screen, treat and support victims of sexual and partner violence.

Guidelines for evidence-based media reporting on violence against women and their children. Australian National reporting guidelines available. Victorian (state of Australia) reporting guidelines also available.

A journalist handbook on how to report on GBV during the pandemic; During a pandemic, lockdowns, curfews and other restrictions on movement are deemed necessary preventative health measures that can save millions of lives. For women and girls, they can also be sources of increased risk of violence and death. This resource is a companion to UNFPA's second edition of Reporting on Gender-based Violence in Humanitarian Settings: A Journalist's Handbook.

Provides a guide on how to ethically approach reporting GBV during the Syrian Crisis (may provide insight into how to report in other crises)

This document is designed to inform those involved in planning, conducting, funding, reviewing protocols for, approving or supporting information collection on sexual violence in humanitarian settings