GOAL 5: GENDER EQUALITY

This indicator refers to intimate partner violence, which includes any abuse perpetrated by a current or former partner within the context of marriage, cohabitation or any other formal or informal union. For the purpose of global monitoring, the indicator is currently being defined as proportion of ever-partnered women and girls aged 15 to 49 years who have experienced physical or sexual violence by a current or former intimate partner in the previous 12 months. The rationale for using a proxy indicator is that comparable data are currently only available for a subset of girls and women aged 15 to 49 years and the fact that there is no agreement on a standard operational definition for psychological violence.

The conceptual definitions of the types of violence covered in the SDG indicator, as defined in the 2014 UN Guidelines for Producing Statistics on Violence against Women, are:

‘Physical violence’ consists of acts aimed at physically hurting the victim and include, but are not limited to acts like pushing, grabbing, twisting the arm, pulling hair, slapping, kicking, biting or hitting with a fist or object, trying to strangle or suffocate, burning or scalding on purpose, or threatening or attacking with some sort of weapon, gun or knife.

‘Sexual violence’ is defined as any sort of harmful or unwanted sexual behaviour that is imposed on someone, whether by use of force, intimidation or coercion. It includes acts of abusive sexual contact, forced engagement in sexual acts, attempted or completed sexual acts without consent, non-contact acts such as being forced to watch or participate in pornography, etc. In intimate partner relationships, sexual violence is commonly defined as: being physically forced to have sexual intercourse, having sexual intercourse out of fear for what the partner might do or through coercion, and/or being forced to do something sexual that the woman considers humiliating or degrading.

‘Psychological violence’ includes a range of behaviours that encompass acts of emotional abuse and controlling conduct.

Numerator: Number of ever-partnered women and girls (aged 15 years and above) who have experienced physical, sexual and/or psychological violence by a current or former intimate partner in the previous 12 months.

Denominator: Number of ever-partnered women and girls (aged 15 years and above) in the population.

It is important to note that because of the stigma surrounding intimate partner violence, available data are likely to underestimate the true prevalence.

The availability of comparable data remains a challenge as many data collection efforts have relied on varying survey methodologies, not used the same definitions of partner or spousal violence and of the forms of violence, utilized different survey questions, and sampled diverse age groups. The quality of interviewer training is also highly variable. Because of this, data should be interpreted with caution.

Currently, national data included in the global SDG database are disaggregated only by age (when possible) but not by type of violence, as called for in the indicator definition. This is because, while there is global consensus on how physical and sexual intimate partner violence are generally defined and measured, psychological partner violence is conceptualized differently across cultures and in different contexts.

In addition, the indicator definition makes reference to experiences of intimate partner violence by ever-partnered women aged 15 years and older. However, a majority of the available data have only been collected for a subset of girls and women aged 15 to 49 years, and there is a general lack of consistency in the age range of sample populations across other available sources. Therefore, global reporting on this indicator at this moment only reflects violence experienced by ever-partnered girls and women aged 15 to 49 years.

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This indicator refers to the proportion of women and girls aged 15 years and older who have experienced sexual violence by persons other than an intimate partner, in the previous 12 months. The indicator is limited to sexual violence perpetrated by individuals other than an intimate partner.

The conceptual definition of sexual violence covered by the SDG indicator, as defined in the 2014 UN Guidelines for Producing Statistics on Violence against Women is: “Any sort of harmful or unwanted sexual behaviour that is imposed on someone. It includes acts of abusive sexual contact, forced engagement in sexual acts, attempted or completed sexual acts with a woman without her consent, sexual harassment, verbal abuse, threats, exposure, unwanted touching, incest, etc.” However, in most surveys that collect data on sexual violence against women and girls by non-partners, the operational definition is limited to forced sexual intercourse or other forced sexual acts and attempted or coerced sexual intercourse or other sexual acts.

Numerator: Number of women and girls (aged 15 years and above) who have experienced sexual violence by a non-intimate partner in the previous 12 months

Denominator: Number of women and girls (aged 15 years and above) in the population

The availability of comparable data remains a challenge as many data collection efforts have relied on different survey methodologies and used varying definitions of sexual violence as well as survey questions to elicit information. Diverse age groups are also often utilized. Additionally, not all surveys on violence against women collect information on non-partner violence. Respondents’ willingness to discuss experiences of violence and understanding of relevant concepts may also differ according to how a survey is implemented and the cultural context, and this can affect reported prevalence levels.

Efforts and investment are required to develop an internationally agreed standard and definition of sexual violence by non-partners that will enable comparison across countries. Monitoring this indicator with certain periodicity may be a challenge if sustained capacities are not built.

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This indicator is defined as the proportion of women aged 20 to 24 years who were first married or living in a cohabiting union as if married before age 15 and before age 18. The prevalence of child marriage is measured retrospectively among women whose risk of marrying in childhood is complete, i.e., those who are at least 18 years old, and the age group of 20 to 24 years is used by convention to represent the current prevalence of the practice.

Both formal (i.e., marriages) and informal unions are covered under this indicator. Informal unions are generally defined as those in which a couple lives together as if married but for which there has been no formal civil or religious ceremony (i.e., cohabitation).

The term child marriage is used to refer to unions in which a girl or boy lives with a partner as if married before the age of 18, though the SDG indicator captures only child marriage among girls.

Numerator: Number of women aged 20 to 24 years who were first married or in union before age 15 (or before age 18).

Denominator: Total number of women aged 20 to 24 years in the population.

The measure of child marriage is retrospective in nature by design, capturing age at first marriage among a population that has completed the risk period (i.e., adult women). While it is also possible to measure the current marital status of girls under age 18, such measures would provide an underestimate of the level of child marriage, as girls who are not currently married may still do so before they turn 18.

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Percentage of girls and women (aged 15-49 years) who have undergone female genital mutilation (FGM)

FGM refers to “all procedures involving partial or total removal of the female external genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs for nonmedical reasons.”

The term female circumcision is often used interchangeably with FGM, although some object to this term as it erroneously suggests that female circumcision is analogous to male circumcision.

Numerator: Number of girls and women aged 15 to 49 years who have undergone FGM.

Denominator: Total number of girls and women aged 15 to 49 years in the population.

Data users should also keep in mind the retrospective nature of these data, which results in this indicator not being sensitive to recent change. In countries where girls are cut before 1 year of age, for example, most girls aged 15 to 19 years are reporting on an event that took place 14 to 18 years earlier. Thus, there is a time lag between when changes in the practice occur and when they are reflected in the data.

Furthermore, in terms of understanding the prevalence, it may be misleading to focus on national-level estimates, as in many countries FGM is practised by specific ethnic groups that may be concentrated in certain geographic locations in the country.

In MICS and DHS, questions about FGM are only included in a subset of countries where the practice is concentrated. Thus, it is important to note that even in countries with no FGM data, the practice still may exist. This may include high-income countries that are destinations for migrants from countries where the practice still occurs, as well as certain low- and middle-income countries in which FGM exists among specific population groups.

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