WHO MultiCountry Study on Womens Health and Domestic

WHO Multi-Country Study on Women’s Health and Domestic Violence -overview. Henrica A. F. M. Jansen, WHO UNECE Work Session on Gender Statistics, Geneva, 18 -20 October 2004 World Health Organization Gender and Women’s Health

What this talk is about • • Who is involved and where Study objectives Study design Special ethical and safety measures Structure of questionnaire Interviewer training Some lessons learned World Health Organization Gender and Women’s Health

Who is involved? • Core research team – Claudia Garcia-Moreno & Henriette Jansen, WHO – Charlotte Watts, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine – Mary Ellsberg & Lori Heise, PATH (Washington D. C. ) • Expert Steering Committee • Country teams: women’s group equal partner with research institute • Local consultative committees World Health Organization Gender and Women’s Health

Multi-country Study on Women’s Health and Domestic Violence - Participating & Parallel Studies China Serbia and Montenegro Japan Thailand Bangladesh Vietnam Ethiopia Tanzania Samoa Peru Chile Namibia Indonesia Brazil New Zealand

Country Research Teams Country Research Institution NGO partners Bangladesh: ICDDRB Naripokkho Brazil: University of Sao Paulo Feminist Collective on Health and Sexuality SOS Corpo (Recife) Namibia: Ministry of Health and Social Services Multimedia Campaign on Violence against Women Peru: Universidad Nacional Cayetano Heredia Muhimbili College of Medical Sciences Centro de la Mujer Flora Tristan Women’s Research & Documentation Project Thailand: Mahidol University Foundation for Women Japan: National Institute of Population & Social Security Research Tanzania: World Health Organization Gender and Women’s Health

Objectives • Estimates of prevalence of violence against women • Associations between partner violence and health variables • Risk and protective factors for domestic violence against women • Strategies used by women who experience domestic violence World Health Organization Gender and Women’s Health

Additional Objectives • Develop and test new instruments for measuring violence cross-culturally • Increase national capacity amongst researchers and women’s organizations working on violence • Increase sensitivity to violence among researchers, policy-makers and health providers • Promote ethically sound research World Health Organization Gender and Women’s Health

WHO VAW Study Design • Formative qualitative research • Quantitative household survey of women 15 -49 years of age • Two sites per country: approx. 1500 women per site • All participants provided with information about sources of support; follow up support offered World Health Organization Gender and Women’s Health

WHO VAW Study Ethical and safety recommendations • Prioritise women’s safety • Protect confidentiality: essential to ensure women’s safety and data quality • Selection and specialised training and on-going support for research team • Take actions to reduce any possible distress to participants World Health Organization Gender and Women’s Health

World Health Organization Gender and Women’s Health

Women’s Health and Life Events Questionnaire Section 1: Respondent and her community Section 2: General Health Section 3: Reproductive health Section 4: Children Section 5: Current or most recent partner Section 6: Attitudes toward gender roles World Health Organization Section 7: Respondent and her partner Section 8: Injuries Section 9: Impact and coping Section 10: Other experiences Section 11: Financial autonomy Section 12: Completion of the interview Gender and Women’s Health

Interviewer Training Thailand World Health Organization Gender and Women’s Health

Three-week Interviewer Training • Provide interviewers with an opportunity to deal with own experiences of abuse • Include opportunities to interview and talk with women who have experienced abuse • Develop skills to minimize distress • Train more interviewers than necessary and hire only the most effective World Health Organization Gender and Women’s Health

Importance of special interviewer training • Cross country comparability and data quality • Interviewers who participated in full training: – Significant higher response rate – Significant higher disclosure rate – Significant higher respondent satisfaction • Protecting safety of respondents and interviewers • Increases the impact of the study World Health Organization Gender and Women’s Health

Research on VAW: Points to take home • A population based survey on violence against women can be done ethically and safely • Women are willing to share experiences with trained and empathetic interviewers • Build in mechanisms to ensure findings are owned by a wide range of stakeholders • Research can be an intervention World Health Organization Gender and Women’s Health

“I learned a lot from the beginning of the training, till the end of the survey. The survey opened wounds, but I had to learn to face it and cope with it. The respondents really needed and enjoyed this experience… My career path changed, … because I could do something which can make a difference…” Interviewer from Namibia World Health Organization Gender and Women’s Health

Thank you! jansenh@who. int http: //www. who. int/gender/ World Health Organization Gender and Women’s Health