Advanced Search

Any potential risks (physical, emotional and social) to participants, practitioners, and the wider community should be identified and mitigated at the outset to limit possible harm and maximise possible benefits. When collecting data as part of VAWG interventions, this includes minimising the effects of power hierarchies. For example, in many situations, healthcare providers, teachers or traditional leaders are often viewed with great respect and authority, so it is important to put in place measures to mitigate potential risks, such as safe and private interview settings, or anonymous and…

Participants’ data should always remain anonymous and protected – an important issue given the sensitive nature of information relating to violence and abuse. Secure and ethical data storage involves implementing robust encryption methods, access controls and regular audits to prevent unauthorised access and breaches. Confidential information must be stored securely with electronic data/soft copies password-protected and encrypted (such as on GBVIMS and Primero/GBVIMS+ incident monitoring and case management information systems) or hard copies in locked locations. With the rise of AI and…

Any VAWG programme which involves working with women and girls and collecting data about their experiences of violence must be done in a safe and ethical manner by taking a Do No Harm approach. The main ethical concern when collecting data on VAWG is the risk of harm to respondents, such as potential retaliation from a partner if their participation in the study is discovered. When collecting data, participants should have the right to decide if they want to disclose occurrences of violence and to determine whether, how, where and when specific information is shared. This includes victims and…

Once a programme has identified an appropriate evaluation design and methods, it is important to ensure the process adheres to high standards. This will support the quality and credibility of the findings. While developing a practical evaluation strategy and plan, programmes can use the following table to help them reflect on their approach. This table is adapted from the United Nations Evaluation Group’s set of norms for effective and consistent monitoring and evaluation.

Questions
Reflections

Are there processes in place to ensure the findings from the evaluation strategy…

Once a programme has identified the overall approach of their evaluation, the next step is to determine which evaluation method (or methods) will be best suited to this approach and the questions the programme is trying to answer. There are a variety of methods for conducting evaluations, detailed in the following table. It is important to distinguish between evaluation methods that can capture instances of correlation (where there may be connection between two events) and causation (where one event is shown to have caused another event).


Method

Details
Examples

Qu…

Once a programme has identified the specific questions it seeks to answer, the next step is to select the most suitable type of evaluation. There are three types of evaluation design that could be considered: Non-Experimental Evaluations, Experimental/Randomised Control Trials, and Quasi-Experimental Evaluations. There are benefits and disadvantages to each of these approaches, which are detailed in the following table.


Evaluation Design


Considerations


Non-Experimental Evaluations


These evaluation approaches involve comparing the results from…

Clarifying the questions a programme seeks to answer through an evaluation is an important step to selecting an evaluation strategy. Programmes should develop their evaluation questions during the design phase and use their Theory of Change as the basis of these questions. Wherever possible, they should take a participatory approach and collaborate with women and girls, local communities, practitioners, and other relevant stakeholders to develop these questions. This will help ensure the questions reflect the needs and perspectives of diverse stakeholders, and that the programme is accountable…

While developing an evaluation strategy, programmes should consider the type of VAWG programming they are focused on, the maturity of the programme (is it a pilot or has the programme strategy already shown impact?), the questions the programme is trying to answer, the number of programme participants, their ability to mitigate against ethical challenges, the budget and resources available for conducting an evaluation, and the skills needed to conduct the evaluation. To support this decision-making, programmes can use the following decision-matrix created for UN Women Asia-Pacific as a guide:…

Where indicators and measurements of change are being designed for specific populations, it’s important to engage them in the design process, and validate the indicators based on their inputs. Working with women-led organisations or diverse civil society organisations helps promote safe engagement of marginalised groups and women and girls in data collection, and aligns with feminist-informed approaches. Before collecting data, the local availability of care and support services for survivors/victims should also be mapped; if services are not available in the community or cannot be made…

While indicators make it possible to measure a range of changes and programmatic impacts, only those that are needed should be included in monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) frameworks. This is because each additional indicator requires additional data collection and this can place a burden on populations. So there needs to be enough indicators to meaningfully and robustly measure change, but not an excessive number. This is in line with ethical guidelines for data collection and supports a survivor-centred approach across all areas of work.

Different data collection methods and…