Indicators utilized in monitoring

• Indicators on violence against women measure the scope, incidence and prevalence of violence against women.

• Indicators must also address the effectiveness of measures undertaken to address violence against women.” See:  Indicators to measure violence against women.

• Indicators provide information about a specific issue and enable comparisons to be made over time and in different locations. For example, “the number of women (over the total number of women) who have requested an order for protection under the domestic violence law in 2009 in X country” is one indicator. This indicator might be used to draw conclusions about prevalence, public awareness of the law, or the attitude of the police.

• Indicators on violence against women should be valid, reliable, specific, measurable, time-framed, comparable across country borders, and non-directional in their approach. See: Indicators on violence against women and state response.

For example, “the percentage of women (over the total number of women) who have experience rape/sexual assault during the last year” is an indicator of prevalence of sexual assault/rape. Indicators should be so clearly defined that they cannot be interpreted in more than one way.

• Indicators should be disaggregated by age, severity of incident, relationship with perpetrator, frequency, and other relevant criteria such as disability or ethnic group. For example, the indicator in the example above should be disaggregated by severity (moderate/severe); perpetrator (intimate/other relative/other known person/stranger/state authority; and frequency (one/few/many times).  See: Indicators to measure violence against women.

• Indicators must also measure the consequences of violence against women. Consequences can be measured by severity, such as frequency of attack, or seriousness of injury. See: Indicators to measure violence against women.

• Indicators should be selected after considering the availability of sources, the feasibility of attaining data, and the likelihood that the collection of data can be sustained over a period of time. See: Indicators to measure violence against women.

Special factors regarding indicators of violence against women

• Indicators must reflect human rights principles and be based upon internationally accepted definitions of types of violence against women. If indicators are open to misinterpretation, results could be spurious.  See: Indicators on violence against women and state response.

• Indicators must accurately reflect patterns of violence against women by addressing the number of violence incidents, and the consequences that occurred.

• Indicators of the number of incidents should be measured by using two time periods: over a lifetime, and over a recent period, such as within the last year.   Lifetime statistics are vital for the forms of violence against women that are likely to occur only once in a lifetime, such as FGM or maltreatment of widows.
• The same indicators should be used nationwide to describe the different types of violence against women, in order that the results may prove comparable over the state.  See: Indicators to measure violence against women, by the United Nations Expert Group. The Expert Group proposed an international framework for indicators on p. 19 of the report.

• If countries do not have accurate census data or voting registration, or lack high rates of telephone ownership (all methods of systematically locating survey respondents), it is best to randomly sample one urban area and one rural area. See:  The World Health Organization’s Multi-Country Study on Women’s Health and Domestic Violence against Women.

• Where large-scale surveys are not feasible, states can add modules to ongoing demographic, health, or crime victim surveys, and states can strengthen the collection of administrative data.  States can require their criminal justice system to disaggregate law enforcement and crime data to enhance its usefulness in tracking violence against women.  States should develop indicators which are regionally-relevant for state statistics offices to use. For example, in states where stove burning is common, indicators must be added on this issue. See: Indicators to measure violence against women, p. 28-32. 

(See: Violence Against Women and Girls:  A Compendium of Monitoring and Evaluation Indicators; The Next Step: Developing Transnational Indicators on Violence Against Women; and Researching Violence Against Women:  A Practical Guide for Researchers and Activists)

For example, the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) program MEASURE DHS began to collect information on the prevalence of domestic violence against women in the early 1990s and has developed a standard domestic violence module of questions. Although this module is typically used to obtain information from women on their experience of violence, a few countries have recently used it to obtain information on violence against men.

The DHS Domestic Violence Module collects information on the following indicators:

•        Experience of physical violence since age 15
•        Forced first sex
•        Experience of sexual violence ever
•        Violence during any pregnancy
•        Experience of emotional, physical, or sexual violence by current (or most recent) husband
•        Frequency of spousal violence
•        Timing of initiation of spousal violence
•        Violence by women against their husband
•        Whether and from whom help was sought

Today, comparable information on the prevalence of domestic violence against women is available in well over 25 countries.

Recommended indicators for monitoring the government response to violence against women and girls

Monitors should utilize the following indicators developed by the Special Rapporteur in 2008 to monitor the government response to violence against women and girls:

• Ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and other human rights instruments.
• Constitutional guarantees of women’s equality and repeal of discriminatory laws.
• A plan of action/executive policy on violence against women with a strong evidence base and political will for its implementation, demonstrated by budgetary allocation, timelines and clear paths of responsibility.
• An effective legal framework, statute and procedural law that provides access to justice, redress, protection and compensation.
• Criminalization of all forms of violence against women and the prosecution of its perpetrators.
• Increased awareness and sensitivity of professionals and officials.
• Resource allocation to ensure provision of support and advocacy services by NGOs, including shelters, helplines, advocacy, counseling and other services.
• Awareness-raising and prevention programmes.
• Addressing structural inequalities in the promotion of women’s advancement
• Collection, collation and publication of data, including evaluation of policies and basic research programmes.

From:  Indicators on violence against women and state response, page 19.

These indicators should be reflected in the methodology designed by the research team. Questions should be developed which reflect each of these areas. See: Section on sample methodology.