Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a pervasive issue worldwide, particularly in sub-Saharan African countries like Uganda. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), IPV encompasses "physical violence, sexual violence, stalking, or psychological harm [perpetrated] by a current or former partner or spouse," including discriminatory behavior such as isolating a person from family and friends, monitoring their movements, and restricting access to financial resources, employment, education, or medical care.
In Uganda, IPV manifests in three major forms: intimate partner physical violence, intimate partner emotional violence, and intimate partner sexual violence. A staggering sixty-five percent of women in Uganda report experiencing at least one of these types of IPV.
Several factors contribute to IPV in Uganda, including cultural attitudes about violence among both women and men, patriarchal behaviors among men, bride price, and male alcohol abuse. Victims of IPV suffer a range of consequences, from physical injuries like bruising, burns, and broken limbs to mental health issues such as depression and PTSD. Increased rates of HIV is perhaps the most dangerous consequence of IPV among women in Uganda.
The History of IPV Laws in Uganda
The first laws against IPV emerged over twenty years after the creation of Uganda’s constitution in 1988. Under the 2010 Domestic Violence Act, IPV is now illegal in Uganda. This act specifically criminalizes domestic violence as defined as physical, sexual, and emotional violence, as well as economic abuse. Perpetrators must pay a maximum fee of the equivalent of $384 or receive up to two years in prison, with the exact fees or prison sentences chosen by judges on a case-by-case basis.
Yet statistics show that since the 2010 Domestic Violence Act, IPV has become a bigger problem in Uganda.
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Societal customs and gender expectations in Uganda have led to a culture of patriarchy, which enables IPV against women. Gender norms and roles within Ugandan homes are very traditional, with women handling the household responsibilities and men providing financial support. A study completed in 2015 showed that according to 89.6% of study participants in Uganda, a woman’s most important role is to take care of her home and to cook for her family.
Although women are the primary homemakers in Uganda, they are less involved than their husbands in making household and family decisions regarding finances, education, and employment. According to a 2016 study that surveyed 960 Ugandan men and women, 73.7% of participants believed the men should have the final word on decisions made in the home.
For example, only 44% of polled women in Uganda had a say on how their earnings were spent. This belief contributes to IPV because women who reported their husbands as limiting their decision-making power had quadruple the risk of experiencing physical violence. Thus, those that do not make decisions with their husbands were more likely to experience violence.
Not only does Uganda’s history of patriarchy make it likely that women will experience IPV in their relationships, this history also makes it difficult for women to leave violent relationships. In a 2016 study, 67.4% of young male and female Ugandans believed that women need to tolerate violence in order to keep their families together, and these beliefs are at a higher percentage among women than among men. Thus, women are even less likely to make efforts to leave abusive relationships.
It is also difficult for women to get out of domestic violence situations via divorce. In Uganda, a woman requires more grounds for requesting a divorce than a man does. A UN analysis of Ugandan law stated, “While both men and women can apply for divorce, a woman may apply for divorce only if she can prove that the husband is adulterous and abandons her for more than two years or commits other specified acts.
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When young people observe gender inequity in their homes, it is likely that both boys and girls will perpetuate the unequal behaviors in their future relationships and the associated risk for IPV. In a 2016 study, 91.5% of Ugandan girls ages 10 and 14 agreed with the statement that men should have the final word on decisions in the home. This high statistic implies that Ugandan women in the rising generation will continue to accept a submissive role in decision-making processes and thus perpetuate the risk of IPV in their future households.
Boys are also likely to follow the behaviors they see in their homes. In 2010, the Domestic Violence (DV) Act put laws in place to discourage IPV, providing two avenues in which people can report domestic violence-through local council courts and through police officers. Despite these laws and processes, the DV Act is not enforced and reports are rarely made. This perpetuates IPV.
Challenges in Enforcing the Domestic Violence Act
There are multiple reasons that the DV Act is not enforced. The first reason that the DV Act is not enforced is a lack of knowledge among officials. Ugandan police and law enforcement officers often do not have the knowledge to enforce the DV Act. According to one study, many legal professionals and law enforcement officers do not know about the DV Act.
The second is a lack of funding for programs. The lack of funding for IPV programs makes it challenging to enforce domestic violence laws. In 2016 and 2017, the equivalent of $450,000 was allocated to Violence Against Women (VAW) programs in Uganda. For comparison, the US spent 480 million dollars on VAW programs in 2016. This spending allocated $13 per person in the US for domestic violence issues, whereas Uganda allocates about 1 cent per person for domestic violence issues.
This lack of funding means that there is a lack of domestic violence workers. In 2016 and 2017, the cabinet of the government covering gender, labor, and social development problems had only 10 members, and the family protection unit of the police in Uganda had less than 6 police officers assigned to each district of the country.
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There is also a lack of shelters to which the police officers can send abused women. As of August 2020, there were 16 government shelters across the country. Uganda has a square land mileage of 76,100 miles; 76,100 miles divided by the 16 shelters is approximately one shelter per 4,756 square miles.
