Put violence against women
data on the map
Violence against women is a grave human rights violation that not only harms women, but also burdens countries across the world. When countries lack data on its prevalence, this burden remains a silent one.
September 2019 — Bangkok, Thailand & Melbourne, Australia
Addressing violence against women effectively cuts across many of the Sustainable Development Goals that underpin the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda. This shared commitment brings together governments, civil society and the United Nations.
Having data at the national level about the prevalence of violence against women is the first step to understanding how to end it.
Now, a unique course is available for countries to learn how to safely and ethically collect data on the levels and types of violence women experience within their borders.
The kNOwVAWdata Course on the Measurement of Violence against Women offers donors—as well as countries and participants—a unique opportunity to contribute to gender equality and elimination of violence against women.
© Amanda Mustard/UNFPA
© Amanda Mustard/UNFPA
Sponsoring the tuition of one course participant—or more—can in turn empower countries and their local research teams to improve the lives of thousands of women who are subjected to violence.
Pervasiveness and impact of violence against women
On average, one in three women worldwide has experienced physical and/or sexual violence in her lifetime, most often at the hands of an intimate partner.
In Asia and the Pacific, violence against women prevalence surveys have been completed in 31 countries. The survey reports show that 15 to 68 percent of women across Asia and the Pacific disclosed experiencing physical and/or sexual violence by an intimate partner.
The impacts of this scourge of violence permeate beyond emotional and physical trauma to survivors.
It can affect their long-term health and wellbeing, including their educational and earning potential. The burden is experienced across the development spectrum, from a family’s financial stability through to an economic toll on the health, social services and justice sectors. It can also impact women’s capacity to care for their children, as well as children’s learning abilities. And, it increases the likelihood of ongoing cycles of violence.
Taken together, violence against women is a strain on the whole community.
Substantial lack of data
Despite growing awareness of the causes and consequences of violence against women and the need for public policies to address it, there remains a substantial lack of prevalence data. This gap is largely due to an inadequate technical capacity to measure violence against women prevalence.
"Sound data on the extent and nature of violence against women is essential to conveying the need to address this heart-breaking violation of human rights to policymakers and organisations with the power to end it."
Ethical, reliable and comparable data on prevalence are critical to comprehensive approaches to ending all forms of violence against women and girls. Specifically, violence against women prevalence data helps justify, inform and monitor effective prevention and response efforts, tailored to each country.
“The [violence against women] prevalence studies that have been conducted in the Pacific have resulted primarily in legislative changes. Following the surveys, there has been the development of family protection acts, which have changed the definition of violence in those countries.”
Addressing the void
To address this void in violence against women prevalence data across Asia and the Pacific, an initiative called kNOwVAWdata was launched by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). kNOwVAWdata works to improve the technical ability for countries throughout the region to measure national violence against women prevalence via large-scale surveys.
These comprehensive surveys yield important insights about: Where violence occurs in a country, who is abusing women, what forms of violence women are subjected to, how women respond to this violence, what they know about their rights, whether violence prevalence is changing over time, the costs of violence and risk factors.
Making violence against women elimination a priority for policymakers depends on evidence like this. The survey information also helps direct resources to adequate prevention and response efforts that are targeted and effective in ending the violence.
“After [Fiji’s violence against women] survey was done, there was awareness: The high level of violence in Fiji was on the radio and news nearly every day. The survey report was an empowerment tool for women who were in violent situations.”
kNOwVAWdata course:
Carrying on a legacy of
violence against women data collection
A unique opportunity
In 2018, the kNOwVAWdata Course on the Measurement of Violence against Women was launched as part of the kNOwVAWdata initiative to help countries understand the prevalence and consequences of violence against women.
This 4-week course, offered in a pair of 2-week blocks, is the only comprehensive programme of its kind. It was developed and is facilitated by UNFPA in partnership with the University of Melbourne, and with support from DFAT and Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety (ANROWS).
© Amanda Mustard/UNFPA
© Amanda Mustard/UNFPA
The landmark kNOwVAWdata course trains professionals who are currently or will soon be involved in carrying out violence against women prevalence surveys in their countries. The annual course is geared towards government representatives from national statistical offices and other state institutions, researchers, academics, students and civil society practitioners in Asia and the Pacific.
