Gender-Based Violence and Armed Conflict: A Community-Informed Socioecological Conceptual Model From Northeastern Uganda

Abstract

The high prevalence of gender-based violence (GBV) in armed conflict has been documented in various national contexts, but less is known about the complex pathways that constitute the relation between the two. Employing a community-based collaborative approach, we constructed a community-informed socioecological conceptual model from a feminist perspective, detailing how armed conflict relates to GBV in a conflict-affected rural community in Northeastern Uganda. The research questions were as follows: (1) How does the community conceptualize GBV? and (2) How does armed conflict relate to GBV? Nine focus group discussions divided by gender, age, and profession and six key informant interviews were conducted. Participants' ages ranged from 9 to 80 years (n =34 girls/women, n = 43 boys/men). Grounded theory was used in analysis. Participants conceptualized eight forms of and 22 interactive variables that contributed to GBV. Armed conflict affected physical violence/quarreling, sexual violence, early marriage, and land grabbing via a direct pathway and four indirect pathways initiated through looting of resources, militarization of the community, death of a parent(s) or husband, and sexual violence. The findings suggest that community, organizational, and policy-level interventions, which include attention to intersecting vulnerabilities for exposure to GBV in conflict-affected settings, should be prioritized. While tertiary psychological interventions with women and girls affected by GBV in these areas should not be eliminated, we suggest that policy makers and members of community and organizational efforts make systemic and structural changes. Online slides for instructors who want to use this article for teaching are available on PWQ's website at http://journals.sagepub.com/page/pwq/suppl/index.

Keywords: Uganda; armed conflict; community-based approach; gender-based violence; socioecological model.

Figure 1

Community-informed conceptual diagram of how armed conflict relates to gender-based violence in Northeastern Uganda. Note. (S) = societal variable; (C) = community variable; (R) = relational variable; (I) = individual variable;/= paired with; ▭ = contributing variable; ⬭ = form of GBV; GBV = gender-based violence.