Reliable, comparable data on violence against women are essential to prevention and response efforts, however technical capacity to collect data about violence against women safely and accurately is limited.

In light of this, UNFPA in partnership with the University of Melbourne, ANROWS, and Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) is currently undertaking the kNOwVAWdata initiative to support and strengthen regional and national capacity to measure violence against women in Asia and the Pacific.

The initiative is centered around the kNOwVAWdata course, a four-week program for professionals seeking to build their skills in measuring the prevalence of violence against women. The kNOwVAWdata team is developing, piloting and rolling-out a standalone curriculum based on internationally recognized national violence against women prevalence survey methodologies, enabling global comparison of national survey data.

Ultimately, the team intends to expand the kNOwVAWdata curriculum to additional academic institutions in Asia and the Pacific and build a committed pool of trained professionals and researchers on the measurement of violence against women in Region.

Researchers: Kristin Diemer (Department of Social Work), Cathy Vaughan (Melbourne School of Population and Global Health), Joanne Rowe (Program Coordinator)

Funders: United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT)

Partners: UNFPA, DFAT and Australia National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety (ANROWS)

Project Dates: 2017-2019

Contact: Kristin Diemer, Joanne Rowe, Cathy Vaughan