United Nations Statistics Division (Department for Economic and Social Affairs)

Since 2007, the Global Forum on Gender Statistics has been held every two years, bringing together producers and users of gender statistics from national and international statistical offices, government agencies, international organizations, academia, civil society, the private sector, and the donor community. The Forum serves as a platform to promote statistical standards and discuss ways to improve data and evidence for gender policies, including those aimed at eliminating all forms of violence and discrimination against women. 

To strengthen capacity in measuring and analyzing data on violence against women, UNSD has conducted regular workshops, including through projects under the Development Account Programme, focused on strengthening countries’ statistical capacity in terms of making better use of existing data and communicating gender indicators; producing gender statistics in selected areas, including on violence against women.  

Hide

 UNSD has supported the development of methodological work, including the Guidelines for Producing Statistics on Violence against Women—Statistical Surveys (2014) and the Manual on Integrating a Gender Perspective into Statistics (2016). 

UNSD manages databases that include indicators on violence against women: 

• Minimum Set of Gender Indicators: Measures human rights of women and girls based on five quantitative and four qualitative indicators. The quantitative indicators focus on violence against women, early marriage, and early fertility, while the qualitative indicators provide contextual information on legal frameworks addressing discrimination and harmful practices. 
• SDG Indicators Database 

UNSD also produces analytical reports highlighting trends in violence against women, drawing from international and national statistical sources. Since 1990, The World's Women reports have been published at five-year intervals, with seven reports released to date. Since 2019, Progress on the Sustainable Development Goals: The Gender Snapshot has been produced annually by UN Women and UNSD. 

Additionally, UNSD has lead reviews of gender statistics programmes in 2012 and 2022, assessing countries capacities to produce statistics on violence against women and other gender-related data.

Hide

 The United Nations Statistics Division continues to serve as the Secretariat of the Inter-Agency and Expert Group on Gender Statistics (IAEG-GS). Since 2006, the group has met annually to assess progress and explore strategies to enhance gender statistics, including data on violence against women, at national and global levels. Each meeting reviews achievements, identifies challenges and gaps, and provides guidance on future efforts to advance gender statistics. For more information on past meetings, please see: https://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic-social/meetings/?Topic=gender 

 

UNSD also is part of the WHO technical group for new estimates on partner and non-partner VAW 

Hide

A meeting of the Friends of the Chair group, organized by the Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía of Mexico and UNSD, took place in Mexico, in December 2009, on statistical indicators on violence against women. The meeting focused on the content of the recommended set of indicators, irrespective of the source of statistics; the list of indicators for statistical surveys on violence against women; and the future development of international statistical guidelines to conduct statistical surveys on violence against women. The Friends of the Chair concluded that the interim set of indicators adopted by the Statistical Commission needed to be expanded and constituted as a core set of nine statistical indicators for measuring violence against women. The full report of the meeting is available at: http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/meetings/vaw/default.htm Hide

UNSD commenced a trial compilation of national statistics on violence against women, pursuant to the Statistical Commission’s request in its decision 40/110 on gender statistics (2009). Hide

The United Nations Statistical Commission, at its thirty-ninth session held in February 2008 in New York, approved the formation of a “Friends of the Chair” group to conduct an in-depth technical review of proposed indicators to measure violence against women, and requested the group to report back to the Commission at its fortieth session. The work of the group is based on the proceedings of the Expert Group Meeting on Indicators to Measure Violence against Women, held in Geneva, Switzerland, in October 2007. The group consists of representatives from eight Member States (Botswana, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Ghana, Italy, Mexico and Thailand), and is chaired by Mexico. Observers include representatives from United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, United Nations Economic Commission for Asia and the Pacific, the Division for the Advancement of Women of the United Nations Department for Economic and Social Affairs, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, and the World Health Organization. The Statistical Division is providing substantive and technical support to the Group. Hide