Costing Violence against Women and Girls in Asia and the Pacific: A Snapshot
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This document summarizes costing efforts related to violence against women and girls (VAW/G) in several Asian and Pacific countries. It describes initiatives in India, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Pacific Island nations to calculate the economic costs of VAW/G. The studies used methods like impact costing, unit costing, and gender-responsive budgeting. While challenges exist, the costing exercises helped advocate for more resources to address VAW/G by highlighting funding gaps. Lessons indicated using multiple methods and recognizing limitations, but that any costing provides useful evidence for policymaking.
Costing Violence against Women and Girls in Asia and the Pacific: A Snapshot
- 1. Costing Violence against Women and Girls in Asia and the Pacific: A Snapshot Bolivia, 2013
- 2. Costing Efforts in Asia-Pacific: Diverse Initiatives • Locations: India, Cambodia, Viet Nam, Indonesia, Timor-Leste, Pacific Island countries (Marshall Islands, Cook Islands and Palau) – Other countries in planning phase: Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan… • Key actors: UN agencies (UNiTE Campaign in particular), and CSOs • Partnerships: Ministries of Finance, Women’s Ministries, CSOs and UN/IDA • Catalysts: Persistent challenges with implementation; recent passage of VAW laws or NAPs; – Only 5/39 countries have NAPVAWs (Unite Campaign)
- 3. Costing Case Study One: Viet Nam • Impact costing methodology • 1,053 women in 7 provinces and cities • As initial starting point for the cost estimation, in the Vietnam study we focused on economic costs • Household level – Direct out of pocket expenses for accessing services – time, transport, fees, materials – Cost of children missing school – Loss of earnings – missed days of paid work, – Loss of housework - days (time) unable to do housework • Community level – Cost of service provision • National Level – Aggregate opportunity cost – Productivity Loss
- 4. Costing Case Study One: Viet Nam Results • VAW/G survivors earn ~35% less than those not abused • Direct costs of VAW/G = ~28% of monthly income • Total direct/indirect costs = ~1.4% of 2010 GDP • Total productivity losses + potential opportunity costs = ~3% of GDP Lessons Learnt • Household level costing of monetary costs feasible, despite the challenges • Need further development of methodologies to value non- monetary costs • Cost of service provision more difficult • Women do remember – if start with most recent and go back in time • Establishing monetary costs would provide useful database
- 5. Costing Case Study Two: India • Mix of methodologies • Law enacted in 2005 (PWDVA) but with no budget provisions • Women’s rights groups across the country lapped up costing work • Leveraging right to information act to get costs
- 6. Gathering Information on Budgets for PWDVA Three questions asked: 1. What is the budgetary allocation for the implementation of the PWDVA? 2. What was the basis were the bases for budgetary allocation for the implementation of the Domestic Violence Act? Please provide copies of the meeting minutes. 3. Please provide me the copies of the budget and expenditure incurred for the 2008-2009 for implementation of the DV Act. Interestingly NO response to the second question.
