Kathmandu, August 24

The United Nations Population Fund Asia-Pacific Regional Office and the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade are launching a programme that will help countries in the region, including Nepal, measure violence against women.

A press statement issued here today by UNFPA and Australian Aid said that the initiative, titled kNOwVAWdata, will help countries train researchers and field workers to collect and analyse data on the extent and nature of violence that women experience, using robust and reliable methodologies.

It said the initiative will also help countries use collected data to bring about policy and behaviourial change to stop VAW.

“We have estimates that globally about one out of three women suffers physical or sexual violence at some point in her life, usually at the hands of her spouse or intimate partner,” said Yoriko Yasukawa, UNFPA Asia-Pacific regional director in the statement.

“We’ve made progress in recent years in documenting this violence in a number of countries. Now, under this initiative, we’ll expand this work, ultimately benefiting millions of women, helping us move closer to fulfilling one of the most important targets under the Sustainable Development Agenda — that of bringing about an end to the scourge of violence against women,” Yasukawa added.

In Asia-Pacific, surveys have indicated that between 15 per cent and 68 per cent of women have experienced physical or sexual violence, at the hands of an intimate partner, across different countries, read the statement.

While the extent of different forms of violence against women varies across countries, violence against women occurs in every society, at all levels of development, and happens to women of all status and backgrounds, it said.

It further said that across all countries, gender inequality and unequal power relationships between women and men both drive, and are perpetuated by, violence against women.

Officials and statistical offices set up to manage the surveys in all the kNOwVAWdata countries covered in Asia-Pacific will receive special training and support through the initiative to collect data on violence against women in the best possible way, it said.