Measuring Gender- Based Violence, Towards improved services for victims in Samoa.

Abstract

Combating gender-based violence (GBV) and providing services for victims requires a multi-sectoral approach to data collections as well as service provision. This paper reviews definitions and approaches to GBV and the sources of data in Samoa. It argues that data collection by different agencies should be improved and suggest that the Samoa Bureau of Statistics should be given the resources and responsibility for gathering relevant data from the Ministry of Justice and Courts, and the Ministry of Health on an annual basis and providing a summary report for the use of the various stake holders in government and non-government sectors to ensure continuity of policy development and provision of programmes.