For Immediate Release:	May 21, 2009
For More Information:	Abubakar Dungus, UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, dungus@unfpa.org, +1 (212) 297-5031 Sandra Bunch, The International Center for Research on Women (ICRW), sbunch@icrw.org, (202) 742-1240
Sponsor Organization:	International Center for Research on Women and UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund
Colloquium held on May 21, 2009 in Washington, DC
A half-day colloquium was organised in Washington, DC on 21st May 2009 at the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) to make public globally the findings of the UNFPA-supported research study on “Costing Intimate Partner Violence”. Violence against women is globally acknowledged as a human rights violation and a fundamental obstacle to the achievement of gender equality. Increasingly, this is seen as a development issue with severe consequences to economic growth. In a fluid policy environment, strong evidence on the economic costs of violence against women is crucial to underscore the significant consequences of inaction. Though a number of studies have analyzed violence in terms of its direct and indirect costs, these analyses have been limited largely to developed countries. In developing countries, the few studies on the costs of violence have focused on the macro level, generally in terms of analyzing costs to national governments, rather than analyzing more immediate costs to individuals, households and communities. To fill this gap, ICRW and its partners – the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies, the Economic Policy research Centre in Kampala, Uganda and the Hassan II University Mohammedia-Casablanca in Morocco - undertook a three-country study in Bangladesh, Morocco and Uganda to estimate the economic costs of intimate partner violence at the household and community levels, where its impact is most direct and immediate. The focus on intimate partner violence was motivated by the fact that this is the most common form of violence against women. A household and community level analysis helps to shed light on intimate partner violence’s relationship to both household economic vulnerability and the extent to which scarce public resources for essential health, security, and infrastructure services are diverted due to such violence. Why the selection of Bangladesh, Morocco and Uganda? These 3 countries are particularly relevant for this study. Despite their diverse economic and social profiles, intimate partner violence prevalence is high in all three countries. At the same time, recognizing the importance of a comprehensive response to intimate partner violence, these countries recently rolled out innovative programs, coupled with strong legislative and access to justice initiatives, to address it. Study Methodology: The study applied an accounting methodology to estimate the direct costs of intimate partner violence at the household and community levels. Women’s experiences of violence were measured using an adapted version of the instrument developed by WHO for the multi-country study on women’s health and domestic violence against women. Women were asked –via comprehensive questionnaires designed and locally tailored for each country - on whether they experienced physical, emotional or sexual intimate partner violence in the 12 months prior to the study, what the outcomes of each incident were, what services, if any, they used, and the amount of money they spent to access these services. This information was used to calculate the average total out-of-pocket cost of using any of these services due to intimate partner violence. In Morocco and Uganda, direct costs at the community level were calculated by using a “unit cost” method. In each sector, average total cost of providing services to a victim of intimate partner violence was multiplied by the estimated average number of victims registered in the 12 months prior to the study. In Uganda, the number of intimate partner violence cases handled by each type of service was obtained from the providers. In Morocco, it was estimated using women’s own reporting of service use due to an intimate partner violence incident in the women’s survey. In Bangladesh, the “proportionate” method was used, where the total cost of intimate partner violence to a provider is assumed to be proportionate to the share of intimate partner violence cases they receive within 12 months prior to the study. To estimate the indirect costs of intimate partner violence to households, women were asked about the work and time use-related outcomes of each incident they experienced in the 12 months prior to the study. They also were asked about the impact the incident had on the spouse and others in the household. This information was intended to be used along with wage information to estimate the value of productive time lost. Key results of the Study: Overall, the study’s cost analysis points to high out-of-pocket costs to women as well as significant costs to service providers for intimate partner violence cases. These high costs underscore the urgency of the problem not just as a human rights issue, but also as a drain on resources that can ripple through households to the community and society at large. Of interest, the study also found that women’s use of services such as those provided through health care or justice systems to be quite low relative to reported prevalence. Moreover, in Bangladesh and Uganda, the study found that women tend to access community-based conflict resolution mechanisms rather than more formal avenues of justice. And these informal systems need to be revamped to make them human-rights “friendly”. The current study only includes costs incurred as a direct result of violent incidents. However, international studies, such as the WHO study, have shown that impact of intimate partner violence on women’s lives goes well beyond injuries. The costs to society in terms of the global burden of ill health (measured by Disability Adjusted Life Years – DALY’s) and human development are enormous. : Given the evidence of the immense financial burdens posed by intimate partner violence, it is clear that the cost of violence extends beyond women to encompass their families, communities and societies. Implications for Programming and Policy: The study findings provide important programming and policy implications: i) It provides insights for policy-makers and decision makers in Bangladesh, Morocco and Uganda on the appropriate action and level of resources needed to address violence against women, particularly intimate partner violence. ii) The methodology tested and refined through the current study provides a blueprint for estimating costs of intimate partner violence in additional settings, with variations to tailor country contexts, in other countries globally. iii) Finally, data generated through such locally-designed questionnaires and that hinges on local community participation (in this case, women survivors of violence) can act as a social auditing tool to access where gaps are and where resources from donors and governments need to be targeted to comprehensively address needs of survivors of violence. *****