Gender Based Violence and Displacement

This research will address the knowledge gap that exists regarding the ways in which displacement processes impact on perceptions and experiences of Gender Based Violence (GBV) and the potential for tackling such violence. Using collaborative techniques between academics and refugee community partners to co-produce research, the research will provide data about how displaced communities themselves experience and perceive GBV, and the potential collisions which exist between different gender norms, expectations and masculinities in this regard.The project seeks to improve the situation for displaced people within Iraqi Kurdistan Region (IKR) in particular, by sharing and translating co-produced knowledge and expertise regarding GBV of formally displaced people from within the Bristol refugee community with those currently displaced in IKR. While the focus will be largely on women (as the group mainly impacted by GBV), we will also engage with men in the refugee communities to explore their experiences and perceptions of GBV and mechanisms for disrupting pathways to perpetration.

This project brings together an inter-disciplinary team with academic and partner non-governmental organisations in the Bristol refugee community and colleagues in IKR at the Gender and Violence Studies Centre, University of Sulaimani. The approach adopted in this proposed research is that knowledge generation about gender-based violence, migration and conflict must arise from the experiences and knowledges of the these communities and that the most appropriate methodologies involve processes of co-production that place equal value on academic and community knowledge and expertise.

The project will involve a number of overlapping phases.

The development phase will bring together the expertise from the research team, academic advisors and the Bristol refugee community groups to develop safe and ethical ways to engage in the co-productive creation of new knowledge which addresses how people incorporate sometimes competing ideas about gender and violence in terms of their place on the displacement journey, and in relation to a wide range of intersecting factors (such as race, gender, religion, nationality, location, sexuality, disability, age etc.). A major focus will be exploring different methods and research tools involving co-production which might be used. We will utilise the skills of the research team, including community facilitators, to explore using art, creative writing/poetry, music, photography, and more therapeutic techniques in order to explore participants' narratives of GBV and displacement. The development process will begin within the UK site and extend to the IKR site once a short-list of method options has been identified. We anticipate three development consultation meetings in each site, two with women and one with men.

Applying lessons from the development phase, we will explore how the Bristol based knowledge production can be applied in the context of the IKR. Initial ideas and findings will be shared throughout the process between the two sites to ensure that translation between them becomes a practical reality. We anticipate at least eight meetings or workshops at each site, six with female participants and two with men.

Communicating the 'findings', co-produced knowledges and potential artefacts which emerge from the research is part of the process as opposed to a means to an end. Of primary importance will be the use of the project knowledges within IKR and those communities currently displaced. Events will take place in IKR in particular, such as workshops with NGOs, to share the produced knowledge from both fieldwork sites and to create additional space for dialogue and communication between displaced people from different points on the journey. Two major co-produced events in Bristol and IKR, will provide showcases for the work to policy makers and practitioners.

The world is facing the worst refugee and forced displacement crisis since the Second World War (UNFPA, 2016). It is therefore even more important to find innovative, ethical, and safe ways to explore issues relating to GBV in the context of currently and previously displaced peoples and to produce knowledge to contribute to the disruption of GBV pathways, challenging the inequalities that underpin gendered violence across origin, displaced, and diaspora countries and communities.

(1) Refugee and wider communities
International research recognises the significant impact that GBV has on individual health and wellbeing, whether as victims (WHO, 2013) or perpetrators (Hester et al, 2015), or communities as a whole. Through innovative methods we hope to improve the health and well-being of victims and survivors through greater community awareness of the impacts of GBV on displaced communities. Working closely with key third sector, refugee and government agencies/organisations we aim to have a direct impact on the content of interventions for displaced communities re: GBV.

We will address a number of the International Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including: gender equality and empowerment of all women and girls; eliminating forms of GBV; increasing women's social participation; addressing issues of health and wellbeing; reducing inequality between and within countries through the knowledge transfer process; and promoting peace/justice within communities in different countries.

Being co-produced and based in communities where the research takes place, we will address concerns raised by communities, offering opportunities for members to reflect on their displacement experiences to help others in such crisis. Community groups will be supported to provide their own recommendations to other displaced people, and to work with displaced populations, men and women, within the country of origin to continue those debates and discussions about how perceptions of GBV can change. It is vitally important that spaces to disrupt the consequences of GBV are created not just during the displacement process but long after. Our research seeks to bring together those communities at different points in the displacement journey to co-produce knowledge.

The research will add voice to victim/survivor experiences and feed into development of victim focused responses by exploring the different ways in which they experience and perceive GBV within the process of forced displacement and how their experiences can be heard within communities by using innovative methods. It recognises that there may be difficulties for men in relation to rapidly shifting ideas of appropriate masculinities during and after the displacement journey. We will provide data to inform better interventions for displaced men to offer diverse community-based forms of masculine identities.

(2) NGOs, refugee agencies, governments
In IKR, "1 in 5 women surveyed said they had directly been offered money for sexual services; 1 in 10 women said they had been pressurized by govt officials, organised gangs, police and other security personnel, NGOs, and by members of Syrian and non-Syrian communities to engage in physical relationships" (UN Women, 2014). This demonstrates a need to engage and build capacity at a community level, about GBV during displacement. We will provide recommendations to NGOs/other agencies involved in the displaced journey to adapt processes to increase the safety of victims/survivors, also offering positive messages for potential perpetrators and disrupting negative GBV behaviours.

Recommendations will be made to assist providers, including UNHCR and other international agencies working directly with refugees and displaced populations in camps and displaced sites, contributing to global policy and planning of assistance programs as part of the protection mandate of the UN agencies and international humanitarian organisations.