Ending Violence against Women and Children in Asia and the Pacific
Opportunities and Challenges for Collaborative and Integrative Approaches
Highlights
Violence against children and violence against women is prevalent across East Asia and the Pacific.
Although the fields of violence against children (VAC) and violence against women (VAW) historically developed separately, the international community has paid growing attention to intersections between these forms of violence, including shared risk factors, common underlying social norms, co-occurrence, intergenerational effects, common and compounding consequences, and adolescence as a time of vulnerability to and opportunity for prevention of both VAC and VAW. These multiple and complex links suggest that greater collaboration across those working on VAC and VAW policies and programmes. However, while evidence about intersections among drivers, risk factors, and consequences of VAW and VAC has grown in recent years, knowledge about how policies, programs, and services should respond to these intersections is still preliminary. Important questions remain unanswered about how to strengthen a coordinated approach to addressing VAC and VAW.
Recognizing the need for greater collaboration in this area, UNICEF East Asia and Pacific Regional Office (EAPRO), UNFPA Asia Pacific Regional Office (APRO), and UN WOMEN Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (ROAP) partnered on a regional, multi-country initiative in Cambodia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines and Viet Nam to explore opportunities and challenges for better coordination, integration and collaboration for VAW and VAC policies, action plans, programs and services, focusing on violence that occurs within spaces and relationships of trust (e.g., intimate or dating relationships, family violence, school violence).
This regional report provides a synthesis of findings of the four country studies and, building on these findings, presents opportunities for strengthening the inter-linkages between sectors and actors working on VAW and VAC.
