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Availability: Violence against women data

The following indicator is under consideration for this pilot edition of the Barometer: To what extent is administrative information about violence against women available as open data?

Feedback on draft Global Data Barometer Indicators

You are looking at a draft indicator to be included in the expert survey of the Global Data Barometer. Between now and May 10th we are inviting your feedback on this indicator and the elements it contains. You can provide your feedback by (a) completing the feedback form below; or (b) adding in-line annotations.

Feedback form

You can share your feedback on the Availability: VAW data indicator here, or make use of Hypothes.is annotations

Show/hide supporting questions

Existence

  • Is this data available online in any form?
    • Data is not available online
      Supporting questions: Are there other offline ways to access this data in the country? (e.g. attending an office to inspect it)
    • Data is available, but not as a result of government action
      Supporting questions: If government is not providing access to data, how is this data available? Please provide a URL for where this data can be found
    • Data is available from government, or because of government actions
      Supporting questions: Please provide a URL for where this data can be found

Elements

Part 1: Data structure and openness.

  • Dataset is available free of charge. (No, Partially, Yes)

  • Data is available in all the country’s official or national languages. If the country has no official or national languages, data is available in the major languages of the country. (No, Partially, Yes)

    Supporting questions (conditional)

    If Partially or Yes: Please briefly describe the language coverage available.

  • Data is timely and updated. (No, Partially, Yes)

    Supporting questions (conditional)

    When was the most recent update to this dataset?

  • Data is provided in machine-readable format(s) (No, Partially, Yes)

    Supporting questions (conditional)

    If Partially or Yes: Please provide a URL where this machine-readable data can be found. (Additional URLs can be included in the justification and supporting evidence)

    If Partially or Yes: Please provide a comma separated list of the formats available? (E.g. csv, json)

    If Partially: What prevents you from assessing this data as fully machine-readable?

  • The machine-readable dataset is available as a whole (No, Partially, Yes) Answer no if it's only possible to access individual records; Answer partially if it's possible to export extracts of the data; Answer yes if there are bulk downloads or APIs providing access to the whole dataset without financial, technical or legal barriers.

    Supporting questions (conditional)

    If Partially or Yes: Please provide a URL where bulk download access is available or described.

    If Partially or Yes: If bulk access is provided through an API, please provide a link to where the API is described.

  • Data is openly licensed. (No, Partially, Yes)

    Supporting questions (conditional)

    If No: If there are explicit restrictions placed on re-use of the dataset, briefly describe those here.

    If Partially or Yes: If the data is provided with an explicit open license, please provide the name of the license, or a link to it here.

Part 2: Data fields assessment.

  • The data includes type of violence: physical, sexual, emotional/psychological. (No, Partially, Yes)

  • Data includes the date the reported violence occurred. (No, Partially, Yes)

  • Data includes information about the survivor, including sex, age, and survivor-perpetrator relationship. (No, Partially, Yes)

  • Data includes information about the perpetrator, including age group (as reported by the survivor) and sex (as reported by the survivor), or, if the service provider/administrative system has contact with the perpetrator, actual age of the perpetrator and sex. (No, Partially, Yes)

  • Data includes information about registration of violence, including date of registry of violence, and registering entity/person and their sector (if service provider). (No, Partially, Yes)

  • Data includes geographical information about where violence occurred. (E.g., city/village, as well as sub-national if relevant, e.g., state, province). (No, Partially, Yes)

  • Data includes location of event: e.g., home, school, work, public space. (No, Partially, Yes)

  • Data includes information as to whether violence was perpetrated using a computer (cybercrime). (No, Partially, Yes)

  • Data includes information about response to reported violence, such as services provided (yes/no/not applicable/survivor declined/survivor decided to come back later) and referral (yes/no/not applicable/survivor declined/ referral to which services). (No, Partially, Yes)

Part 3: Barriers to data quality or availability.

  • This information is missing required data. (There is no evidence of data gaps., There is evidence that a portion of mandated data is missing., There is evidence of widespread omissions in mandated data.) In cases where a separate indicator has asked you to determine data requirements of a relevant governing framework, assess against that. In cases where there is no such related governance indicator, assess based on the parameters laid out in the publication of the information, your local knowledge, and any broader research you may have done for this theme.

    Supporting questions (conditional)

    If There is evidence that a portion of mandated data is missing. or There is evidence of widespread omissions in mandated data.: Please briefly explain.

  • The availability of this data has been affected by government response to COVID-19. (No, Partially, Yes)

    Supporting questions (conditional)

    If Partially or Yes: Please briefly describe how COVID-19 affected the availability of this data.

Extent

  • How comprehensive is the data assessed for this question?
    • The data assessed covers one or more localities, but there are many other localities without available data, or with data of a lesser quality.
      Supporting questions: Which locality does this data cover?
    • The data assessed covers one or more localities, and is a representative example of the kind of data that can be found for all, or most, localities.
    • The data assessed provides national coverage.

Definitions and Identification

This indicator investigates how closely a country's current practices for administrative data about violence against women matches the minimums proposed in Kendall (2020), a background paper developed by the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women), in conjunction with UN and external experts. The minimum dataset proposal is in support of the five-year Global Joint Programme on Strengthening Methodologies and Measurement and Building National Capacities for Violence against Women Data, to run from 2018–2022.

