Implementing participatory-action research to explore the impact of COVID on war-affected disabled populations, including ex-child soldiers, in Uganda
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Bristol
Department Name: Law
Abstract
The conflict in Northern Uganda, which destabilised the region between 1986-2006, saw large-scale violence and attacks carried out against the Acholi people, which has resulted in a sizeable war-disabled population, including former child soldiers who were abducted and forced to serve in the conflict under the Lord's Resistance Army. Persons with disabilities (PWD hereafter) make up 13% of the Ugandan population, though this percentage is higher in the war-affected North (approximately 18%), equating to 1.3 million people. Still dealing with the legacy of the war and navigating the post-conflict environment, PWD have been severely impacted by COVID-19, both directly, i.e. contracting the virus, and indirectly, i.e. the lockdown measures, mobility restriction, and economic downfall which has had a socio-economic and psychosocial impact on PWD. Uganda was put on lockdown on 18th March 2020, with restrictions easing on 21st July 2020, and though cases are comparatively low (12,971 cases, 114 deaths as of 3rd November 2020) PWD in Northern Uganda, some of whom also suffer from war-related post-traumatic stress disorder, have experienced extreme neglect, marginalisation and harassment due to a lack of disability-specific support measures.
This project brings together experts from the University of Bristol and YOLRED (a Ugandan community-based NGO) to implement a disability-inclusive and led research project, to assess the impact of COVID-19 on war-affected disabled populations, including former child soldiers. This project will utilise innovative participatory-action based workshops which centre, and are led by, people with war-related disabilities (who have largely been excluded from pandemic recovery measures), by making them co-designers and co-producers of this research. 16 participants (i.e. co-researchers) will work with the project team to document their experiences during the pandemic and provide new evidence to produce a disability-specific and inclusive situational analysis for Northern Uganda. Co-researchers will comprise of 6 ex-child combatants, 6 non-combatants, and 4 persons with non-war related disabilities, with at least 50% women (to support SDG5 and SDG10.2); as both women with disabilities and ex-child soldiers with disabilities remain two of the most stigmatised and impoverished groups in the region, bringing these groups together also attends to SDG16 and doubles as a peacebuilding, reintegration and empowerment effort, and ensures inclusivity of further marginalised populations. Findings will inform disability-inclusive pandemic recovery strategies for Uganda by promoting research uptake amongst policymakers and with UNPRPD Uganda, which is critical for upholding Uganda's commitments under the CRPD (which Uganda ratified in 2008), though findings, data and outputs will also be scalable to other war-affected and post-conflict regions. In addition to a situational analysis for Northern Uganda and a co-authored journal article, three main outputs will be produced which document the voices and experiences of the co-researchers, including whiteboard animated videos, a policy report, and a set of infographics. Whilst these experiences will be derived from Northern Uganda, they will be transferable to other post-conflict regions where war-related disabilities are widespread.
This project brings together experts from the University of Bristol and YOLRED (a Ugandan community-based NGO) to implement a disability-inclusive and led research project, to assess the impact of COVID-19 on war-affected disabled populations, including former child soldiers. This project will utilise innovative participatory-action based workshops which centre, and are led by, people with war-related disabilities (who have largely been excluded from pandemic recovery measures), by making them co-designers and co-producers of this research. 16 participants (i.e. co-researchers) will work with the project team to document their experiences during the pandemic and provide new evidence to produce a disability-specific and inclusive situational analysis for Northern Uganda. Co-researchers will comprise of 6 ex-child combatants, 6 non-combatants, and 4 persons with non-war related disabilities, with at least 50% women (to support SDG5 and SDG10.2); as both women with disabilities and ex-child soldiers with disabilities remain two of the most stigmatised and impoverished groups in the region, bringing these groups together also attends to SDG16 and doubles as a peacebuilding, reintegration and empowerment effort, and ensures inclusivity of further marginalised populations. Findings will inform disability-inclusive pandemic recovery strategies for Uganda by promoting research uptake amongst policymakers and with UNPRPD Uganda, which is critical for upholding Uganda's commitments under the CRPD (which Uganda ratified in 2008), though findings, data and outputs will also be scalable to other war-affected and post-conflict regions. In addition to a situational analysis for Northern Uganda and a co-authored journal article, three main outputs will be produced which document the voices and experiences of the co-researchers, including whiteboard animated videos, a policy report, and a set of infographics. Whilst these experiences will be derived from Northern Uganda, they will be transferable to other post-conflict regions where war-related disabilities are widespread.