Based on best-practice violence against women data collection methodologies, the kNOwVAWdata course builds participants' field research and data literacy skills. They also learn how to use data for action.
© Amanda Mustard/UNFPA
© Amanda Mustard/UNFPA
Professional certification from the University of Melbourne
kNOwVAWdata course participants graduate with a University of Melbourne professional development certification and applied knowledge to help their countries measure the national prevalence of violence against women ethically, reliably and comparably. Participants also learn how to analyse all forms of violence against women data and use it to influence policies, programmes and raise awareness among the public.
© Amanda Mustard/UNFPA
© Amanda Mustard/UNFPA
The uniquely designed kNOwVAWdata course is led by some of the most prominent individuals in the world with extensive experience planning and implementing national violence against women prevalence surveys. For example, the course is co-facilitated by Dr Henriette Jansen, “the woman who put gender-based violence data on the map.”
© Amanda Mustard/UNFPA
© Amanda Mustard/UNFPA
The course creates a pool of accredited researchers to continue the legacy of this pioneering work. This ensures women who have experienced violence continue to be heard—and counted.
Violence against women prevalence surveys give voice to and validate the experiences of some of the most vulnerable women in our communities. Addressing violence against women is among the most pressing needs of our time.
Register your interest
© Amanda Mustard/UNFPA
© Amanda Mustard/UNFPA
Want to get involved? Keep in touch about opportunities for sponsorship or participation in the kNOwVAWdata course.
And read on for more about how the kNOwVAWdata course benefits sponsors, participants, countries and women alike.
Why the
kNOwVAWdata course
matters
Dr Henriette Jansen, kNOwVAWdata technical lead and course co-convener, explains why violence against women prevalence data matters, and how the kNOwVAWdata course is expanding the availability of these data:
“One of the main risks of collecting data on violence against women is that a lot of people want to measure it, but they don’t know exactly what they are doing. That is why we need initiatives that train people on collecting violence against women data, enabling them to do it well.”
Dr Henriette Jansen
Technical advisor, kNOwVAWdata & UNFPA Asia and the Pacific Regional Office; kNOwVAWdata course co-convener
How does the kNOwVAWdata course support the Sustainable Development Goals?
Violence against women is connected to a number of the Sustainable Development Goals. The kNOwVAWdata course specifically helps achieve:
“After the kNOwVAWdata course, I started to campaign again at work for a national violence against women survey, especially linking it to Sustainable Development Goal reporting requirements. I’m doing a lot of advocacy at the office and with government officials.”
What makes violence against women data ethical, reliable and comparable?
Intimate partner violence is a phenomenon that is normally hidden and often stigmatised in societies, so its measurement is sensitive to the personality and skills of the interviewers and the context of the interview. Undertaking research on violence against women can make women more vulnerable if not conducted properly. Therefore, protecting survey respondents’ safety and confidentiality is fundamental to ethical data collection. So is making use of the data to create change. Given the risk involved, violence against women prevalence data must not sit on a shelf but instead should be operationalised to inform programming that stops women from experiencing violence.
Reliability means that data accurately represent what they claim to measure. Data are only reliable when research teams are rigorously trained through programmes like the kNOwVAWdata course.
Countries equipped with ethical, reliable, national-level data can compare their rates of violence against women to other countries regionally and globally. Moreover, ethical, reliable and comparable violence against women survey data establishes a baseline from which countries can measure their progress towards achieving Sustainable Development Goal 5 and ending violence against women. A reliable baseline is critical to monitoring change over time through follow-up surveys.
“The main aim [of the national violence against women prevalence survey we hope to conduct in Sri Lanka] is to make it a national issue, because [violence against women] is a very private matter. We want to use the data to lobby national policymakers for quality services for survivors in a sustainable and systematic manner.”
Dr Kristin Diemer, kNOwVAWdata course co-convenor, University of Melbourne
The kNOwVAWdata course was designed drawing from over 20 years of global expertise in measuring violence against women prevalence and related research. This comprehensive course provides the tools to effectively and safely measure violence against women.
