Data Collection, Analysis and Research

DPO collect data through qualitative and quantitative reporting to monitor progress, trends, and challenges including on protection and prevention to ending violence against women. Through WPS quarterly reporting, the peacekeeping operations report on gender-based violence incidents and survivors, gender responsive patrols by the military and police and local early warning mechanisms for prevention.

During the reporting period, Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Arrangements (MARA) on Conflict-Related Sexual Violence (CRSV) were operational in MINUSMA, MINUSCA, MONUSCO, UNMISS, UNAMID and were central to peacekeeping efforts to address CRSV including through enhanced information sharing across civilian, police, and military mission components and the broader UN family and NGOs. The MARA supported the development of comprehensive analysis on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic; supported the facilitation of the timely referral of survivors to essential services; supported to the development of action plans for implementation of national CRSV commitments; and informed targeted advocacy and sensitization efforts. Analysis from the MARA Working Groups also provided substantive content for the Secretary General’s Annual Report on Conflict-Related Sexual Violence with respect to the DRC, CAR, Mali, Sudan and South Sudan, including the “listing” of parties credibly suspected of committing or being responsible for CRSV.

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Reliable, high-quality data is essential to understanding and addressing violence against women and girls. Without robust data collection, tracking trends, and measuring the effectiveness of interventions, policymakers and practitioners lack the evidence needed to drive meaningful change. Spotlight Initiative has played a critical role in strengthening national data systems, ensuring that governments and institutions have the tools to collect, analyze, and use data effectively. By enhancing digital infrastructure, standardizing methodologies, and building capacity, the Initiative has improved the availability of disaggregated, globally comparable data on violence against women and girls to inform policies, services, and advocacy efforts.  

 

The Initiative has supported the development of national data systems, training thousands of government personnel to enhance their ability to produce and analyze prevalence and incidence data on violence against women and girls. Since 2019, 1,151 national statistics officers have strengthened their capacity in this area, and 55 national statistics offices have developed, adapted, and contextualized methods and standards to generate national-level data. This has led to a significant increase in the availability of publicly accessible data: 

• 94 per cent of target countries regularly report data on intimate partner violence—an increase of 32 per cent since the Initiative began. 
• 78 per cent of target countries have publicly available data on femicide. 
• 86 per cent of target countries report on female genital mutilation. 

Strengthening digital infrastructure has been a key component of these efforts. In Mozambique, for example, the InfoViolência database, which tracks gender-based violence cases, expanded significantly with Spotlight Initiative’s support. The number of registered cases tripled within a year, reaching approximately 6,000 cases in 2022. Investments in training police officers, government officials, and other duty-bearers have ensured that data collection processes are standardized and effectively implemented across all target districts. 

Similarly, Spotlight Initiative supported the establishment and expansion of the National GBV Data Situation Room and Dashboard in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs Nigeria from the six target states in which the Initiative works to 36 states and Federal Capital Territory (FCT). Additionally, the SGBV Accountability Tracker was launched in collaboration with Nigerian Governors’ Wives Forum and the Child Protection Information Management System was also established. As a result, reportage has been scaled up to ensure that GBV data is well coordinated for strengthened policy making and improved national response to violence against women and girls. 

Spotlight Initiative and the government of Jamaica helped establish a new GBV victim data dashboard geographic information system, strengthening efforts to prevent and, over time, reduce the prevalence of violence against women and girls.  This Early Warning Awareness and Response System provides the security, health, and justice sectors with critical, up-to-date information on violence against women and girls, enabling stakeholders, including law enforcement, to map hotspots, conduct risk assessments, and (through heat mapping) develop predictive analysis for all parishes in the country. The data collected will inform policies, programmes, and the response strategies (of service providers), and support the development and roll-out of effective prevention programmes. 

Beyond national efforts, Spotlight Initiative has contributed to groundbreaking research and knowledge-sharing initiatives to deepen understanding of gender-based violence. By producing high-quality data and making it widely accessible, the Initiative has empowered governments, civil society, and international organizations to take evidence-based action in preventing and responding to violence against women and girls. 

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During the last quarter of 2020, UNCHR's registration and case management system, ProGres v4, was upgraded. The operationalization of the CP and GBV modules was supported through a series of trainings and tailored technical support provided to country operation to increase their awareness and understanding of the new enhancements. The continued deployment of the ProGres v4 CP and GBV modules has increased the ability of operations to standardize and disaggregate the GBV and CP Case Management data for program quality and trend analysis.

The collection of survivors' personal data concerning GBV incidents is carried out only if the survivor has consented and wishes to be referred for protection or assistance in accordance with the GBV Guiding Principle and data protection principles, as outlined in UNHCR's GBV Policy. In the case of children, specific procedures for obtaining consent/assent from parents/caregivers and/or children are required, in adherence with the best interests of the child.

A standardized GBV Safety Audit tool has been developed to assess and monitor overall safety and GBV risk mitigation and response measures in operations, and to collect site-level information. Operations are utilizing the tool to inform programming.

