Conflict, Displacement and Overlapping Vulnerabilities : Understanding Risk Factors forGender-Based Violence among Displaced Women in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo

Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has been embroiled in decades-long conflict that hasresulted in the forced displacement of millions of people and extremely high rates of gender-based violence. Muchattention has been focused on conflict-related sexual violence; however, it is important to recognize thatintimate partner violence is one of the most pervasive forms of gender-based violence in the world, including in conflictsettings. This paper is among the first to use a large, randomized survey to analyze both sexual violence andintimate partner violence as outcomes. Displacement increases a woman’s risk of past-year intimate partnerviolence by 6 percent and experiencing war abuses increases the risk of lifetime intimate partner violence by 9 percent,after adjusting for other risk factors. Both exposure to war-related experiences and displacement independentlyincrease the risk of past-year sexual violence by 6 percent, after adjusting for other risk factors. Forced displacementand traumatic war-related experiences are risk factors for intimate partner violence and sexual violence in thissetting. Acknowledging these risks and creating programs that explicitly address the high risk of violence faced bydisplaced and war-affected women can more effectively break the cycles of violence that are often perpetuated in fragile settings.