Girlhood, Violence, and Humanitarian Assistance

Citation:

Namuggala, Victoria Flavia. 2018. "Girlhood, Violence, and Humanitarian Assistance." In Childhood, Youth Identity, and Violence in Formerly Displaced Communities in Uganda, 107-37. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.

Author: Victoria Flavia Namuggala

Abstract:

This chapter concentrates on humanitarian assistance as a major component of survival during situations of displacement. Despite its contribution in saving lives, humanitarian assistance has its own controversies especially from the perspective of the beneficiaries. My discussion centers on such complexities concentrating on young women in northern Uganda. To bring this out clearly, I examine the nature of aid provided and how recipients conceptualize it, the gendered experiences involved and the sociocultural dynamics that inform the implementation of humanitarian assistance. I conclude that humanitarian assistance at times facilitates violence against young women characterized by starvation, sexual violence, survival sex, early and forced marriages, and increased spread of HIV/AIDS. This is due to operation through cultural patriarchal structures that sustain power hierarchies in favor of men.

Topics: Age, Youth, Displacement & Migration, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Patriarchy, Health, HIV/AIDS, Humanitarian Assistance, Sexual Violence, Violence Regions: Africa, East Africa Countries: Uganda

Year: 2018