ASEAN Regional Guidelines on Violence against Women and Girls Data Collection and Use

As part of its long-standing cooperation, UN Women partnered with ASEAN, the ASEAN Commission on the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Women and Children (ACWC) and the ASEAN Committee on Women (ACW) to develop the ASEAN Regional Guidelines on Violence against Women and Girls Data Collection and Use to strengthen the capacity of ASEAN Member States to systematically collect and use data related to violence against women and girls (VAWG). A timely motivator for these guidelines is the attention to measuring change that the SDGs have brought. The ASEAN VAWG Data Guidelines provide guidance to equip ASEAN Member States to generate reliable data to inform evidence-based advocacy efforts, resource mobilization, budget-making, policy formulation and implementation and to monitor the impact of policies and programmes to prevent and respond to VAWG. These guidelines will be a step towards improving evidence-based VAWG prevention and response policies and programmes as well as the quality and availability of services, protection and justice for women who experience violence in ASEAN.

These ASEAN VAWG Data Guidelines bring together leading guidance on the collection of the three main types of VAWG data – administrative data, prevalence data and costing data. These guidelines offer a special emphasis on administrative data on VAWG as little guidance is currently available. In addition, the guidelines provide an overview of the current studies and data available in ASEAN Member States and internationally recognized research and methodologies. The guidelines underline ethical and safety considerations surrounding VAWG data collection, including issues of data security and sharing.

By outlining why and how these types of data are critical to eliminate all forms of VAWG, the information provided by the guidelines can inform decisions related to VAWG data, be used to advocate for more and better data on VAWG, to start discussions on VAWG data, and to assist with reporting on SDG indicators. These guidelines can be used by data analysts and managers in statistics agencies, ministries and organizations that deal with data related to VAWG and by those who are responsible for making decisions about budget allocations related to efforts to end VAWG and to improve the provision of essential services for women and girls who have experienced violence.

This publication was made possible by the generous support of the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT).