Building the Evidence Base: 10 Years of Research on Violence Against Women and Children in Timor-Leste

Since 2015, Equality Institute has partnered with The Asia Foundation’s Nabilan Program – a partnership between the Australian Government and the Timor-Leste Government – to build a robust evidence base on violence against women and children.

From leading the first-ever nationally representative study on violence against women (VAW) and men’s perpetration in Timor-Leste, to conducting secondary analysis on violence against children (VAC), and now returning a decade later to measure change, our research has helped shape policy, programming, and national strategies to prevent and respond to violence. 

The Challenge

In Timor-Leste, violence against women and violence against children are both widespread, yet for many years they were treated as separate issues. Data was limited, siloed, and often lacked the scope to guide comprehensive policy and prevention. Policymakers and practitioners urgently needed a stronger evidence base to understand how violence manifests, how it changes over time, and how to design integrated responses that address root causes and interconnected harms. 

The Solution

• 2015–2016: EQI provided technical support and led the data analysis of The Asia Foundation’s Nabilan Baseline Study — the first dedicated, nationally representative prevalence study on VAW in Timor-Leste, and the first to collect survey data on men’s perpetration of violence. Deliverables included a full research report, summary, and four factsheets on specific findings. 

• 2021–2022: Commissioned by The Asia Foundation, EQI conducted secondary analysis of the Baseline data, focusing on VAC and its links to adult health and experiences/perpetration of violence. Outputs included a report and two evidence briefs. 

• 2025–2026: EQI is again partnering with The Asia Foundation, the Secretariat of State for Equality, and the National Directorate of Statistics to lead a follow-up prevalence study to explore what has changed. This includes two qualitative pieces of research (on women with disabilities’ experiences of violence; and on technology-facilitated GBV), as well as a quantitative study on the national prevalence of women’s experiences of VAW and on men’s perpetration of VAW. 

The Impact

This decade-long collaboration has supported Timor-Leste with a stronger evidence base on violence against women and children. The findings have shown: 

• The deep interconnection between VAC and VAW, and the need for integrated prevention approaches. 

• Insights that continue to shape government policy, donor priorities, and frontline programming. 

And they’ve helped to provide national-level indicators for reporting on Timor-Leste’s progress towards its National Action Plan on GBV. 

By returning ten years after the first Baseline, EQI and partners are not only documenting change but also strengthening accountability to ensure that violence prevention efforts in Timor-Leste are informed, evidence-driven, and impactful.