‘If they beat you and your children have eaten, that is fine…’ intersections of poverty, livelihoods and violence against women and girls in the Karamoja Region, Uganda

Abstract

Violence against women and girls (VAWG) is a common occurrence, but the daily struggles to meet survival needs take precedence over rights, entitlements and freedoms. As such, violence against women and girls thrives on deprivation, poverty, acceptance and concealment coupled with women’s dependence on men and male-dominated decision-making in most spheres of life. Even with increased awareness about VAWG, there was a fear to lose ‘care’ among women and custody over their children, which kept violence unreported and hidden. In practice, for policies and programmes to be effective, the multiple vulnerabilities of being female, mothers, poor, illiterate, married and the limitations on access and control over household and communal resources as intersectionalities need to be addressed. It is important for policy makers and programme implementers to continuously develop and adapt interventions and approaches considering the multilayered lived experiences of women and girls that expose them to and sustain violence.