The Costs of Violence

Understanding the costs of violence against women and girls and its response: selected findings and lessons learned from Asia and the Pacific.

Over the past two years, UN Women has supported a number of studies in Asia and the Pacific to cost the impact of violence against women (VAW) as well as the resources required to address it. Supported by the Government of Australia, these include a socioeconomic impact study to estimate the costs of domestic violence in Viet Nam, and a costing study that used a gender-responsive budgeting approach to determine the costs of providing a multi-sectoral package of response services for survivors in Cambodia and Indonesia.

As a result of these and other efforts, there is now a critical mass of information and specialized knowledge on VAW costing techniques within the region. There is also a strong and growing interest from colleagues, partners and donors to document and reflect on results and share learning in this new and emerging area. This report is an effort to contribute to that goal, providing a catalogue of efforts to cost VAW in Asia and the Pacific and highlighting the key findings, challenges and lessons learned that have emerged from this research.

The VAW costing efforts highlighted in this report do not only help us understand the far-reaching economic impact of VAW; they can also assist governments determine what financial resources are needed to realize the commitments they have made. In this sense, they can also serve as a powerful tool to close the accountability gap between policy and practice and ensure that laws to prevent and respond to VAW are duly implemented.