Prevention and response to violence against women and girls (VAW/G) is, together with the elimination of harmful practices such as child marriage and gender-biased sex selection, one of the main mandates of UNFPA. The lack of reliable and comparable national data is recognized as a major obstacle to developing appropriate context specific policies, programmes and monitoring and evaluation mechanisms. 

The Workshop on Strengthening National Capacities to Collect Data on violence against women (VAW) in South Asia, being held in Bangkok, Thailand, brings together around forty government representatives of South Asian countries to enhance the understanding of measuring VAW, provide technical knowledge on methodologies available and promote the relevance of VAW data collection in the region. 

The workshop will also address the need to strengthen capacities of different stakeholders to promote and integrate the collection, analysis and use of data in their relevant national plans and programmes. In the Asia Pacific region, UNFPA has provided technical support to a number of countries to conduct surveys on VAW. A number of studies are also being planned where UNFPA will be playing a key role as technical partner. Because of the sensitivity of the topic, data collection on violence against women presents specific methodological and ethical challenges. It is, therefore, critical to build national capacities to conduct these studies.

Links

• Press Release: To Tackle Violence against Women Effectively, Countries Need More Effective Data
• Snatched from her home, an Afghan girl's road to recovery
• Masculinity, Intimate Partner Violence and Son Preference in India
• Ending violence and discrimination against women: A call to action in India and around the world
• International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women
• GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE - We Fight Violence Against Women
• Data on Violence Against Women (VAW) in the Pacific 
• Swimming Against the Tide: Lessons Learnt from Field Research on Violence Against Women in Kiribati and Solomon Islands