United Nations Statistics Division (Department for Economic and Social Affairs)
Background
The United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) of the Department for Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) has four main functions: 1) the collection, processing and dissemination of statistical information; 2) the standardization of statistical methods, classifications and definitions; 3) implementation of the technical cooperation programme; and 4) the coordination of international statistical programmes and activities.
The Global Gender Statistics Programme is mandated by the United Nations Statistical Commission, implemented by the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) and coordinated by the Inter-Agency and Expert Group on Gender Statistics IAEG-GS.
Policy framework
The Beijing Platform for Action invited national, regional and international statistical services to develop improved data on the victims and perpetrators of all forms of violence against women (para. 206 (j)).
Areas of Focus
UNSD contributes to strengthening the knowledge base on violence against women by improving coherence among existing initiatives on VAW statistics through international coordination, developing and promoting methodological guidelines, strengthening national statistical and technical capacity for the production, dissemination and use of data on violence against women and by facilitating access to data and metadata through the Minimum Set of Gender Indicators portal and the SDGs global database.
Resources
Publications about trends:
- Progress on the Sustainable Development Goals: The Gender Snapshot 2024: https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/gender-snapshot/2024/
- Progress on the Sustainable Development Goals: The Gender Snapshot 2023: https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/gender-snapshot/2023/
- Progress on the Sustainable Development Goals: The Gender Snapshot 2022: https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/gender-snapshot/2022/
- Progress on the Sustainable Development Goals: The Gender Snapshot 2021:
- The World’s Women 2020: Trends and Statistics. United Nations New York, NY, with a section on violence against women: https://worlds-women-2020-data-undesa.hub.arcgis.com/ and https://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic-social/products/worldswomen/documents/WW2020_v0_20241016.pdf
- Progress on the Sustainable Development Goals: The Gender Snapshot 2020: https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2020/GenderSnapshot_2020.pdf
- Progress on the Sustainable Development Goals: The Gender Snapshot 2019: https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2019/gender-snapshot.pdf
- The World’s Women 2015: Trends and Statistics. United Nations New York, NY, with a section on violence against women: https://unstats.un.org/unsd/gender/worldswomen2015.html
- The World’s Women 2010: Trends and Statistics. United Nations New York, NY, with a section on violence against women: https://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic-social/products/worldswomen/ww2010pub/
- The World’s Women 2005: Progress in Statistics. United Nations New York, NY, with a section on violence against women: http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/products/indwm/wwpub2005.htm
Methods
- Guidelines for Producing Statistics on Violence against Women— Statistical Surveys: https://unstats.un.org/unsd/publication/Seriesf/seriesF_110e.pdf
- Integrating a Gender Perspective into Statistics: https://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic-social/Standards-and-Methods/files/Handbooks/gender/Integrating-a-Gender-Perspective-into-Statistics-E.pdf
The United Nations Statistics Division continues to serve as the Secretariat of the Inter-Agency and Expert Group on Gender Statistics (IAEG-GS).
View MoreThe 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