People |
ORCID iD |
| Rachel Murray (Principal Investigator) |
Publications
Sandhar J K
(2022)
The response to Covid-19 in Northern Uganda should be disability-inclusive
| Title | The Impact of COVID-19 on People with Disabilities |
| Description | A short animation, of 6 minutes, has been produced by The Creatures Animation Company (based in Uganda) which documents the addresses the needs and experiences of persons with disabilities during the pandemic. The animation is produced from the collective voice of the 16 co-researchers who worked on this project (who represent people with disabilities), and was co-designed and narrated by them. The language of the narration is Acholi (the local language in Gulu) with English subtitles. This film was created as part of a project bringing together experts from the Human Rights Implementation Centre at the University of Bristol Law School and YOLRED, a Ugandan community-based NGO. The team implemented a disability-inclusive and led research project to assess the impact of COVID-19 on war-affected disabled populations, including former child soldiers, in Northern Uganda. |
| Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Impact | The animation has been shown locally and regionally, to stakeholders in Northern Uganda in December 2021, and internationally during a conference in March 2022. This was done to share the findings/recommendations but also to make the output accessible to local and international audiences who may not not be able to engage with the other written outputs (due to language or capabilities). The animation lists 5 key recommendations for a range of actors (policymakers, government, religious and cultural leaders) and during the stakeholder events in Northern Uganda, attendees within those categories responded to the recommendations and laid out next steps in, or plans for, implementation. Requests were also made for the animation to be available widely, and regularly shared with local and national stakeholders and influential actors. The final version was published in December 2022 to align with International Day of Persons with Disabilities and has been shared publicly and across multiple online and offline platforms. The methodology of the output as well as the research project is being picked up by other socio-legal researchers and used as a model/approach for similar projects. |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9BjZxyh9Pg |
| Description | This award has enabled us to obtain new in-depth evidence of the impact of COVID-19 on People with Disabilities in Northern Uganda through participatory-action research which was grounded in the upliftment and empowerment of local communities, particularly the project's co-researchers. As anticipated, we discovered that utilising participatory-action research with PWD would create a safe space to obtain authentic and rich data, which was grounded in indigenous knowledge systems. This data and subsequent findings resonated with local stakeholders and attended to local impact agendas, which was verified during the event in Northern Uganda with local, national, and regional stakeholders and key actors. This projects primary objectives were to provide new evidence on the impacts of COVID-19 on Persons with Disabilities (PWD) in Northern Uganda whilst simultaneously empowering PWD through their inclusion in this project's co-design, co-research, and co-production. By utilising research methodologies which align with Acholi (Northern Ugandan) social, cultural, and traditional values, and centring and empowering 16 PWD by providing them with a form of temporary economic/livelihood assistance, this project has optimised best practice and upheld the dignity, respect, safeguarding and wellbeing of all co-researchers. The co-produced and co-designed outputs and dissemination events have successfully, engage stakeholders and audiences at various levels. This award also contributed towards the capacity development of project collaborator, YOLRED, and the project team in Northern Uganda who can utilise the outputs beyond the project period, and optimise the methodology as a best practice example for future research projects. |
| Exploitation Route | We expect findings to inform disability-inclusive pandemic recovery strategies for Northern Uganda by promoting research uptake amongst policymakers, local leaders, and other key stakeholders in the region. At the beginning of the project a stakeholder mapping exercise was carried out to identify key actors (local, national and regional), which became a live document and updated regularly to ensure target audiences were being recorded. The delivery of the findings to these key stakeholders, and the wider public, has taken a three-pronged approach. Firstly, the local communities to which the co-researchers and PWDs this project employed belong to were invited to a closed-dissemination event, to share the findings and encourage uptake of the recommendations at a community level. Attendees reported working together to implement some of the changes required to support the needs of their PWD peers and networks. Secondly, local and regional stakeholders (including religious and cultural leaders, politicians, civil society organisations etc.) attended two workshops organised by co-researchers and project partner YOLRED, in which findings and recommendations were presented and delegates reported taking further the recommendations to their respective institutions/bodies, and following up with YOLRED periodically to provide updates on policy changes or implementations. Thirdly, international academic and civil society networks have been engaged through workshops and conferences; we expect the findings will be used to inform their own projects, campaigning, and research, whilst encouraging the use of similar methodologies utilised within this award. We also intend for the findings and outputs to be scalable to other war-affected and post-conflict regions. |
| Sectors | Government, Democracy and Justice |
