Linking, Aligning and Convening GBV-VAC in UG Refugee Hosting Districts- Brochure

Linking, Aligning, and Convening
Gender-Based Violence and Violence Against
Children Prevention and Response Services in
Uganda’s Refugee-Hosting District
Context
Uganda hosts the third-largest refugee population in
the world—and the largest in Africa. As of May 2020,
the country was hosting 1.4 million refugees and asylum
seekers, most from South Sudan and the Democratic
Republic of Congo.*
Among the key protection concerns in Uganda’s
refugee and host communities is violence perpetrated
against women and children. Women and children comprise
82 percent of Uganda’s overall refugee population,
about 56 percent of the refugees are under 15 years
of age, and 25 percent are younger than 5. According
to the 2016 Uganda Demographic and Health Survey,
51 percent of Ugandan women between the ages of 15
and 49 experience physical violence, and 22 experience
sexual violence, in their lifetime.
Between January and November 2019, 4,297 cases
of gender-based violence (GBV) were recorded by
the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
(UNHCR) in 12 refugee settlements. And the COVID-19
pandemic has only exacerbated the risks to both refugee
and host communities.
Rapid Assessment
The Development Response to Displacement Impacts
Project (DRDIP) is a World Bank-funded project that addresses
the impacts of forced displacement on refugeehosting
communities. The DRDIP’s Project Development
Objective (PDO) is to improve access to basic social
services, expand economic opportunities, and enhance
environmental management for refugees and host communities
in targeted refugee host districts of Uganda.
In coordination with UNHCR and the Office of the
Prime Minister, DRDIP conducted a rapid assessment of
11 of the 12 refugee-hosting districts in Uganda to:
• Identify key risk factors for GBV and violence against
children (VAC) in refugee-hosting communities,
• Map existing GBV and VAC prevention response services
in both refugee and host communities, and
• Recommend ways to align and link the GBV- and
VAC-related services that are being provided in refugee
settlements and host communities.
Key findings
Risk factors
• Poverty, substance abuse, social norms regarding
discriminatory gender roles, and the acceptability of
violence.
• Domestic violence, violence in schools, and a lack of
child-friendly and accessible services to report and
respond to incidents.
• Breakdown of protective mechanisms and support
networks, post-traumatic stress following experiences
of violent events, changing gender roles, and
inadequate access to basic services.
Intersections of GBV and VAC
• Child maltreatment and partner violence often
co-occur within the same household
• Shared risk factors often mutually reinforcing.
• Widespread social acceptance of physical violence
to “discipline” women and children.
(continued)
“We have registered several cases where girls have been raped, for example, last week a girl was sent for medicines by the mother but on her
way, she was grabbed by a group of men and was raped; the rescuer was only able to get the last perpetrator yet she was still in primary school.
This was a really sad incident.”
– Female key informant, Hoima
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Inadequate prevention and response services
• Many survivors from host communities cannot
access essential services—health, psychosocial support,
justice, and safety—due to gaps in the existing
referral systems, a lack of standardized referral protocols,
poor case tracking, and limited follow-up with
survivors.
• GBV and VAC prevention and response in the
humanitarian context tends to generate parallel
structures for the provision of services, which are
not always clearly aligned or integrated with district-
and national-level protection systems.
• Prevention programs in refugee and host communities
are low-scale, fragmented, and dispersed; and
socioeconomic empowerment programs for women
and adolescent girls are few.
• GBV and child protection programming in refugee
and host communities continue to be siloed, each
with their own funding streams and actors.
“It is very common, especially for the girls.
What happens is that when she asks for help
from her father; he has nothing, the mother
has nothing. She, therefore, finds a man outside
who can offer her the money and ends up
offering him sex.”
– Female focus group participant, Adjumani
*World Bank (2019). Informing the Refugee Policy Response in Uganda.
Results from the Uganda Refugee and Host Communities 2018 Household
Survey.
**https://data2.unhcr.org/en/country/uga
Photos (from left to right): photos 1 and 2—Dorte Verner, World Bank;
photo 3: Arne Hoel, World Bank
RECOMMENDATIONS
1. Integrate GBV risk mitigation and prevention
into the development response to forced displacement.
Development projects like DRDIP
should consider any possible negative impacts
that could result from project activities or that
already exist in the community and embed
measures to mitigate GBV- and VAC-related
risks, including sexual exploitation and abuse.
Potential measures include grievance redress
mechanisms to effectively refer GBV and VAC
cases, community mobilization efforts, and project
stakeholder training on GBV and VAC risk
assessment and mitigation.
2. Strengthen and enhance multisectoral services
at all levels. Implement measures to bolster
the capacity of district and local structures
to ensure survivors’ access to quality essential
services—health care, psycho-social support,
justice and policing services, legal aid, and shelter.
Through training and mentorship, increase
capacity of GBV and child protection actors to
manage cases. Ensure that relevant institutions
are equipped with the facilities and logistical
resources they need to effectively execute their
mandates. Improve coordination and referral
mechanisms. Where possible, build the capacity
of local leaders and refugee welfare committees
to appropriately refer GBV and VAC cases.
3. Systematically scale up evidence-based
community violence prevention approaches.
Address identified risk factors through multipronged,
long-term prevention interventions,
drawing on evidence of what works. Focus on
changing the social norms underpinning VAC
and GBV, supporting the economic empowerment
of women and adolescent girls, and preventing
violence against children at school.
4. Consider and address GBV and VAC intersections.
Break the conceptual “silent spaces”
across GBV and child protection programming,
train service providers to address multiple forms
of violence, and expand existing programs to
address common risks factors.
5. Bridge the humanitarian-development divide
between GBV and child protection programs.
In line with the 2017 Comprehensive Refugee
Response Framework, reduce the gap between
the humanitarian and development responses
for addressing GBV- and VAC-related risks
through deliberate efforts at aligning violence
prevention and response interventions with
national systems and local structures. The
framework offers entry points and opportunities
for humanitarian and development actors to
work together in developing a more integrated
and sustainable approach to GBV and VAC prevention
and response.
Download the full report: https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/34494
Printed copies are available by request.
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