New gender data collection tool launched

Health CAS Dr Mercy Mwangangi (second - right) launches the new initiative. [Jenipher Wachie, Standard]

The National Gender and Equality Commission (NGEC) has launched a new initiative for collecting data on gender-based violence (GBV).

The initiative, which is a partnership with Equity Now, is in response to the government’s commitment number five made under The Generation Equality Forum (GEF).

The commitment aimed at developing a GBV management and information system by 2022.

The revised Monitoring, Evaluation, Research, and Learning (MERL) framework now goes hand in hand with the existing Sexual and Gender-Based Violence Information System.

It will capture and integrate GBV data from the National Police Service, the Judiciary, the Office of Director of Public Persecution and the Health and Education sectors.

Dr Mercy Mwangangi said the launch was timely ahead of the 2022 elections.

“It is important to recognise the season and the risks involved in terms of GBV. GBV has been a brutal feature of elections in Kenya since the 1990s. Despite robust laws and strengthened institutions in response to GBV, data through the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights showed that we have 201 cases occurring in 11 counties as of the most recent elections in 2017," said Mwangangi.

She said the system would give Kenyans more credible data to help quantify and qualify problems, inform policies and design programmes based on evidence.

Betty Sungura, NGEC secretary, said reported cases from the police, treated cases of GBV in hospitals, and prosecuted cases in the office director of public persecution will provide the avenue for data collection.

She said that GBV data collected will then inform policies and effectively evaluate the framework for the prevention of and response to such incidents in Kenya.