The role of Gender Statistics in addressing GBV

Session Snapshot 1 22 Core Gender issues What is prevention? What does the available data tell us? Patterns and Trends over 303 the years

* Gender Statistics what we know…

Gender Core issues 1. Data that reflect gender issues and inequalities; 2. Data that highlight the realities and diversity of the lives of women and men; 3. Gender sensitive content, definitions, data collection, compilation and analysis are also required in the planning and production of gender statistics.

What is GBV? “Gender-based violence (GBV) is the general term used to capture violence that occurs as a result of the normative role expectations associated with each gender, along with the unequal power relationships between the two genders, within the context of a specific society. ” (Bloom 2008) While women, girls, men and boys can be victims of GBV, the majority of persons affected by GBV are women and girls, as a result of unequal distribution of power in society between women and men. Further, women and girls victims of violence suffer specific consequences as a result of gender discrimination

Forms of GBV 1. Domestic violence – • 62. 2 % of all women and 58. 8% of all men aged 15 -49 (UDHS 2011) • 58% of all Ugandan women and 44% of men aged 15 -49 believe that wife beating is justified for at least one specified reason 2. Early marriages • 40% of women aged 20 -40 were married before the age of 18 and 15% before the age 15. (UDHS 2011) 3. Sexual violence • 28% for women aged 15 -49 (UDHS 2011)

What does the above statistics tell us? • gender statistics are more important than ever, as they document the situation of women and men around the world, making it easier to raise awareness about inequalities between them and promote actionable change • gender statistics are a necessary prerequisite for the systematic analysis of gender issues and the subsequent promotion of gender-equitable development processes • insufficient sex-disaggregated data was a barrier to measuring progress in achieving gender equality and promoting the empowerment of women as well as in ‘effective policy formulation and programme design • Gender inequalities often remain unaddressed because they are poorly defined and as a result are ignored by many policy makers and development planners. Prioritizing the collection and use of gender statistics, including sex-disaggregated data, is a critical step towards reducing these inequalities. • Intersectionality of social problems: GBV& HIV, GBV & Poverty, GBV & VAC, GBV & Disability

Actions taken so far • Design and implementation of long term GBV prevention programmes • Enactment of specific laws to outlaw various forms of GBV • National GBV policy and action plan • Establishment of shelters to respond to the needs of GBV survivors • Addressing GBV is a national development agenda

Things to note: • Often policies and programme that appear gender neutral actually affect the relative position, the status and the rights of men, women and children. • Current Gender analysis & mainstreaming fail to address practical & strategic needs of women and girls: the tools and methods of data collection, how gender sensitive are they? • The culture of silence and normalization of GBV under plays the magnitude of the problem: how can this be addressed through gender statistics • Evolving definitions of GBV : shifting from specific focus on women and girls and negative implications of this shift -Leads to bias and unfair competitions between women’s experiences and men’s experiences of violence and backlash on women and girls • from specific focus on women/girls & negative implications of this shift

Promoting gender sensitivity in GBV programming • Gender sensitivity’: analyze + address different needs of men, women, girls and boys (“WGBM”) • In this approach, gender programming needs to be undertaken based on thorough analysis of gender power imbalances to address the root causes, gender statistics should be used to avoid a simple analysis that what one groups has, the other must have too. • Must dedicate space to understand address how gender-based discrimination affects women and girls’ safety, rights and welfare.

Thank you!