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In 2023, FAO published the Status of Women in Agrifood Systems (SWAF) report. The report evaluates the limited existing evidence on GBV in agrifood systems and offers examples of successful strategies for mitigating, preventing, and addressing GBV. By offering concrete examples and identifying research needs, this report contributes to a deeper understanding of GBV in the agrifood context and supports the development of targeted interventions to mitigate violence against women and girls, particularly in rural agricultural settings.  

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 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.

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UNFPA supports the global geospatial knowledge platform to assist in knowledge sharing related to the prevalence of intimate partner violence for 119 countries and their subregions. A geospatial dashboard on IPV was launched in December 2020, and an accompanying report on IPV data was published in May 2021. 

During emergencies, UNFPA is a lead agency in enabling safe and ethical service data collection and management, including coordinating the GBV Information Management System (GBVIMS) Steering Committee (UNFPA, UNICEF, UNHCR, IRC and IMC). Online (Primero/GBVIMS+) and offline (GBVIMS) GBV case management and incident monitoring systems facilitate safe and ethical GBV data collection and sharing in order to support a continuous process of evaluation in the improvement and coordination of services to ensure that survivor-centered care is supported, and support quality service provision by providing a set of tools which help service providers to support survivors in an integrated manner. GBVIMS and GBVIMS+ are currently used by 159 non-governmental organisations (139 national and 20 international) and engage 12 UN entities in 25 countries. 

At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, UNFPA was at the forefront in projecting the impact of women and girls. In April 2020, UNFPA, Avenir Health and Johns Hopkins University published modelled data on the impact of the pandemic on gender-based violence, female genital mutilation and child marriage. This model has been highly cited to exemplify the devastating effects of the pandemic on efforts to end VAW. UNFPA estimated that if the lockdown continued for 6 months, 31 million additional gender-based violence cases could be expected, and for every 3 months of continued lockdown, an additional 15 million additional cases of gender-based violence were to be expected. It was also estimated that 2 million cases of FGM and 13 million cases of child marriage that could have been otherwise prevented, would occur as a consequence of the pandemic.

UNFPA is undergoing a costing exercise for GBV programs at country level. By August 2021, the cost of UNFPA’s GBV prevention and response programmes had been estimated for 9 countries.

As of 2021, 15 GBV prevalence surveys and 24 countries have benefited from the kNOwVAW data capacity building initiative.  This initiative also supported 9 countries in the Asia Pacific to publish reports with findings of a VAW prevalence survey.

In November 2020, the East Asia and Pacific Regional Offices of UNFPA, UN Women and UNICEF launched a joint study exploring and illustrating the interlinkages between violence against women and violence against children in four countries, namely Cambodia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines and Viet Nam.

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UN Action has provided support and guidance, including to Senior/Women’s Protection Advisors, on the implementation of the Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Arrangements for CRSV (MARA), or similar mechanisms, where they have been established. UN Action is currently undergoing an analysis of the operationalisation of the MARA since Security Council resolution 1960 (2012) and conceptualising improvements to the MARA (or the MARA 2.0) to better fit the needs of a changing context.   

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We have presented in-depth thematic reports on harmful practices, in particular witchcraft, female genital mutilation, and child, early and forced marriage at the Human Rights Council and used their recommendations in our advocacy with States. All reports emphasized that harmful practices are deeply rooted in gender inequality and patriarchal norms, violate women and girls’ human rights, and require stronger legal, policy, and coordinated efforts to be eradicated. OHCHR’s engagement resulted in moving from ad-hoc thematic reports to the elaboration of guidelines on child, early and forced marriage to guide laws, policies and interventions to tackle the practice, as crystallized in resolution 53/23 of the HRC.  

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UNDP has been striving to collect and analyse evidence that will be a baseline for all activities to achieve gender equality and end GBV.

In 2020, UNDP Timor-Leste under the Spotlight Initiative conducted a baseline study on Gender-Based Violence and an assessment of laws, policies, and practices affecting gender equality and gender justice in the country. The baseline is being used to provide tailored support to the National Parliament and others, on legislative amendments to align Timorese legislation with international standards.

UNDP India undertook a study to understand the social and the economic impact on women migrant workers. This report, published in July 2020, collected evidence from 12 states (both interstate and intrastate).

In the Dominican Republic, UNDP presented infographic based on an analysis of violence against women differentiated across the life cycle. It includes advances in the legal framework, challenges, and data on intrafamily and domestic violence, sexual violence and femicide.

In Honduras, UNDP and USAID conducted analysis and presented infographic to make visible and recognize the situation of violence against women, based on the evidence. It contains the main needs and demands of women as rights holders, to reinforce achievements and make sustained progress towards equality.

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UNODC, in cooperation with the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women), provided updated global estimates of intimate partner/family member femicides through annual publications on femicides (in 2022, 2023 and 2024).  

In addition, in cooperation with UN-Women, UNODC published the Statistical framework for measuring the gender-related killing of women and girls (also referred to as “femicide/feminicide”), which identifies a typology of gender-related killings of women and girls and the list of variables that can be used to identify and count the various types of such killings. 

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