Measuring Violence Against Women : Operationalization of surveys: Key points

1
Measuring Violence Against Women
Operationalization of surveysKey points

• Workshop on Gender Statistics and Human Rights
  Statistics
• Nadi, Fiji
• 4-8 August 2014
• Charlotte French, Statistician
• Demographic and Social Statistics Branch - UNSD

2
Introduction

• Guidelines for Producing Statistics on Violence
  against Women Statistical Surveys
• Three key areas (focus of presentation)
• Questionnaire (Annex VII) and dedicated survey
  (Chapter IV and V)
• Ethical considerations (Chapter V)
• Special interviewer training (Chapter V)

3

• Dedicated survey

4
Survey on violence against women

• Reasons for conducting
• To raise awareness about the problem
• To monitor trends
• To contribute to indicators at a global level
• To compare between countries
• To understand more about violence, the
  associations, risk and protective factors

5
Dedicated survey

• Allows for multiple opportunities for respondents
  to disclose their experiences with violence
• Designed to enable the interviewers to establish
  a rapport with the respondents
• Generally, yield higher prevalence rates
• Considered to be more accurate reflection of the
  true prevalence of such acts of violence

6
Considerations when inserting a module into an
existing survey

• Ascertain that the sample design does not
  systematically exclude subgroups of the
  population
• Avoid surveys on unrelated topics
• Check the suitability of the vehicle survey
• Interviewers special training
• How to place the module for good flow
• Protective measures for the interviewers and
  respondents
• Additional support and referrals
• ? Risk higher levels of non-disclosure resulting
  in underreporting of violent experiences

7
overview
Dedicated Modules
Costs High Reduced
Questionnaire Design Broad/flexible Adjusted to main survey
Sample size Tailored Could be too small
Interviewer selection Specifically selected Could be challenge
Interviewer training Specific training developed Need special training
Data analysis Adaptable to obtain nec measures Restricted/limited
8
Questions

• Be explicit in operationalization of concepts
• Clearly defined question
• have you been attacked?
• vs.
• have you been slapped?
• Cue respondents to consider a variety of
  different settings (home, school, work, etc)

9
Model questionnaire

• UNECE has produced a model questionnaire, which
  can easily be adapted to an individual countries
  context.
• ECE Model questionnaire (Annex VI)
• Questions on demographic characteristics of
  respondent
• Question on partner violence
• Types of violence covered psychological,
  economic, physical, sexual
• Question on violence by others
• Types of violence covered physical and sexual

10

• Ethical considerations

11
Ethical Considerations

• WHO recommends that all VAW surveys adhere to the
  following ethical principles. These are an
  essential component of planning and undertaking
  surveys on this topic.
• The safety of respondents and the research team
  is paramount and should guide all project
  decisions
• Protecting confidentiality is essential to ensure
  womens safety and data quality.
• All research team members should be carefully
  selected, receive specialized training and
  ongoing support.
• The study design must include actions aimed at
  reducing any possible distress caused to the
  participants.
• Fieldworkers should be trained to refer women
  requesting assistance to sources of support.
  Where few resources exist, short-term support
  mechanisms can be produced
• VAW questions should be incorporated into surveys
  designed for other purposes only when ethical and
  methodological requirements can be met.

12
Safety

• The survey should have a safe name, that does not
  reveal the nature of the survey to reduce risks,
  e.g. Womens Health and Life Events Survey
• Interviews held only in a private setting
• Allow participants to reschedule if they feel
  unsafe
• Only one woman per household
• Train interviewers to handle interruptions

13
Confidentiality

• Pledge of confidentiality
• Interviewers should not conduct interviews in or
  near their own community
• Questionnaires should never include names or
  other identifying information
• Questionnaires and/or data files should always be
  kept in a secure location and data files should
  be anonymised
• Access to and control of data files protected
• Handling of findings, documentations

14
Informed consent

• Needs to be reiterated throughout the process.
• Need to obtain consent but signed consent forms
  pose potential risk to the respondents
• May allow breach of confidentiality
• May affect a respondents willingness to disclose
  violence and bias the results

15
Minimizing emotional distress

• Survey questions might elicit negative emotional
  reactions among both respondents and
  interviewers.
• So, interviewers need to be trained
• How to deal with distress
• When and how to terminate interviews
• Interviewers should have access to counselors and
  should not do too many interviews so as to avoid
  burn-out

16
Referrals

• Have information on referrals ready to offer to
  all respondents
• Include info on a paper or card that is small
  enough to be hidden
• Discretion is of utmost importance

17

• Training of interviewers

18
Training of interviews

• All project team members must receive specialized
  training
• Ensure that interviewers are able to perform
  their duties across a variety of scenarios and
  possible outcomes
• Training of field supervisors and their role to
  understand all aspects of the interviewing and
  data collection processes

19
Training materials from UNECE model questionnaire

• Contains a question by question explanation
• Training program for interviewers with training
  facilitators manual
• Interviewer manual including ethical and safety
  considerations

20
Training of Interviewers

• Specialised training for VAW surveys must ensure
  interviewers understand
• the extreme sensitivity of the topic
• violence against women and its impacts on victims
  
• societal myths about violence against women and
  how these affect victims and interviewers
• gender issues at a personal and community level
• the goals of the survey or module of questions on
  violence against women
• ethical requirements of surveys on violence
  against women, including importance of and
  strategies for addressing confidentiality, safety
  and support for respondents
• skills needed for interviewing on this topic
  including encouraging participation in the survey
  and creating a climate that promotes disclosures
  of sensitive survey questions
• interviewing techniques for building rapport with
  respondents
• skills to detect when respondents are at risk of
  being overheard and re-schedule interviews
  accordingly
• how to identify and respond appropriately to
  emotional trauma by referring respondents to
  resources in the local community and avoiding
  emotional involvement or counselling
• how to identify emotional reactions in themselves
  that result from working on this topic (such as
  traumatization due to reliving own experiences or
  due to hearing traumatic stories day after day)
  and develop skills to manage and reduce stress

21
Selection of interviewers

• Female interviewers and supervisors
• Selection process very important criteria, base
  selection on attitudes, motivation as well as
  competency
• Over sample for interviewers

22
Interviewer training

• Length of training 2-3 weeks
• e.g., the WHO Multi-country study had a three
  week training programme
• Use multiple participatory-based training
  techniques

23
Take home messages

• Dedicated surveys vs module
• Importance of ethical considerations
• Specialized needs for training interviewers