Attachments
Author: Claire Laurent
Introduction
Background Information
The conflict in South Sudan expanded to the southern parts of the country in July 2016, which led to an influx of refugees in Northern Uganda. Uganda hosts 1.5 mill. refugees in total, many live in refugee settlements. The four largest settlements in West Nile are Bidi Bidi, Palorinya, Rhino and Imvepi, with numbers of refugees ranging from 60,000 to more than 240,000. According to a report of the World Bank and Uganda Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) on gender-based violence (GBV) in Uganda from 2020, more than 80% of the refugees and asylum seekers in Uganda are women and children. During the conflict, violence against women and girls such as the abduction of girls and the use of rape as a weapon of war was used. Women and girls fleeing to Uganda reported sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) “to have taken place throughout the route of migration within South Sudan itself as well as when crossing the border”.
Refugees in the Bidi Bidi and Imvepi settlement are mainly from South Sudan and currently only few return to South Sudan. New arrivals are verified by UNHCR and the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) in Uganda. The borders of Uganda were closed with a few exceptions in March 2020 to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. Uganda is known for its exemplary refugee protection environment, providing refugees with freedom of movement, the right to work and to establish businesses, access to social services, as well as allocation of plots of land for shelter and agricultural production. Since 2017, the coordination of the refugee response has been organized within the Uganda Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework (CRRF) in coordination with the OPM. The CRRF is a multi-stakeholder coordination model on refugee matters focusing on humanitarian and development needs of both refugees and host communities. The Uganda National Action Plan (NAP) to implement the Global Compact on Refugees and its Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework 2018 – 2020 is also an important roadmap for any stakeholder implementing humanitarian/development interventions.
Despite existing policies and frameworks on gender equality and gender-based violence, Uganda ranked 131st on the Gender Inequality Index in 2019, placing it in the bottom-third. Men and male youth in both Ugandan and refugee contexts are the main decision-makers at household, community and national level. Unemployment is a challenge for all genders. However, most women continue to work in the informal sector and are responsible for most of the unpaid care work. Inequitable gender norms are still hindering many women and girls from making decisions.
Almost a third (31%) of Uganda’s households are female-headed, and these households generally experience lower productivity.
The Government of Uganda (GoU) implemented different measures during the COVID-19 pandemic, including restrictions on movement, lockdown measures, requirements for Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to access services or participate in decision-making forums. These measures have had several impacts, including increased tensions between host communities and refugees, reduced access to key services such as sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services, social stigma, increased SGBV, and distress due to physical distancing measures.
The Gender Analysis Objectives
This Gender Analysis has been conducted in the framework of the ADA-funded triple nexus project called “Strengthening Conflict and gender sensitive Community Resilience in protracted crisis” (SCCR), that will be implemented in Bidi Bidi and Imvepi settlements from December 2021 until May 2024. The objectives of the analysis are the following:
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To analyse and understand the current realities for women, men, girls and boys in Imvepi and Bidi Bidi settlements and their current needs and capacities from a gendered lens;
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To inform the programming of the SCCR project in Imvepi and Bidi Bidi settlements based on the different needs of men, boys and women and girls in particular.