World Health Organization Gender and Women’s Health

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

Multi-country Study on Women’s Health and Domestic Violence - Participating & Parallel Studies

Brazil

PeruSamoa

Namibia

Tanzania

Bangladesh

Thailand

Japan

Serbia andMontenegro

New Zealand

Chile

China

VietnamEthiopia

Indonesia

World Health Organization Gender and Women’s Health

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 Multimedia Campaign on Services Violence against Women

Peru: Universidad Nacional Centro de la Mujer FloraCayetano Heredia Tristan

Tanzania: Muhimbili College of Women’s Research & Medical Sciences Documentation Project

Thailand: Mahidol University Foundation for Women

Japan: National Institute of Population & Social Security Research

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• 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

Objectives

World Health Organization Gender and Women’s Health

• 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

Additional Objectives

World Health Organization Gender and Women’s Health

WHO VAW Study 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

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

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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/