- 7. The costs we compute • Unit of Protection Officer at the Block level (Recurring and Non Recurring Expenses) • Coordinator at the Provincial Level • Service providers • Training and Capacity Building • Awareness Generation • Monitoring and Evaluation Impact of costs computed • Media highlighted the absence of any provision and ad hoc provisions by majority of Provincial Govts. • Provinces writing to the Federal Govt.to allocate resources • Out of the 33 States & UTs, 13 already had State Plan scheme for implementation of DV Act. Rest 20 did not have dedicated resources. • A scheme drafted to allocate resources for the PWDVA (Token allocation in Budget 2012-13 of 20 crore, next year went up to upto 67.5 crore). • But money not getting spent! India Costing: Lessons Learned
- 8. Costing Case Study Three: Pacific Island Countries COOK ISLANDS • Assess cost of implementing draft Family Law Bill • Produced two budgeting options MARSHALL ISLANDS • Assess cost of implementing Domestic Violence Prevention & Protection Act • Produced costs per ministry for 3 fiscal years (FY 2013-FY 2015) (done by UNDP Pacific Centre)
- 9. Methodology 1. Identification of cost-generating elements in the law; translating them into activities, services, resources. 2. Mapping of services, infrastructure, resources that already exist 3. Identification of gaps and quantification of costs to implement legislation (3-year period); including no-cost items 4. Put into context of impact of GBV on national economy (approximate conclusion);
- 11. Cook Islands: • “The costing exercise put an end to the dreaming, guessing, and estimating” • Brought Ministries together to address implementation jointly • Police successfully used it to receive additional resources in domestic violence unit • Justice Ministry used it as basis to make case for separate family court • Internal Affairs Ministry used it for budgeting of a child & family unit. Marshall Islands - Ministry of Internal Affairs: • Used costing exercise for budget appropriation procedure • Did not receive all the funding; but secured 30’000 in first year, out of 52’000 envisaged under the costing • Have taken creative approach to include some costs in other activities where budget exists (child protection) • Have looked at sharing costs with NGO and other Ministries for activities • Have shared costing exercise with donors and development partners and continue to use costing exercise to lobby them for assistance. Process ongoing. Pacific Island Costing: Lessons Learned
- 12. So what have we learned? Methodogies: What worked? • Impact costing • Measures the socio-economic impact of VAW/G and main agents bearing its costs • Unit costing • Calculates individual cost for particular goods or services • Gender-responsive budgeting (GRB) • Examines government budgets and funding sources No one-size-fits all methodology, mix and fluidity of methodologies common.Equally important were the “quick and dirty” exercises.
- 13. So what have we learned? Some challenges: • Structural differences - Help seeking behaviour of women - Centrality of the household as a unit of production • How to address the “quality of services” question • Data related challenges: - Quality of survey data - Differential analysis - Use and appropriateness of proxy variables - Full cost, average cost and marginal cost - Total burden on the system: incidence vs. prevalence • Lack of transparency in budget documents
- 14. So what have we learned? Some Insights… • Don’t wait for the perfect methodology! Weigh limitations against importance of building evidence and potential advocacy benefits. • Results not always surprising, but important to document. • Significant out-of-pocket costs for survivors and other actors in EVAW • Primary role of NGOs in EVAW • Lack of budget transparency • Gaps and overlaps in funding, lack of coordination • Need to continue piloting and fine-tuning methodologies, building evidence-base • All of these approaches can provide a “piece of the puzzle” and contribute towards our collective goal of EVAW • Getting money allocated not good enough, money needs to be spent too!
- 15. Thank you
Editor's Notes
- #3: Progress on EVAW across the region: More public awareness-raising campaigns, new efforts to collect VAW data, and passage of VAW-related laws and policies26 countries in AP have VAW laws in place or drafted, or VAW is explicitly addressed in a current law; 27 countries in AP have NAPs in place or drafted which address VAW.But, still much work to be done:EMPHASIZE:Implementation of VAW laws and policies has remained a challenge region-wide. This includes implementation around the provision of services, but also around the justice sector, ensuring access to justice for survivors and prosecution of perpetrators.In particular, adequate and sufficient budgeting to ensure such implementation has been an outstanding challenge.Many laws and policies do not have budgets attached, and there is a persistent lack of clarity around who across sectors is responsibly for providing what service or covering what costs (e.g. psycho-social counseling, safe houses). In this lack of clarity, delivery and support for the survivor falls short.
- #14: 1. Structural – In developing countries, women’s help seeking behaviour is significantly different than that of developed countries. Service utlisation as a result of IPV is lower. When women do use services, they seem to prefer informal, traditional systems of help over formal systems. Thus, when calculating direct costs, the costs that stem from the use of both formal and informal services need to be taken into account. Secondly, in many developing countries, a large portion of economic activity carried by women takes place in the household. When they work outside home, they tend to hold informal jobs. The extent of household based productive and reproductive work implies that a significant portion of the indirect costs due to loss of productivity can only be captured with a detailed activity and time use survey and valuation methods. 3. Although institutionalised services may be more likely to keep records, women’s usage of these services is limited and traditional institutions are less likely to keep records.