Regional Commissions' Training of Trainers on Violence Against Women

Background

The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (UN-ESCWA) is implementing a project on "Enhancing Capacities to Eradicate Violence Against Women Through Networking of Local Knowledge Communities". In implementing this project ESCWA will cooperate with all other United Nations Regional Commissions, the United Nations Statistical Division (UNSD) and the United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women (UNDAW).

In the context of the project, national statistical offices of member countries were invited to engage in voluntary testing of the short survey module on Violence against Women (VAW), originally prepared by UNECE. The testing of the survey module shall provide us with more information on how surveys on VAW can be conducted in ESCWA countries.

Objectives of the Workshops

The two workshops are organized with the view of the following objectives:

1. To test the module for collecting a minimum set of information to measure the prevalence of violence through other appropriate population-based surveys, in order to generate data for the internationally comparable indicators on VAW recommended by the Secretary General;
2. To adapt the questionnaire and the accompanying documentation to the national and regional context.
3. To validate the Arabic translation, taking into account contextual issues and nuances arising from the translation;

Generic Questionnaire and its Adaptation for Arab Countries

The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Europe (UNECE) prepared a prototype of a generic questionnaire. This questionnaire represents an input to the discussion, with the understanding that all questions may not be relevant and/or appropriate for all regions and countries. The UN-ESCWA member countries are invited to review the generic questionnaire and discuss the implications for regional and national adaptation. A special meeting is scheduled for this purpose on 7 May 2010, following a Training of Trainers workshop (Beirut, 3-6 May 2010).

UN-ESCWA will share the results of the adaptations and of the voluntary testing with a broad range of countries at a workshop planned to be held at the beginning of 2011.