| Description | The 16 co-researchers who worked on this project, who are all persons with disabilities, reported significant developments and improvements to their social, economic and psychological wellbeing as a result of being employed on this project. Firstly, this project supported their economic empowerment by employing them, on short term contractors, to work on this project as part of the research team and offered them a new work experience opportunity. Following the conclusion of these contracts, many have been able to resume their livelihood activities which were halted due to national lockdowns and losses in incomes. Such impact was essential to the objectives of this award, as PWD are particularly impacted by the growing wealth gap in Northern Uganda. Secondly, co-researchers reported improvements in their social and psychological state, by being part of a collective of PWD who worked together to achieve the outcomes of this project and through doing so built friendships, widen their networks, and benefited from greater solidarity with other community members. Thirdly, co-researchers have reported obtaining greater knowledge and awareness about their individual rights, as persons with disabilities, and skills for how to engage with stakeholders to uphold and appeal for those rights. In addition, ensuring that co-researchers were involved in the production of outputs and final outputs were approved by them before publication, this project contributed towards epistemic justice with traditionally excluded communities. The findings are being utilised by project partner YOLRED, a community-based NGO in Northern Uganda, who have used the outputs and findings in their lobbying work with local and national stakeholders. Co-researchers have also formed a post-project collective so they can continue working together on various issues impacting their communities. This collective is a positive legacy of the project, as the co-researchers are using this space to lobby and communicate their rights and needs to external groups. Within academia, the methodology used has been identified as a best practice example and - through sharing the process and methods at conferences and workshops - requests have been made to produce training materials to instruct scholars on how to undertake research projects in a similar manner. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2022 |
| Sector | Government, Democracy and Justice |
| Impact Types | Societal,Policy & public services |
| Description | Inclusion in Advanced Research Methods module at University of Bristol |
| Geographic Reach | Local/Municipal/Regional |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Title | Participatory-Action Research with 16 People with Disabilities as Co-Researchers |
| Description | This research utilised innovative participatory-action based workshops which were led by people with disabilities. The methodology and project centred 16 persons with disabilities living in Northern Uganda who were employed as co-researchers and co-producers of this research, and thus became part of the project team. Co-researchers were selected through and by project partner in Uganda (YOLRED), based on those who were in urgent need of support and had been severely impacted during the pandemic. Co-researchers comprised of ex-child soldiers and non-ex child soldiers, and 12 women and 4 men; a greater proportion of women were included to support sustainable development goals 5 (gender equality) and 10.2 (reduced inequalities). The project team worked together to provide new evidence to produce a disability-specific and inclusive situational analysis for Northern Uganda (amongst other outputs), which addressed the needs of persons with disabilities, who have been excluded from pandemic safety and recovery measures. Co-researchers, rather than being participants of this project, held temporary contracts issued by YOLRED to carry out the project - making them an integral part of the research team as opposed to merely research subjects. They worked on this project from July 2021 to January 2022, which included four weeks of data collection workshops (carried out over three months), planning dissemination events, attending and participating at civil society outreach activities, and during the stakeholder meetings. All co-researchers and project team were paid the same during the data collection and dissemination workshops, to ensure an equitable distribution of resources. During the first week of the data collection workshops, co-researchers were trained on ethics and consent procedures, as well as the rationale for the project and expected outputs and outcomes. Informed consent, designed by the project team in line with the University of Bristol and National ethnics committee in Uganda's requirements, was requested upon recruitment of co-researchers and again during the first day of data collection, and then redesigned by the co-researchers based on their understandings of consent, and was ongoing throughout the project period. During the second week of the data collection workshops, co-researchers were trained on research methodologies and data collection tools, which included interviews, focus groups, surveys, questionnaires, as well as reminded of the local Acholi ways of knowing and sharing, including storytelling and arts-based performances (i.e., poetry, singings, drama). The data collection methods and tools, including questions to be asked and questions not to be asked, were then co-developed by the co-researchers, who selected three techniques: peer-to-peer interviews, focus groups, and arts-based techniques. Co-developing methods and practice ensured this project was able to mitigate potential risk and harm for co-researchers. This also increased trust and rapport between researchers and co-researchers, and facilitated better safeguarding practice. Co-researchers themselves have an understanding of the sensitivity required when engaging with people with disabilities, and were able to guide where questions or methods would cause harm or be potentially traumatic, and as such these were omitted. During week 3 of the PAR workshops, co-researchers were asked to think through and discuss possible strategies for pandemic recovery and solutions for how to 'build back better'. They explored this using a variety of methods, including poems, storytelling, peer-to-peer discussions, and focus groups. From this, outputs were designed accordingly. For example, an animated video was produced for which the script and storyboard was designed by the co-researchers and the narration provided by them. Other outputs and strategies have been similar informed or directed by them, as a collective. Week 4 of the PAR workshops concluded the data collection with a dissemination event for the friends and family of co-researchers, for them to showcase their learnings, discoveries, and achievements from the project, and share their experiences of the pandemic with their families in a safe space, with the support of the project team. The agenda and schedule for this event was arranged and