Title: Effective Prevention and Inclusive Responses to SGBV in Humanitarian Crises: The Healthcare Needs of LGBTI People in the Great Lakes Region of Africa
Funder: Economic and Social Research Council

Abstract: Sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) in conflict situations and humanitarian crises has reached epidemic proportions, yet the international community's response is inadequate. The UK Government (2010-15) played a leading role in challenging the culture of impunity attending SGBV, but the House of Lords Report on the Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative (PSVI) (2015) noted that legal remedies were insufficient; a survivor-centred approach was required, including strategies to promote social and cultural change (2015: 68). This report further noted that health needs must be paramount in holistic responses (Ibid: 66). The UK Government has been asked to commission research on the effectiveness of its responses in regard to LGBTI people (UK FCO, 2015: 14). This strategic network confronts and responds to the incidence of SGBV against lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people in situation of humanitarian crises across the Great Lakes Region in Africa, paying specific regard to health, including HIV infection, and access to health services. With reference to HIV specifically, the United Nations (UN) Global Fund, a multi-million dollar fund dedicated to the fight against infectious diseases, recognises the need to address marginalised groups, including LGBTI people and sex workers in combating HIV (2012). The UN Security Council has long recognised HIV risks factors in conflict-affected settings (UNSCR 1983, 2011). UN peacekeepers might be perpetrators of SGBV yet there is little dependable data on the levels of HIV in troop committing countries and inadequate training on SGBV, sexual orientation or gender identity (SOGI) for deploying troops. SGBV has implications for human rights and gender equality. However, the dominant framing and language in which SGBV is couched very often casts only women and girls as victims and so compounds the invisibility of people who do not conform to heteronormative expectations and who are, consequently, stigmatised and often criminalised. The network focuses on the needs of marginalised and stigmatised LGBTI people, impacted by conflict and humanitarian crisis in Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania. This includes populations who have been displaced, internally and across borders. Participants in the network will work at the interface between research, policy and advocacy. Thus, the network will bring together a range of expertise in conflict and humanitarian crisis, peacekeeping, human rights, SGBV, SOGI, global governance, global health, and HIV specifically, with policy-makers and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) who operate on the front line of implementation. It will generate ground-breaking ideas, supported by robust evidence, to inform practical, effective policies. The network will build on existing research, identifying gaps in current evidenced-based knowledge and pin point areas where there is a need for further research, specifically with respect to marginalised groups. It will tackle methodological issues and confront the legal, political, ethical and practical challenges attendant on meeting the healthcare needs of LGBTI people. It will contribute to the development of effective training programmes on SOGI, SGBV and health, including HIV, for UN peacekeepers deployed across this region. It will also disseminate research findings, including initial guidance on workable strategies, to legislators, policy-makers and to other change drivers, at local, national and international levels, in respect to affected and at risk LGBTI communities.


Research activity codes: 8.3 POLICY, ETHICS AND RESEARCH GOVERNANCE
Health categories: DISPUTED AETIOLOGY AND OTHER