Evaluation of UNFPA Support to the Prevention of, Response to and Elimination of Gender-based Violence and Harmful Practices 2012-2017: Asia & Pacific Regional Case Study

There are 23 programme countries in the UNFPA Asia Pacific (AP) region covered by a Regional Office in Bangkok, Thailand, and a Sub-Regional Office for the Pacific countries (PSRO) based in Suva, Fiji.

Asia and the Pacific is the world’s fastest growing region, but with uneven levels of growth and human development across the sub-regions of South Asia, South-East Asia, and the Pacific. In recent years, economic growth in the Pacific – in particular – has been relatively low, erratic and inequitable. Economic successes have not translated into development gains for all, as the region’s widening economic and social inequities testify. Over the last two decades, the Gini coefficient for developing countries in Asia and the Pacific rose from 0.39 to 0.46, further widening the gulf between the poor and affluent populations, and testing the limits of social cohesion. Employment growth has lagged far behind gross domestic product growth, especially among young people. In short, Asia has had consistently high, but non-inclusive, growth.

In most countries of the region, women are much more likely to have experienced intimate partner violence, than to have experienced physical or sexual violence by someone other than a partner. The proportion of women who have reported the experience of physical or sexual violence by an intimate partner in their lifetime, ranges from 15 percent in Japan and Lao PDR, to 68 percent in Kiribati and Papua New Guinea. The proportion of women who have reported the experience of physical or sexual violence by an intimate partner in the past 12 months, ranges from four percent in Japan, to 46 percent in Timor-Leste. Samoa and Tonga differ from other countries, in that women are more likely to have experienced physical violence by perpetrators other than partners, such as by family members or teachers.

This case study is part of a global evaluation that is framed by Collaborative Outcomes Reporting Technique (CORT) and complemented by a portfolio analysis. The regional case study is a contribution to the overall CORT evidence, and is validated by a reference group to support participatory analysis and interpretation of the performance story for UNFPA in a given context.