led by the co-researchers, who also used this space to present their arts-based performances. |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Co-researchers have reported significant changes emerging from their involvement in this project. Firstly, they have stated economic empowerment and confidence-building through being officially employed on this project as co-researchers. Secondly, they have obtained greater awareness and insights into their individual and collective rights under Ugandan law. Thirdly, they have developed new skills, friendships, and networks which has supported their social and mental development and growth. Academic colleagues and researchers who are wanting to engage in equitable North-South partnerships, PAR methodologies, or utilising indigenous knowledge systems have reported gaining inspiration from this methodology and recognising its importance in contributing to locally informed research agendas. YOLRED, the project partner in Uganda, have also reported skills and knowledge development for their staff and team employed on this project, and their desire to utilise this methodology in all future research projects. They have stated that it has built their capacity and confidence as a team, as well as developed their local and national networks; and strengthened their relationship and status within the local Acholi community and with their beneficiaries who have been employed on this project. |
| Description | Wider network: disability and COVID-19 UKRI-funded projects |
| Organisation | University of Birmingham |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | This network consists of 8 AHRC-funded GCRF projects on COVID-19 and disability in Low- and Middle-Income Countries, facilitated by the Disability under Siege Network at University of Birmingham. The network holds regular meetings, workshops, and conversations to share learnings and findings from our individual projects, and contributing towards collective outputs and events, and supporting the development of common analytical frameworks. Our contributions have been regular participation and presentations at network meetings, contribution to shared workshops, and input into the development of analytical frameworks. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Partners in this network have all contributed to the shared learnings, findings, and collective outputs and events. And where required, have offered additional expertise to support other colleagues during their projects and with their research outputs. |
| Impact | Collaboration is multidisciplinary, and involves scholars from the following fields: international law, international development, English & Drama, Education, Anthropology. Monthly meetings and network workshops Joint workshop/conference on 'Innovative methods for researching disability & COVID19 in the Global South' Contribution towards 'UNPRPD Analytical Framework for a disability-inclusive recovery from COVID-19' |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | Civil Society engagement in Northern Uganda |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | The Civil Society engagement event brought together disability-led or inclusive NGOs and CSOs based in Gulu (Northern Uganda). The purpose of this event was threefold: - Approximately 30 members of local NGOs attended the event. to engage more voices from disabled populations in the region and to garner support for collective action. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Friends and family sharing |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This project utilised participatory-action research with 16 people with disabilities. Following three months of working together using a variety of methods, including arts-based approaches, the 16 co-researchers and project partners held a one-day closed event in Gulu (Northern Uganda) for the family, friends and local community groups of the co-researchers, to showcase their achievements from the project and share their experiences of the pandemic in a safe space. This event took place in October 2021, and through sharing some of the findings, guests reported learning more about the difficulties and challenges of their disabled peers and agreed to find better ways of supporting them, and being compassionate to their specific and unique needs. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Local Stakeholder Engagement Event |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | In December 2021, a stakeholder event was held in Gulu (Northern Uganda) which engaged over 70 local and regional stakeholders in a dissemination and outreach event, which shared the preliminary findings and recommendations. Honourable guests included local cultural and religious leaders, local politicians, civil society organisations, representatives from Human Rights Committees, and journalists and media, as well as the projects co-researchers and other people with disabilities. The purpose was to critically engage in dialogue about how COVID-19 had impacted people with disabilities and what our research had found, and to call on key actors to address some of these challenges and to come up with concrete plans to ensure 'building back better' in Northern Uganda is disability-inclusive. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Presentation at conference: 'Innovative methods for researching disability & COVID19 in the Global South' |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | The partners within the wider network of projects, of which this project is one, co-organised a workshop entitled "Innovative methods for researching disability and COVID-19 in the Global South Workshop". For this project, we delivered a presentation during the session on "Working with people with disabilities as co-researchers", which shared the project's methodology and example of formally employing disabled people during research projects as best practice. The presentation was led by Dr. Jassi Sandhar and featured a video presentation from Ugandan partner (Geoffrey Omony) and one of the projects co-researchers, and described the steps taken within the project to ensure ethical and fair practice with co-researchers but also how to obtain authentic and new evidence which complements local impact agendas. Between 60-70 people attended the session, with many requesting further information regarding the project, its methodology, and its outputs. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/innovative-methods-for-researching-disability-covid19-in-the-global-s... |