Caribbean Women Count:
Ending Violence against Women and Girls Data Hub
From 2016 to 2019, five CARICOM Member States – Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago – conducted national surveys to measure the prevalence of gender-based violence. These surveys were a collaborative project between Governments, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). The impetus for this collaboration came from a decision of the CARICOM Council for Human and Social Development in 2014, to pilot a CARICOM model of national prevalence surveys on VAWG.
The Council advised that the long-tested global model for population-based studies, pioneered by the World Health Organization (WHO), should be adapted for the Caribbean context. In Grenada, Guyana and Jamaica, Women’s Health Surveys were implemented by National Statistics Offices, and in Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago private survey firms were contracted by the IDB.
The compendium knowledge product “Caribbean Experiences With Collecting Data on Violence against Women and Girls” is accessible here. This document includes a paper on the experiences and lessons learned from conducting the survey in the 5 countries; a Technical Guidance Note; information on the survey methodology and ethical protocols; and the survey questionnaire and tools.
Available for review is a Research Brief on Intimate Partner Violence in Five CARICOM Countries: Findings from National Prevalence Surveys on Violence Against Women which is accessible here.
The Research Brief focuses on the prevalence of intimate partner violence (IPV) for each of the five countries where data was collected – both lifetime and current prevalence rates of IPV. This brief also focuses on the causes and consequences of IPV, including risk factors associated with physical and/or sexual IPV at both the national and regional levels. Findings presented in this research brief can serve to inform regional and national efforts to develop VAWG prevention and response plans in CARICOM.