Knowledge Hub

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...

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.

Even in the most challenging settings, UNICEF delivers innovative solutions to strengthen availability, accessibility and quality of GBV response services. With the COVID-19 pandemic, UNICEF had to capitalize further on its innovations in order to reach women and girls and help them to seek for help despite the lockdowns and quarantine restrictions enacted by Governments to respond to the pandemic.

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 synthesis review aims to draw out some cross-cutting best practices, challenges and lessons from 10 diverse interventions to prevent violence against adolescent girls across various settings. These interventions, each centred on a different form of violence against girls, were funded by the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women (UN Trust Fund). The interventions focused solely on adolescents (both boys and girls) or an adolescent-focused programme was a subcomponent of a wider...

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...

Capturing accurate data on violence against women during crises is challenging, with survivors scattered and the confidentiality of their responses at risk. Taking these challenges into account, UN Women's Regional Office in Asia and the Pacific undertook a study harnessing big data from social media searches and posts, to uncover the discourse on VAW.

This sixth edition of The World’s Women: Trends and Statistics provides the latest statistics and analysis on the status of women and men at global and regional levels and reviews the progress towards gender equality over the last 20 years. The eight chapters of the report cover several broad policy areas identified in the 1995 Beijing Platform for Action, the framework that set the international agenda for improving the status of women. These areas include population and families, health,...

With the aim of galvanizing global action against this all-too-pervasive crime, UNODC and UN Women have joined forces to produce this research paper on the global estimates of gender-related killings of women and girls in the private sphere in 2021. This paper features policy recommendations to support comprehensive and multisectoral approaches to prevent and address gender-related killings and other forms of gender-based violence against women and girls.

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.

With the aim of galvanizing global action against this crime, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime and UN Women are publishing this second joint publication with global estimates of gender-related killings of women and girls by an intimate partner or family member, with data from 2022. This publication features policy recommendations to prevent gender-related killings, including through risk assessments and protective measures, the establishment of femicide observatories, the criminalization of...

Under Sustainable Development Goal 5, prevalence of intimate partner violence (IPV) is a globally reportable indicator. There is a lack of consensus on how to measure and report psychological IPV, affecting prevalence estimates and cross-country comparability. We examine similarities and differences in the patterning of women's experiences of psychological abuse in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) to inform common cut points.

A scoping review with a focus on measurement to assess the forms of measurement and study design utilized to explore the intersection of violence against women with disabilities, and to identify strengths and limitations in current approaches to measuring violence against women with disabilities. This scoping review is designed to inform current debates and discussions regarding how to generate evidence concerning violence against women with disabilities.

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 checklist is designed to help national statistics offices and other national research and data institutions and research teams to think through the steps needed to produce high-quality survey data on intimate partner violence — from the planning stages through to analysis, report write-up and dissemination of accurately interpreted findings. This checklist addresses the specificities of measuring the prevalence of intimate partner violence — one of the most common forms of violence women...

This report is based on an analysis of available prevalence data from surveys and studies conducted between 2000 and 2018, obtained through a systematic and comprehensive review of all available data on the prevalence of these two forms of violence against women.

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.

kNOwVAWdata, DFAT and UNFPA, together with the University of Melbourne, brought together national, regional and global experts to discuss what approaches should be taken to ensure that women with disabilities are better represented in national prevalence studies on violence against women.

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.

This report of the Solomon Islands Family Health and Safety Study analyzes data from the first nationally representative research on violence against women and children in this country.

The Nauru Family Health and Support Study aimed at obtaining reliable information on violence against women (VAW), its characteristics, and consequences. Although the study initially sought to collect a nationally representative sample of women aged 15-64, due to a low response rate, its findings are derived from a reduced sample of eligible women in a small group of districts. The findings of this exploratory study, however, provide a preliminary understanding around VAW in the country and...

The National Study on Family Health and Safety in the RMI consisted of two separate components: a quantitative study based on the methodology developed for the WHO Multi-Country Study on Women’s Health and Domestic Violence against Women; and a qualitative study based on data collection methods of previous studies.

The Belau Family Health and Safety Study (FHSS) aimed at obtaining reliable data on the prevalence and types of violence against women (VAW) in Palau. The study also sought to document the associations between partner violence and health issues and other outcomes, as well as to identify risk and protective factors for partner violence.

The FSM Family Health and Safety Study (FHSS) aimed to gauge the prevalence and types of violence against women (VAW) in the FSM. The study also sought to document the associations between partner violence and the wellbeing of the woman and her children, as well as to identify risk and protective factors for partner violence.

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.

A UN study of 10,000 men in Asia and the Pacific found that overall nearly half of those men interviewed reported using physical and/or sexual violence against a female partner, ranging from 26 percent to 80 percent across the sites studied.

The Samoa Family Health and Safety Study (SFHSS) is a component of the larger Pacific Multi-site Study of the Effects of Violence Against Women on Family Health and Safety, which is a joint research initiative of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

The National Study on Domestic Violence against Women in Tonga consisted of two separate components: a quantitative study based on the methodology developed for the WHO Multi-Country Study on Women’s Health and Domestic Violence against Women; and a qualitative study based on Tongan methodology of Talanoa and Nofo. The use of qualitative and quantitative components was to seek results that complemented each other.

This report of the Kiribati Family Health and Support Study analyses data from the first ever nationally representative child abuse in this country. This study replicates the WHO multi-country study on Women’s Health and Domestic 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

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.

Collecting quality and reliable data on violence against women through special surveys is crucial if we want to understand and end the scourge. Drawing on years of international experience, our UNFPA Asia-Pacific technical advisor on violence against women, Dr. Henriette Jansen, shares six golden principles for interviewing women who may have experienced violence.

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.

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 dashboard of IPV that features "levels, trends and sociodemographic and geographic, within and across countries, disparities in intimate partner violence in the past 12 months among ever-partnered women."

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.

Page 19-24; discusses collecting data and evidence (with discussions around challenges in gathering data)

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

Summary of good practices provided in the programming to address Violence Against Women

After the release of the guide: A Practical Approach to Gender-Based Violence: A Programme Guide for Health Care Providers & Managers in 10 countries, presentations and discussions were conducted to evaluate the guide's release (recommendations are presented on page 12) with experts commenting on the challenges of measurement (pg 17)

Publication that is targeted primarily at health service providers, however is for anyone who wants to undertake a gender-based violence project in any part of the world