Responding to violence against women: WHO's multicountry study on women's health and domestic violence

The World Health Organization (WHO), in response to the lack of data on the magnitude and nature of violence against women, initiated a multicountry study on women's health and domestic violence. The WHO study, implemented in eight countries, was the first global effort to gather reliable and comparable data on domestic violence and women's health across countries. The study also demonstrates how carefully developed and applied research can act as a useful intervention at many levels of society and government and for all participants, researchers as well as respondents. The study further illustrates how partnering with researchers and women's organizations to collect evidence of the magnitude, consequences, and determinants of domestic violence can help strengthen national efforts to address violence against women and can act as a facilitating force for change.