The kNOwVAWdata research program
The kNOwVAWdata research team, co-led by A/Prof Kristin Diemer from the Department of Social Work and Professor Cathy Vaughan from Nossal Institute, has been awarded the University of Melbourne Award for Excellence in Global Collaboration 2024.
The award recognises outstanding contribution to: advancing global partnerships in Asia and the Pacific; reporting on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 5 (SDG targets 5.2.1 and 5.2.2); and regional capacity response by supporting local data sovereignty and usage of data to inform local responses.
The inter-disciplinary kNOwVAWdata research team conducts research on violence against women and children, and undertakes capacity building in low- and middle-income countries to support local teams to lead their own research program using globally recognised standards in safe and ethical methodologies. The program also supports research on emerging forms of violence (technology-facilitated gender-based violence) and poorly understood aspects of national responses such as structural barriers to help seeking for women experiencing violence.
In October, the kNOwVAWdata program of work was showcased at the SVRI Forum in Cape Town South Africa. The team, in partnership with Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and Australia's National Research Organisation for Women's Safety (ANROWS), delivered a pre-forum workshop on ‘Measuring Violence against Women, Challenges, Tools and Methods’. The team also presented a new toolkit for synthesising sub-national and administrative gender-based violence data developed in partnership with The Asia Development Bank (ADB), and UNFPA Bangkok. The toolkit is currently being trialled in Mongolia, Cambodia, Nepal and Philippines.
A poster session was held by the team testing a statistical model of the influence of intimate partner coercive control and contraception use among Pacific women. The team’s work on the conceptual development and understanding of technology facilitated gender-based violence was presented at a session co-organised by the Asian Network of Women's Shelters and The Garden of Hope Foundation, along with two poster sessions including a scoping review, and regional qualitative study in Asia. Coming away from the Forum, the team formed new research partnerships on domestic violence in the context of climate change, and measurement of human trafficking.