Aligned with this proposal, this indicator investigates administrative data about violence against women specifically in the context of physical, sexual, and psychological/emotional intimate partner violence (IPV) and non-partner sexual violence (NPSV); similarly, it focuses on adult women and uses behavior-based definitions.

Among other functions, it should be possible to use administrative data about violence against women to*:

  • provide an insight into the number of women utilizing particular services because of violence against women;
  • help estimate the need for such services and their costs;
  • contribute to understanding sector responses to violence and unmet need;
  • be used to quantify the need for training among service providers;
  • provide valuable information to evaluate programmes and policies, as well as to inform the generation of new or improved legislation, policies and procedures to respond to violence against women.

*Uses drawn from Kendall (2020:9).

Note: This indicator focuses specifically on administrative data; consequently, the data it examines cannot be used to accurately estimate the prevalence of violence against women; nor can the data the Barometer generates in response to this indicator.

Starting points

  • Sources:

    • Global Database on Violence Against Women; although the data hasn't been updated in many years and thus falls outside the scope of the GDB study, it includes links to where such data has been found in the past (if it has been found) organized by country.

  • Search:

    • Websites for national statistics office, department of justice, institute of health, ministry for women.
    • Websites for civil society organizations dedicated to ending violence against women. Because this is government administrative data, it is unlikely that a civil society organization will originate the data, but they may play a key role in making the data more accessible through publishing it—and consequently you may find it easier to locate the source of the data through them.

  • Consult:

    • Officers of civil society organizations dedicated to ending violence against women.
    • Officials at national statistics office, department of justice, institute of health, ministry for women.

What to look for?

To complete the assessment for this question you will need to access and explore the available data. This may involve running queries on datasets to check the variety of fields included.

Look for evidence that can answer the following questions:

  • Does the data include information that identifies the type of violence? For example, whether the violence is physical, sexual, or emotional/psychological.
  • Does the data include the date that the reported violence occurred?
  • Does the data include demographic and relational information about the survivor, including age, sex, and the survivor-perpetrator relationship?
  • Does the data include demographic and relational information about the perpetrator, including age group and sex? These might the age and sex reported by the survivor, or, if the service provider/administrative system has contact with the perpetrator, actual age of the perpetrator and sex.
  • Does the data include details about registration of the violence? For example, does it include the date of registry of violence, the registering entity/person, and their sector (if service provider)?
  • Does the data include geographical information about where violence occurred? For example, the city/village; if sub-national government is relevant in your country, this might also include state, province, etc.
  • Does the data include location information about where the event occurred? For example, home, school, work, public space, etc
  • Does the data include information that indicates whether violence was perpetrated using a computer (cybercrime)?
  • Does the data include information about response to the reported violence? For example, this might be with regard to services provided (yes/no/not applicable/survivor declined/survivor decided to come back later) or referral (yes/no/not applicable/survivor declined/ referral to which services).

National and sub-national considerations

In some countries, administrative data about violence against women may be generated and published at the sub-national level, ****carried out by individual states, regions, or cities.

Focus on national government first, and then assess whether:

  • National datasets also include data from sub-national or local government units;
  • Equivalent data exists for a selection of sub-national or local government units, but is not nationally aggregated;

To assess countries where administrative data about violence against women is organized sub-nationally, researchers should select the strongest example of sub-national practice, and then indicate whether this is an outlier, or an example of widespread practice.

Addressing violence against women is critical to achieving SDG 5: achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls, particularly target 5.2: eliminate all forms of violence against all women and girls in the public and private spheres, including trafficking and sexual and other types of exploitation. It's also critical for both SDG 16: promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels (and particularly target 16.1: significantly reduce all forms of violence and related death rates everywhere), and SDG 3: ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.

As "A Synthesis of Evidence on the Collection and Use of Administrative Data on Violence Against Women (Kendall 2020)," a background paper developed by UN Women demonstrates, administrative data can be a critical tool for improving responses to violence against women in a manner that centers and empowers survivors and holds perpetrators accountable. More specifically, it can provide important insights on: the use of and demand for services; assessing the quality of services; case management; and understanding the capacity of response (6).

Indeed, the 57th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women in 2013 specifically called on member states to "Improve the collection, harmonization, and use of administrative data, including, where appropriate, from the police, health sector, and the judiciary, on incidents of violence against women and girls, including data on the relationship between the perpetrator and victim and geographic location, ensuring that confidentiality, ethical, and safety considerations are taken into account in the process of data collection, and improving the effectiveness of the services and programmes provided and protecting the safety and security of the victim" (quoted in Kendall 2020:10).

The minimum data set proposed by Kendall and used as the basis for this indicator takes a behavioral approach, following the WHO's Multi-Country Study on Women’s Health and Domestic Violence against Women, UNODC's International Classification of Crime for Statistical Purposes (ICCS), and the Gender-Based Violence Information Management System (GBVIMS), a partnership of UNFPA, IRC and UNHCR, although these initiatives examine the prevalence of violence against women through population surveys, rather than use administrative records to improve care and just response.