ISTANBUL - SAS and UNFPA’s Regional Office for Eastern Europe and Central Asia are joining forces to work on preventing gender based violence, one of the most prevalent human rights violations in the world.

SAS, a global leader in analytics, will use technology and the help of data scientists across the CEMEA region to create data-based solutions for preventing violence. UNFPA will contribute expertise and experience from its extensive field work on preventing and responding to gender-based violence, as well as the applicable international standards, including on data confidentiality and human rights and survivor centered approaches. The initiative was launched at SAS’s “C’s Club” which gathers executives across Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East, Africa and Russia, who are invited to contribute to the program.

“We’re very excited about this initiative. It brings together SAS’s powerful data analytics with UNFPA’s expertise on combating gender based violence. With this new partnership we’re hoping to find new ways of using data and analytics to end one of the most pervasive human rights violations: the violence women and girls are exposed to simply because of their gender,” says Alanna Armitage, Director of UNFPA’s Regional Office for Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

Gender based violence knows no social, economic, or national boundaries. Worldwide, an estimated one in three women (30%) have experienced physical or sexual violence, according to World Health Organization data.

Gender-based violence also has adverse economic impact. It has been estimated that globally the cost of violence against women could amount to around 2 per cent of global GDP. This is equivalent to 1.5 trillion dollars, approximately the size of the economy of Canada.

Gender-based violence has a severe physical and psychological impact, and the majority of incidents are never reported to the police or other institutions. Identifying the scale of the problem and having quality data is the first step towards tackling it. Scattered information across institutions requires intensive manual work which often takes too long, causing late reactions by the responsible institutions. More efficient and secure decision-making, to be able to attend to the most severe cases, faster and with the necessary resources can accelerate the prevention of violence.

“Violence against women is not a new topic for SAS. We have been working closely with the Ministry of the Interior in Spain, and its Gender Violence Unit, to incorporate advanced analytics and artificial intelligence in the fight against violence. It shows that data analytics has the potential to improve people's lives. We hope we can cooperate with stakeholders across the region and help build safer societies,” says Shukri Dabaghi, Regional Vice President, SAS CEMEA.

SAS is committed to continually improving the lives of citizens through Data for Good initiatives, by providing cutting-edge technologies and support in the arduous task of analyzing large amounts of data. By automating processes, technology allows for more efficient and coordinated work of different institutions such as law enforcement agencies, judicial bodies, and social services. Ultimately, it contributes to building trust and creating safer communities.

About UNFPA

UNFPA is the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency. UNFPA's mission is to deliver a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe and every young person's potential is fulfilled. UNFPA has set out to achieve three world-changing results by 2030: Zero unmet need for family planning, zero preventable maternal death, and zero gender-based violence.

About SAS

SAS is the leader in analytics. Through innovative software and services, SAS empowers and inspires customers around the world to transform data into intelligence. SAS gives you THE POWER TO KNOW®.