As part of the “Spotlight Initiative Africa Regional Programme”, the West and Central Africa Regional Office of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA/WCARO) has invited the Réseau des Femmes Leaders pour le Développement (RFLD) to a capacity-building training session on the collection, analysis and use of data relating to violence against women and girls.
To this end, UNFPA/WCARO, through the Benin Country Office, invited RFLD President Madame AGUEH Dossi Sekonnou Gloria to take part in the training, which took place in Saly, Senegal, from September 19 to 23, 2022. According to UN Women, one in three women in the world has been subjected to physical or sexual violence[1] Female genital mutilation (FGM), which is an extreme form of violence against women and girls (VAWG), is widespread in some countries in West and East Africa and in certain northern regions. Violence against women and girls puts them at risk of serious health and social problems, including HIV, unwanted pregnancy, unsafe abortion, maternal morbidity and death[2].
In addition, harmful practices such as FGM and early marriage prevent many girls from realizing their full potential. For example, early marriage limits girls’ access to opportunities, particularly education and the skills needed for economic empowerment, and increases the risk of sexually transmitted infections, maternal complications and death. The current COVID-19 pandemic has further exacerbated the situation, with some data showing an increase in VAWI incidents.[3] The African region has made commendable progress in data collection, analysis, dissemination and use, but the trend towards surveillance and reporting is generally weak in all AUC member states. The African continent has many frameworks for implementing global commitments to promote women’s rights, but reporting on the progress of these commitments is limited.[4]
Information and data on VAWG/GBV, harmful practices, SRH and reproductive rights are available from a wide variety of sources, including health management information systems, legal and judicial systems, social services, as well as research and academic organizations. However, effective coordination of the collection and use of this data to inform advocacy, policy, programming and monitoring of progress against national, regional and continental commitments still requires robust capacity building.
The objectives of its activities are to help build the capacity of the AUC, RECs, civil society and women’s rights organizations, as well as national partners, to systematically and regularly collect data on sexual and gender-based violence, early marriage and female genital mutilation, in line with international and regional standards, in order to inform laws, policies and programs, and to monitor progress against national, regional and continental commitments to address these issues. [5] The objectives of these activities are to ensure that high quality, comparable data on the different forms of violence against women and girls is available and collected over time to fill national data gaps; and to use this data to inform policies and programs to end violence against women and girls, in line with commitments under the Sustainable Development Goals, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.
[1] UN Women. Facts and figures: Ending violence against women. https://www.unwomen.org/en/what-we-do/ending-violence-against-women/facts-and-figures
[2] Alhusen, et al. (2015). Intimate partner violence during pregnancy: maternal and neonatal outcomes. Journal of women’s health, 24(1), 100-106; Durevall, D., & Lindskog, A. (2015). Intimate partner violence and HIV in ten sub-Saharan African countries: what do the Demographic and Health Surveys tell us? The Lancet Global Health, 3(1), e34-e43; Li, et al. Intimate partner violence and HIV infection among women: a systematic review and meta‐analysis. Journal of the international AIDS society. 2014 Jan;17(1):18845; Miller, et al. (2010). Pregnancy coercion, intimate partner violence and unintended pregnancy. Contraception, 81(4), 316-322; Pallitto, et al. (2013). Intimate partner violence, abortion, and unintended pregnancy: results from the WHO Multi-country Study on Women’s Health and Domestic Violence. International Journal of Gynaecology & Obstetrics, 120(1), 3-9.
[3] UN Women, WHO Joint Programme on Violence Against Women Data. (2020) Violence against women and girls data collection during COVID-19 shorturl.at/sGNY8
[4] Africa Regional Document, Initiative Spotlight
[5] Lors de la mise en œuvre, les résultats de cette activité seront intégrés aux travaux en cours sur l’Observatoire du genre, le cas échéant.