The 2018 pilot course was focused on Asia and the Pacific. Many countries in the region are planning to carry out prevalence surveys in response to heightened awareness of violence against women and the Sustainable Development Goals. The challenge was to design a course that would be useful to a variety of practitioners including those with backgrounds in public policy, government statistics, civil society and academia.
The University of Melbourne was well-placed to design this curriculum as several of our research teams fed into the Australian Victorian Royal Commission into Family Violence. A variety of stakeholders provided important research, data and insights into reducing violence against women. We felt this experience offered a good case study on ways data can be used to improve policy and programme response.
"When the course was taught in Melbourne for two weeks in November 2018, participants were able to see first-hand some of the work being done in a multi-sectoral context including police, social services, child protection and sexual assault treatment services."
The course was designed to be taught flexibly, with components weighted according to the needs and professional backgrounds of the participants. The core areas of study involve embedding the understanding of the gendered dimension of violence across survey design and implementation, quantitative and qualitative survey methodologies, and analysis and reporting of data. Along with our partner organisation, ANROWS, the course provides vital information about knowledge translation. For example, how to use robust and verifiable data to inform policy change, design advocacy tools and work with the media to report violence against women accurately.
Dr Kristin Diemer is a Senior Research Fellow, Department of Social Work, School of Health Sciences, the University of Melbourne.
Sustainability at its core
© Amanda Mustard/UNFPA
© Amanda Mustard/UNFPA
The kNOwVAWdata course is establishing a growing network of qualified and experienced professionals who serve as resources to one another as countries undertake violence against women prevalence surveys. This mentorship aspect is core to kNOwVAWdata’s mission, as is the establishment of a peer-to-peer community of practice of course graduates.
kNOwVAWdata works to sustainably build the capacity of countries to measure the prevalence of violence against women so sound data is ubiquitous across Asia and the Pacific initially, and eventually globally.
© Amanda Mustard/UNFPA
© Amanda Mustard/UNFPA
To that end, the kNOwVAWdata course is an open-source resource. Additionally, the curriculum was designed using a participatory process, including input from and review by a technical advisory committee of global experts. The technical advisory committee includes representatives from: DFAT, Fundamental Rights Agency, General Statistics Office of Viet Nam, ICF International, Our Watch, Pacific Network against Violence against Women, United Nations (UN) Department of Economic and Social Affairs, UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, UNFPA, UN Women, University of Auckland, and World Health Organization.
Piloted in 2018 in Bangkok, Thailand and Melbourne, Australia, the course is offered annually as a continuing education module through the University of Melbourne. Ultimately the University of Melbourne will embed the curriculum in its ongoing degree programmes.
The kNOwVAWdata team also aims to partner with other academic and research institutions in the region—and possibly beyond—to offer the kNOwVAWdata course, which is increasingly informed by local knowledge.
© Amanda Mustard/UNFPA
© Amanda Mustard/UNFPA
The knowledge sharing among course participants is enriched by examples from countries in the region.
For instance, from Viet Nam, the 2018 cohort learnt about how the country’s violence against women prevalence survey was used to develop advocacy tools to raise public awareness of violence against women. Viet Nam’s advocacy videos and other resources included real quotes from the survey interviews in combination with survey statistics. It was a great example of what many people attending wanted to know: How to use data to promote policy change, lobby governments for improved services and advocate to reduce violence against women in their countries and communities.
“The data [from Viet Nam’s 2010 violence against women survey] showed us the home is not a safe place for our women. One third of women in Viet Nam reported that they have suffered violence by their husband.”
Dr Cathy Vaughan, kNOwVAWdata course co-convenor, University of Melbourne
Bringing such a diverse group of practitioners together usually poses challenges. But in the case of the 2018 kNOwVAWdata pilot training course, it proved an enriching learning experience for participants.
The pilot course participants came from diverse countries across Southeast Asia, the Pacific and South Asia. They also came from very different practice backgrounds: Government ministries and statistical offices, academia, civil society and multilateral organisations. Their professional backgrounds were highly varied, ranging from experts in quantitative data collection and statistics to qualitative research specialists and those focused on gender and violence against women.
