"Why mapping and for what purposes?

The field of violence against women is a very broad field. It covers various forms of violence, from domestic violence to forced sterilization; from rape to early marriages, and so on. Also the ways in which violence against women is addressed are numerous: laws, criminal charges, support of victims, awareness-rising. And many organisations a role in addressing VAW: government, police, NGOs.

This wide range of topics and activities means that there is a lot of information on violence against women. Information on the prevalence (what forms are existing and how often does it occur), on the interventions (what is being done to address it), and the actors (who is doing what).
NGOs which work on violence against women do make use of this kind of information. For reporting, for strategic planning and for advocacy. However, it is not always easy to collect and structure the information in a way that is most useful.

The question is to find the kind and amount of information that is necessary, without doing time
consuming in-depth research. That is where mapping can be useful. By mapping information, you are not doing your own (in-depth-research), but make an inventory of the information that is available, by listing the sources of information, and structure the main findings.

This mapping tool will help the users to make this list and structure the information, and by doing so to get an overview of both the nature and scale of the prevalence of violence against women in its various forms, and the existing and lacking interventions to address it.

The results of the mapping - the overview- can be used for several purposes, like reporting, strategic choice of focus on a topic or an intervention, but also for setting an agenda for further research or for topics to be addressed..."

By: Margreet de Boer

The tool has been developed by Aim for human rights / Rights4Change, with financial support of Cordaid.