FEMALE LIVELIHOODS IN WAR-AFFECTED SOCIETIES CASES FROM KITGUM DISTRICT OF NORTHERN UGANDA

Abstract

This thesis addresses how women in the war ravaged Kitgum District of northern Uganda forge a livelihood for themselves and those they care for in an environment where livelihood systems were ruptured by violent conflict and assets for constructing a livelihood are unevenly owned and accessible by men and women. Also through this study, I aim to bring women’s concerns in the post-war Kitgum to the fore for both public attention and action. Using a gender lens, in combination with the concepts of agency and empowerment, the study largely draws upon the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework as its analytical tool. Data for the study were collected by conducting seventeen qualitative interviews with women. Observations were also used. The findings that emerge from the study indicate that women in war-affected northern Uganda mobilize diverse resources to maintain their wellbeing. As war visited both mental and physical debilitations on the men and demoralized them from working to provide for their families women came to form a major source of survival not only for their own children, but also other orphaned children and in some cases, their spouses. Women are not only mothers but breadwinners as well as providers.

Contrary to the view that war is destructive, my findings also suggest that war’s shocks on traditional discriminatory institutions against women opens up spaces for women. They get out of the backyard, learn new skills, ideas and perform roles previously undertaken by men leading to a re-configuration of social orders, suggesting that war is also transformative.