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“The gender-based violence administrative database for Chuuk Women’s Council will enable their staff to collect data to influence policy reforms or develop strategies to address violence against women and girls.”

Arti Devi, Database Officer for Pacific Women Lead at SPC programme, explains how crisis centres adopting administrative databases to track volumes of women being counselled as well as identify trends to assist support services, survivors, lawmakers and others address violence against women and girls.

In her role, Arti oversees the data management support to the programme and its partners including the only crisis service in Federated States of Micronesia, Tongen Inepwineu Counseling Center (TICC) run by the Chuuk Women’s Council (CWC) in Chuuk State. She is also currently designing a database for Women United Together Marshall Islands (WUTMI) and its Weto in Mour counselling service.

The Gender-based Violence (GBV) administrative database is designed as a data management tool for crisis centres moving from basic, paper-based documentation of client information to a consolidated, data-focused electronic approach.

“This database has been set up to complement their services and also provide very clear indicators for them to be able to track, if there’s a repeat counselling session, how often does this particular client come in, and other details,” Arti said.

This database approach is known to assist crisis centres better track their cases, identify trends, and capture overall volumes of violence against women and girls (VAWG) compared to the documentation of client information on paper.

When used in community awareness, VAWG data has proven in several cases, to make women in Chuuk realise the large scale of the problem and to subsequently decide to report domestic violence.

“It can also assist organisations like Pacific Women Lead design future programmes based on evidence,” she said.

About Pacific Women Lead 

One of the largest global commitments to gender equality, Pacific Women Lead aims to promote women’s leadership, realise women’s rights, and increase the effectiveness of regional gender equality efforts.

The Pacific Women Lead (PWL) programme at the Pacific Community (SPC), termed PWL at SPC, has more than AUD 55 million dedicated to its work under the Australian Government’s AUD 170 million Pacific Women Lead portfolio. This partnership with the Australian Government commits SPC to deliver the PWL programme, as the cornerstone for the portfolio.