With a global focus on gender equity, we are at a unique time in our history for advancing the rights of women and children. Alongside this global emphasis on gender equity, there is a growing recognition of the importance of data and research for building better programmes for responding to and reducing violence against women and violence against children in all our diversity and experiences.

VAW and VAC are sensitive topics and research on VAW and VAC must be conducted with this in mind. The way in which we do our research can have profound impacts on the lives of our study participants and the research team and in turn the quality of the data we gather. The guides, tools and methods on this page provide you with important resources to help you with your research.

If you are not an experienced researcher on this issue, we recommend you seek advice or involve a GBV research expert and engage local stakeholders before starting your research to ensure your study is methodologically rigorous and appropriate, builds on existing knowledge, locally relevant and ethically sound to protect the rights, welfare and dignity of the people who agree to be a part of our research projects.

Measures

There are a variety of tools and measures available to collect both qualitative and quantitative data on the various forms of VAW and VAC. While tools and measures for several…

Datasets

Before considering primary data collection, we encourage you to explore if an existing dataset can help answer your research question. Using secondary data is a great idea because: It is…

Ethics

Research on VAW and VAC must be conducted with appropriate measures to address ethical and safety considerations. Key ethical and safety considerations include: Is the research necessary? Does it address…