Amid growing concern over U.S. public health funding cuts, experts at Washington University in St. Louis warn that pulling support from key data systems could erase decades of progress in protecting women and children from violence.
In a letter published June 7 in The Lancet, first author Lindsay Stark, a professor at the WashU School of Public Health, and other scholars argued that recent U.S. funding decisions are putting the world’s most vital violence prevention tools at risk. These include the Violence Against Children and Youth Surveys (VACS) and the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) — rigorous, population-based data systems that inform global strategies to end violence, monitor progress and direct resources where they are needed most.
The authors wrote that nearly one in three women globally — approximately 736 million — has been a victim of physical or sexual violence from an intimate partner, non-partner, or both at least once in their lifetime. Estimates suggest 1 billion children — over half the world’s children — experience some form of violence or neglect each year. “These staggering figures are only visible because of decades of investment in careful, ethical, on-the-ground data collection,” Stark said.
Unlike police investigations, which rely on victims to report crimes, VACS and DHS are pro-active, confidential surveys that reach deep into communities to uncover abuse that otherwise would remain invisible. Conducted in low- and middle-income countries, the surveys involve trained interviewers who privately speak with randomly selected women, adolescents and children.