Reintegrating and Employing High Risk Youth in Liberia: Lessons from a Randomized Evaluation of a Landmine Action an Agricultural Training Program for Ex-Combatants

Following the 2011 elections, one of the most pressing challenges for the President, government ministries and international organizations will be boosting youth incomes and employment, especially that of high-risk youth. What kinds of programs can boost employment and incomes and reduce the risk of social instability? This report details findings from an impact evaluation of a reintegration and agricultural livelihoods program for high-risk Libe-rian youth, and draws out lessons for employment policies in 2012 and beyond. This report builds on recent IPA studies of rural conflict resolution and civic education programs, and analysis of conflict trends and patterns in Liberia. Future IPA reports will look at innovative programs for urban youth

Exploring opportunities for coordinated responses to intimate partner violence and child maltreatment in low and middle income countries: a scoping review.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) and child maltreatment (CM) by a parent or caregiver are prevalent and overlapping issues with damaging consequences for those affected. This scoping review aimed to identify opportunities for greater coordination between IPV and CM programmes in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). Nine bibliographic databases were searched and grey literature was identified through the scoping review team. Eligible studies were published in English; described primary prevention programmes in LMIC that addressed IPV and CM, or addressed one form of violence, but reported outcomes for the other; reported IPV and CM outcomes; and evaluated with any study design. Six studies were identified published between 2013 and 2016 (four randomised controlled trials, one pre-post non-randomised study and one qualitative study). Programmes were based in South Africa (2), Uganda, (2), Liberia (1) and Thailand (1). All except one were delivered within parenting programmes. The emphasis on gender norms varied between programmes. Some parenting programmes addressed gender inequity indirectly by promoting joint decision-making and open communication between caregivers. Conclusions are tentative due to the small evidence base and methodological weaknesses. More robust evaluations are needed. Improved coherence between IPV and CM programmes requires equal attention to the needs of women and children, and the involvement of fathers when it is safe to do so

Truly reconciled? A dyadic analysis of post-conflict social reintegration in Northern Uganda

In the aftermath of civil war or violent internal conflict, one of the key peacebuilding challenges is the reconciliation of former enemies who are members of the same small-scale societies. A failure of social reintegration may contribute to what is known as a conflict trap. To detect lingering hostile attitudes among a community’s various factions is crucial, but the approaches adopted in previous studies tend to focus on the impact of conflict on one or other aggregated indicator of social cohesion rather than on how violence-affected individuals regard and act towards their fellow community members. Here we demonstrate the value of concentrating on this latter dyadic component of social interactions and we use behavioural experiments and a social tie survey to assess, in an appropriately disaggregated manner, social cohesion in a post-conflict setting in northern Uganda. Whereas in self-reported surveys, ex-combatants appear to be well-connected, active members of their communities, the experiments unveil the continued reluctance of other community members to share or cooperate with them; fewer resources are committed to ex-combatants than to others, which is statistically significant. The dyadic nature of our analysis allows us to detect which groups are more prone to discriminate against ex-combatants, which may help facilitate targeted interventions

Maintenance of intervention effects: long-term outcomes for participants in a group talk-therapy trial in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Abstract Background Despite the growth of psychotherapy trials in low- and middle-income countries, there have been limited follow-up studies of more than 2 years. This study follows up female sexual violence survivors approximately 6 years after completing a 12-session group cognitive processing therapy (CPT) program in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Methods Baseline trial data were collected in December 2010 from 134 women in 7 study villages randomly allocated to CPT. Study women were over 18 years, reported personally experiencing or witnessing sexual violence, and reported elevated depression, anxiety and/or posttraumatic stress symptoms. Women were followed up (1) post-treatment (6-months after baseline); (2) 6 months later; (3) 12 months later; and (4) in March 2017 (6.3 years after baseline). At the long-term follow-up, 103 women (77%) in 6 of 7 CPT villages were re-assessed; one village was not visited due to ongoing insecurity. Results We found strong continued intervention effects; nearly all women maintained treatment impacts over the first two years; at long-term follow-up, approximately half continued to maintain low symptom scores. Relapse rates for probable PTSD and probable depression and anxiety were 20%. Conclusions This study extends prior research to show that treatment impacts can be maintained for several years despite experiences of ongoing trauma. The women described continuing to meet with the women in their therapy group and using the skills they learned in the psychotherapy, providing evidence of the potential for these programs to provide valuable social supports and skills that people use as they continue to face adversity

Working with men to prevent intimate partner violence in a conflict-affected setting: a pilot cluster randomized controlled trial in rural Côte d’Ivoire

Evidence from armed conflict settings points to high levels of intimate partner violence (IPV) against women. Current knowledge on how to prevent IPV is limited—especially within war-affected settings. To inform prevention programming on gender-based violence in settings affected by conflict, we evaluated the impact of adding a targeted men’s intervention to a community-based prevention programme in Côte d’Ivoire

A local approach to peace in Torit, south Sudan

While the Comprehensive Peace Agreement is the foundation on which Sudan can grow as a peaceful nation, there is an urgent need to complement institutional reforms with sustainable bottom-up approaches to peace. A school in eastern Equatoria is showing the way

Predicting Stress Related to Basic Needs and Safety in Darfur Refugee Camps: A Structural and Social Ecological Analysis

The research on the determinants of mental health among refugees has been largely limited to traumatic events, but recent work has indicated that the daily hassles of living in refugee camps also play a large role. Using hierarchical linear modelling to account for refugees nested within camp blocks, this exploratory study attempted to model stress surrounding safety and acquiring basic needs and functional impairment among refugees from Darfur living in Chad, using individual-level demographics (e.g., gender, age, presence of a debilitating injury), structural factors (e.g., distance from block to distribution centre), and social ecological variables (e.g., percentage of single women within a block). We found that stress concerning safety concerns, daily hassles, and functional impairment were associated with several individual-level demographic factors (e.g., gender), but also with interactions between block-level and individual-level factors as well (e.g., injury and distance to distribution centre). Findings are discussed in terms of monitoring and evaluation of refugee services

The risk of return: Intimate partner violence in Northern Uganda's armed conflict

The physical and psychological consequences of armed conflict and intimate partner violence are well documented. Less research focuses on their intersection and the linkages between domestic violence, gender-based discrimination, and the structural violence of poverty in armed conflict. This paper describes emerging themes from qualitative interviews with young women who have returned from abduction into the Lord's Resistance Army in northern Uganda, many of whom were forcibly given as "wives" to commanders. Their interviews reveal multiple levels of violence that some women experience in war, including physical and sexual violence in an armed group, verbal and physical abuse from extended family members, and intimate partner violence. Striking is the violence they describe after escaping from the rebels, when they are back with their families. The interviews point to how abduction into the armed group may exacerbate problems but highlight the structural factors that permit and sustain intimate partner violence, including gender inequalities, corruption in the police system, and devastating poverty. Findings suggest that decreasing household violence will depend on the strength of interventions to address all levels, including increasing educational and economic opportunities, increasing accountability of the criminal justice system, minimizing substance abuse, and improving the coping mechanisms of families and individuals exposed to extreme violence.Uganda Gender Armed conflict Women War Violence Domestic violence Intimate partner violence (IPV)