© Amanda Mustard/UNFPA
© Amanda Mustard/UNFPA
What everyone shared was a desire to reduce violence against women in their own countries. They plan to do this through a better understanding of the nature of violence, survey design, increasing awareness and promoting policy change and the funding of responses by governments.
“The richness of bringing a group of people together to learn from each other and build professional networks was that a community of practice was being formed alongside the teaching. There was a strong sense of shared goals with participants learning from each other’s experiences and supporting other practitioners in their work.”
Dr Cathy Vaughan is a Senior Lecturer in Gender and Women's Health, Centre for Health Equity, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, The University of Melbourne.
kNOwVAWdata course fundamental principles
- Designed with sustainability at its core, the course creates a network of skilled violence against women data professionals who can conduct ethical, reliable and comparable violence against women surveys in the future.
- Develops participants’ abilities to understand and measure international indicators for violence against women, including those under Sustainable Development Goal Target 5.2.
- Integrates course work and hands-on, practical learning experiences.
- Adapted to the needs of participants as a participatory process.
- Supplements training activities with ongoing mentoring for participants after course completion.
- Forms a community of practice for participants to offer and receive peer support.
- Is embedded in course work at the University of Melbourne and potential future partner institutions, with a long-term goal of extending this model into other regions.
Seeking sponsors
to build the next generation of experts in
violence against women data collection
For effective action to reduce violence against women, it is important to include local professionals in the process. But many entities attempting to carry out surveys do not have sufficient budgets for capacity development of this kind.
Measuring violence against women should be done with the utmost sophistication and sensitivity. This helps ensure that local governments trust, value and use the data.
By investing in countries to develop locally based skills and tools needed to collect and analyse their own data, sponsors enable and empower countries’ long-term ability to monitor progress towards Sustainable Development Goal 5 without reliance on external consultants.
The kNOwVAWdata course is a lean operation. However given the personalised approach to instruction, which develops highly tailored skills that are usable in participants’ own contexts, the course has been developed using face-to-face delivery. Therefore, participants must travel to be on site for the course.
With foundational support from DFAT, the kNOwVAWdata course curriculum was developed and piloted in June and September 2018. In the last half of 2019, with generous support from New Zealand's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT), the kNOwVAWdata team is running a second course largely based upon the same curriculum. MFAT's contribution will primarily fund the participation of Pacific countries.
Please consider following DFAT and MFAT's leads. We continue to urgently seek funding partners to ensure the kNOwVAWdata course is available to as many people as possible, both in the 2019 course and in future years. This vital funding will sponsor the tuition and associated fees for participants whose organisations lack the resources to finance their enrolment. The kNOwVAWdata course currently has a waitlist of ambitious candidates needing financial assistance.
The return on investment is priceless: Lives saved, survivors afforded the opportunity to share their trauma and begin healing, and gender equality and women’s empowerment strengthened.
To see how such training has changed lives, view our multi-media story about Mongolia’s first national violence against women study. Learn about a woman whose courage and interviewing expertise helped other women reveal their own painful experiences of violence.
“Scholarships to support a single participant are a powerful contribution to help achieve gender equality and eliminate violence against women. For even greater impact, supporting a full country team ensures they can effectively and efficiently work together to collect and use data to develop programmes and services that end violence against women. But sponsors may choose to contribute any amount towards the course. All financial assistance helps move the needle towards a world without violence against women.”
To discuss sponsorship opportunities and benefits, to express your interest in taking the kNOwVAWdata course, and to receive updates on the next call for applications, visit kNOwVAWdata.com/course or connect with us on social media:
“Research on violence against women is very important in Thailand, because we will know the situation we face. This is a very serious problem, but people in Thailand may not know that we have to do something.”
© Amanda Mustard/UNFPA
© Amanda Mustard/UNFPA
© Amanda Mustard/UNFPA
© Amanda Mustard/UNFPA
“Sometimes you feel alone in-country doing this work and you don’t know who to ask for help and support. But at the kNOwVAWdata course, I saw there are many working on this issue.”
2018 kNOwVAWdata course participant
