With the support of UN Women, a National Study on Violence against Women will be conducted

Planning effective policies to prevent, respond to and eliminate violence against women would be impossible without high-quality, reliable and comprehensive statistical data. As such, within the framework of its long-term cooperation with the National Statistics Office of Georgia (Geostat), UN Women continues to support the government in improving its statistical data on violence against women, thereby fulfilling one of its commitments under the Istanbul Convention.

This collaboration critically includes a national study on violence against women, to be conducted by the National Statistics Office of Georgia in accordance with internationally recognized methodology and with technical and financial support from UN Women and the European Union.

The purpose of the study is to collect information on a range of issues from women and men aged 15-69, including: their financial status, work, health, spousal, partner or non-partner violence, violence-related injuries, the impact of violence, help-seeking behaviours, sexual harassment, stalking, social norms and beliefs.

“The study will contribute to the development of gender statistics, the production of internationally comparable indicators, the provision of access to their use, and the production of relevant baseline indicators for the UN Sustainable Development Goals in general. I think the survey will be a really valuable product in terms of planning and making decisions about violence against women,” noted Gogita Todradze, Executive Director of the National Statistics Office of Georgia.

Between October 19-22, field personnel for a national study on violence against women received extensive training on the research methodology, and instructions for completing the questionnaires and field procedures. The data will be collected through face-to-face interviews with respondents inputting their responses on tablet computers. The field work will be carried out in October and November, covering 4,400 respondents from all over Georgia. The results of the study will be available in 2023.

Geostat also conducted a similar national-scale study in 2017, with technical assistance from UN Women and financial assistance from the EU. While, the current study is part of the “Ending Violence against Women and Girls in Georgia” project, carried out by UN Women and the UNFPA, and with financial support from the European Union.