UN WOMEN: International Consultant to provide methodological support in reviewing Violence Against Women Survey

In September 2015 the United Nations Summit adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in New York which includes a set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 targets. The SDGs cover a very broad range of critical gender issues, including anti-discrimination, violence, unpaid care and domestic work, voice and participation, assets, income, labour, social protection etc. The agenda highlights women’s rights and gender equality significantly by including the stand alone fifth goal on gender equality in addition to gender-sensitive targets across other goals.

Given these imperatives the need to produce relevant and quality gender-sensitive indicators to monitor the SDGs is now greater than ever. To respond to the challenges, but also harnessing the current momentum and support for the SDGs and for gender statistics more broadly, UN Women has launched 5 years Flagship Programme Initiative Making Every Woman and Girls Count (MEWGC) aims to affect a radical shift in the production, availability, accessibility and use of quality data and statistics on key aspects of gender equality and women’s empowerment.

Since 2018 the UN Women Europe and Central Asia Regional Office (ECA RO) is implementing the regional project and provides technical support to countries on gender statistics and to strengthen regional-level collaboration with key partners in order to better contribute to SDGs monitoring at the country and regional levels. In ECA region countries are at varying stages of nationalizing and assessing current capacity to produce

and use the statistics needed to monitor SDG progress and gender-responsive SDGs prioritization and monitoring continue to be a challenge in the region. One of the main challenges faced by many countries are lack of reliable and timely data and statistics on violence against women and girls.

Domestic violence, gender-based violence, and Intimate partner violence (IPV) hinders the full participation of women in any society, with long-term consequences and costs for women’s families, communities and countries. It affects people, especially women of all generations, nationalities, and social strata, regardless of age, ethnicity, presence or absence of disabilities and other characteristics. Recent estimates suggest that around 30 per cent of women aged 15 and over worldwide have experienced physical and / or sexual violence by an intimate partner during their lifetime. IPV has become the leading cause of murder of women worldwide and has many other negative health consequences. The economic and social costs of violence against women are significant and evidence from around the world shows that violence undermines development at different levels, leading to the devaluation of physical, human and social capital.

Collecting and disseminating data on the prevalence and incidence of various forms of violence against women, as well as on the causes and consequences of such violence, are the starting point for the development of effective mechanisms at the political level to eradicate violence. Population surveys are the best source of data for assessing the prevalence of violence against women if they are properly conducted with proper quality and ethical standards. In 2011, the United Nations Statistical Commission approved a number of statistics on violence against women (UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, 2014).

Kazakhstan, like many other UN member states, has joined almost all major international commitments in the field of gender equality, including the SDGs until 2030, where one of the main objectives of the 5th Goal is to eliminate violence against women and girls. Taking into account the need to collect data on the prevalence of this phenomenon, the Committee on Statistics of the Ministry of National Economy of the Republic of Kazakhstan conducted the first national survey on violence against women in 2015. The national survey included two components: qualitative (in-depth interviews and focus groups) and quantitative (survey of respondents in households). The survey instruments used were an adapted version of the UNECE survey module on violence against women, based on the methodology of the WHO Intercountry Study on Women’s Health and Domestic Violence against Women.

The National Statistics Committee has started the preparation for the second national survey on violence against women to be conducted in 2021-22. At this stage it is necessary to review the survey methodology from the perspective of latest international recommendations and best practices on measuring prevalence of different forms of violence through population-based surveys, including but not limited to adjustment of survey tools (questionnaire, instructions, etc. ), new topics to be surveyed to respond to national policy needs, recommendations and guidance on piloting survey instruments, etc.

Goal and objectives

National practices on measuring prevalence of violence against women and girls vary depending on applied methodology, data collection method, reference population, selection of respondents and other criteria that implies a choice of survey and sampling strategy, technical expertise on data collection, ethnical issues associated with data collection and research, etc., that ultimately results in different operational costs and expected outputs of survey.

UN Women and UNFPA Kazakhstan on the request of National Statistics Committee intend to provide technical support on revision of survey methodology and strengthening the capacity of data producers and policy makers in designing, data collection and analysis of data on prevalence of VAW/G in accordance with best practices from the region and applying the international standards and recommendations on producing data on VAW/G as part of official statistics.

UN Women is seeking an international consultant to provide methodological support in preparing for the second national survey on violence against women and girls. The consultant will also be responsible for training personals on the latest development on survey methodology for NSO Kazakhstan and concerned policy makers and representatives of CSOs. The international consultant, will work closely with the national consultant to be hired by UNFPA Kazakhstan, under the direct supervision of UN Women Gender Statistics Specialist and in consultation with the head of the SDG Statistics Department of the NSO Kazakhstan.

• Conduct training on methodology of measurement of VAW/G for NSC and policy makers;
• Assist NSC with consultations to discuss national priorities and data needs in the area of violence against women and girls;
• Analysis and revision of the 2015 survey methodology, taking into account the latest international recommendations for measuring all forms of violence against women and girls;
• Assistance in revising survey instruments (including instructions for interviewers), taking into account additional indicators (reproductive health, harassment, sexual harassment, etc.), as well as specific recommendations on reference population, selection of respondents, etc.;
• General rrecommendations on sample strategy, survey protocols, survey plan and budget
• Assistance in the development of a methodology for pilot survey to be conducted in 2021;
• Document all lessons learned, problems.