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OHCHR commissioned several studies on violence against women. Following the kidnapping of over 200 girls in Nigeria, OHCHR commissioned a study on attacks on girls seeking to access education. OHCHR also produced a study which addressed the human rights situation of women in detention in Senegal as well as a study on "honour" killings in Palestine. In June 2014, OHCHR published a study on gender-based and sexual violence in relation to transitional justice (A/HRC/27/21). Also in June 2014, OHCHR published a study on wrongful gender stereotyping by the judiciary in cases of sexual and gender-based violence in Guatemala and West Africa. As part of the Team of Experts on the Rule of Law on Sexual Violence in Conflict, OHCHR with DPKO, and UNDP, published an annual report on 2014 on sexual-violence in conflict. OHCHR also supported fact-finding missions and commissions of inquiry which looked into violence against women, including sexual violence in Mali and the Central African Republic.

In June 2014, OHCHR launched a paper on “Eliminating Judicial Stereotyping: Equal Access to Justice for Women in Gender-based Violence Cases”. The paper is a tool to raise awareness of, and encourage advocacy related to, judicial stereotyping in gender-based violence cases.

In June, 2016, UN Women held Results-Sharing Meeting on Leveraging Technical Tools, Evidence and Community Engagement to Advance the Implementation of Laws and Provision of Services to Women Experiencing Violence in South-East Asia. Over 40 government officials, UN Women officers and Civil Society Organizations across South-East Asia region shared results from EVAW work, affirming the importance of a two-tier approach, where policy-level interventions are undertaken in parallel to interventions at the community level.

UN Women launched the Global Database on Violence against Women website during the Commission on the Status of Women 2016. The Global Database is an online resource, designed to provide comprehensive and up-to-date information on measures taken by 193 United Nations Member States to address all forms of violence against women, in the areas of laws and policies, prevention, services, and statistical data. It also serves as an important tool to monitor the implementation of SDGs and its target areas on violence against women. The Global Database is one of three websites on the Global Knowledge Platform to End Violence against Women. The platform aims to improve knowledge and coordination among different actors in order to address violence against women more effectively, and it offers a comprehensive picture of interventions addressing VAW, both by Governments as well as by the UN system. In addition to the Global Database, the other two websites on the platform are: the Inventory of UN Activities to End Violence against Women, and the Virtual Knowledge Centre to End Violence against Women and Girls.

UN Women, as one of the partners of the public-private partneship Together for Girls (TfG), has contributed to global discussions around improved coordination between VAW and violence against children (VAC) data collection initiatives. UN Women has also been a key TfG partner in the development of the Every Hour Matters Campaign, a global advocacy campaign to increase awareness  about the critical importance of quickly accessing post-rape care. The partnership also includes other UN agencies, such as UNICEF, UNAIDS, WHO, PAHO and UNFPA. 

UN Women participates as observer in the Inter-Agency and Expert Group on SDG Indicators, and it has influenced the selection and definition of EVAW related SDG target indicators, more specifically target 5.2 indicators. It has led and worked with other UN agencies to develop the metadata for the two indicators to monitor progress of this target.  UN Women also convened a meeting with other UN agencies working on VAW data and it is coordinating the development of a UN global joint programme to build sustained national capacities to implement VAW prevalence surveys in line with international standards and SDG monitoring requirements.  This work is part of the Flagship Programme Initiative “Better production and use of gender statistics for evidence-based localization of the SDGs”.

UN Women Multi-Country Office in Barbados has provided support to the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to develop and adopt a model for conducting national prevalence surveys on violence against women in the region. The model is currently being piloted in Jamaica, where prevalence data are expected to be available in late 2016-early 2017, and will be later implemented in other countries in the region. In Kazakhstan, UN Women supported the Committee of Statistics to conduct the first specialized national survey on the prevalence of domestic violence, through provision of expert's support to conduct a series of trainings for implementing the survey.

The UNDP Regional Hub for Arab States has commissioned a comprehensive assessment on how GBV protection services are being addressed through legislation, practices and their implementation. The study is to be used to inform effective gender justice programming to combat GBV in the Arab States Region especially in the justice and security sectors. The analysis will also support country and regional advocacy efforts to advocate for the reform of laws, policies and practices that respect and uphold women’s rights.

In 2015, UNFPA and UNDP Burkina Faso supported the creation of a universal form allowing police units and offices for the promotion of women’s rights on decentralized level to collect data on violence against women and girls. Data collection is on-going, again with the support of UNDP. Moreover, UNDP also supported the creation of a tool for data collection and analysis, allowing the monitoring of violence on a regional and national basis.

UNHCR field operations collect data on sexual and gender-based violence incidents in collaboration with partners, according to UNHCR and interagency guidelines and principles. UNHCR analyzes data on SGBV in order to inform planning and program design and ensure services are accessible to all survivors. UNHCR operations documented an increase in the number of reported incidents of SGBV from 18,245 in 2014 to 26,632 in 2015. While the increase in reported cases does not necessarily represent an increase in SGBV incidents, it may be due to increased awareness and use of reporting mechanisms, as well as systematized data management of incidents reported to service providers.