Press release: Regional Meeting on the Planning and Implementation of Prevalence Surveys on Violence against Women in the Arab States Region
Date:
Cairo, Egypt - Violence against Women (VAW) is a serious human rights violation worldwide. The international community has recognized it as an important barrier not only to gender equality and women’s empowerment but also to sustainable and equitable development, as reflected in Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In an effort to enhance prevention of, and response to, violence against women and girls, UN Women and the World Health Organisation (WHO) in partnership with the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (UN ESCWA) are organizing a meeting to bring together relevant partners in the Arab States region to discuss a way forward in advancing methods and strategies to measure violence against women in line with globally agreed methodological and ethical standards. The meeting also aims to discuss the potential of developing a strategy and way forward to strengthen regional and national capacity on measuring violence against women and obtaining high-quality and reliable data on violence against women.
UN Women, WHO, and UN ESWCA work with member States in the Arab States region to ensure that quality, comparable data on different forms of violence against women and girls are available and collected over time to address national data gaps and meet policy and reporting commitments under the SDGs, the Convention on the Elimination of Violence against Women (CEDAW), and the Beijing Platform for Action.
This meeting is within the framework of the five-year Global Joint Program (2018-2022) on Strengthening Methodologies and Measurement and Building National Capacities for Violence against Women Data, co-implemented by UN Women and WHO. The joint programme is funded by the Department for International Development of the United Kingdom (DFID). The meeting also provides an opportunity for countries in the region to share lessons learned and experience. This initiative is part of comprehensive global efforts by UN Women to support member States to prevent and respond to violence against women through policies and programmes designed and implemented based on data and evidence. The better we understand violence against women through hearing women’s voices and survivors’ experience, the more effective we can be in addressing it.
Mr. Abd El- Hameed Sharaf, Head of Population Sector at the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) in Egypt, highlighted: “There is no social development without achieving full gender equality and eliminating all forms of discrimination against women”.
“Comprehensive data collection and analysis may be perceived as an expensive exercise; however, the economic return of this investment is much greater than the cost and contributes to reducing the socio-economic loss that comes as a result of violence against women and girls,” commented Yllka Gerdovci, Women’s Economic Empowerment Specialist UN Women Regional Office for the Arab States.
For more information, please contact:
Nourhan A. El-Nagdy
Communications Assistant, UN Women Regional Office for the Arab States
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Mobile: +20 12 8280 8644