The last reason that the DV is not enforced successfully is corruption among police officers and among government workers. In fact, some police officers and government workers actively encourage IPV. One member of parliament illustrated this in a statement he made in 2018. He said, “As a man, you need to discipline your wife. You need to touch her a bit, tackle her, and beat her somehow, to streamline her. If you leave her unpunished, she may become an undisciplined wife and this practice of not beating women has actually made them stubborn.” In addition, it is common for law enforcement officers to perpetrate violence themselves.
The Impact of Bride Price and Alcohol Abuse
Bride price increases IPV in Uganda because it encourages women to be treated like purchases. Bride price is defined as the exchange of goods, including livestock and money, for a bride. The price is paid by the groom’s family to the bride’s family. Traditionally, if the marriage ends, the bride price must be paid back by the bride’s family, making it difficult for wives in abusive marriages to leave and go back to their childhood homes if their family cannot pay back the bride price.
In 2015, this refunding aspect of bride price was made illegal. In other words, it is now illegal for a groom’s family to demand a repayment after a divorce occurs. Bride price results in the commoditization of women. This means that if a woman does not fulfill her traditional role as a childbearing, household-keeping woman or attempts to leave her situation, she is no longer worth the bride price. Men often see this as justification for beating their wives.
Rhetoric reflecting this belief and practice can be seen in many case studies throughout the country of Uganda. For example, Mifumi, a Ugandan organization dedicated to eliminating IPV, has reported cases where men refer to women as cows when abusing them. Bride price is practiced all across the country.
As a result, in a 1996 study, 95% of women believed that bride price was needed in order to make a marriage valid. However, in a 2011 study, 65% of the interviewees believed that the impacts of bride price were mainly negative, and 33% thought the impacts were both positive and negative. So, although many women believe that bride price is a cultural necessity, this does not translate into a belief that bride price is a positive practice.
Alcohol abuse among males is tied directly to IPV against women in Uganda. In 2004, Uganda had the highest per-capita alcohol consumption in the world, with a rate of 19.4 liters. This rate has declined by 2020, but Uganda still has the 5th highest rate of alcohol consumption in Africa at 9.5 liters per capita. For comparison, the bordering country of Kenya has an alcohol consumption rate of 3.4 liters per capita.
Approximately 40% to 50% of women from two different studies reported that their partners got drunk “often,” “occasionally,” or “sometimes.” One third of women reported that their husbands got drunk everyday or almost every day. The frequency of drunkenness makes a big impact on the frequency of IPV.
Consequences of Intimate Partner Violence
Physical health problems are a prevalent consequence of IPV in Uganda. About 36% of women in Uganda experience some degree of intimate partner physical violence. Physical violence results in a variety of physical injuries. Bruising is the most common consequence of this type of violence.
In one particular study, about 23,000 women in Nigeria were surveyed, and 26% of the women who reported a lifetime prevalence of IPV experienced bruising. Other common effects of physical violence in this study were injuries to the eyes and ears, sprains, dislocations, and minor burns. Less common reported effects included severe burns, wounds, broken bones, broken teeth and other serious conditions, which 6% of women experienced.
While stabbing, severe burns, and other intense acts of violence are not as common as bruising and smaller injuries, these issues still affect a significant proportion of women in Uganda. Women who are pregnant are particularly susceptible to injury. Pregnant women who experience IPV are far more likely to experience pregnancy complications due to physical violence than pregnant women who do not experience IPV.
IPV has implications not only for the body but also for the mind. In a study completed in Egypt, 88% of women who experienced any form of intimate partner physical violence also experienced anxiety, and 69% of them experienced depression. Only 63% and 47% of women who did not experience physical violence experienced anxiety and depression, respectively.
Studies show that marital rape victims are at equal risk for a multitude of mental health disorders as victims of stranger rape. These disorders include major depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, social phobia, and sexual dysfunction. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is another very prevalent negative mental health consequence of IPV. It is estimated that women in Uganda who experience IPV are 3 times more likely to experience PTSD than those who do not experience IPV.
PTSD manifests itself in multiple ways among abused women. Experiencing IPV increases the risk of contracting Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS). HIV is a virus that leads to AIDS, an immune system disease where the body is not able to effectively fight off infection. HIV/AIDS is the leading cause of death among females of reproductive age worldwide, and 80% of women living with HIV/AIDS are in sub-Saharan Africa.
If a woman experiences intimate partner violence, she is more likely to experience HIV. The most direct pathway from IPV to HIV is infection through an act of sexual assault from a woman’s partner. Across a few different study populations in Tanzania, sexual IPV was reported amongst 44% of HIV positive women and amongst 23% of HIV negative women. This higher statistic shows that sexual violence is more common in women that have HIV and less common in women that do not have HIV.
This tendency is likely because men who are more likely to participate in sexual violence against their wives are also more likely to participate in behaviors that would lead them to acquire an HIV infection, such as concurrent sexual relationships, transactional sex, and substance abuse where unclean needles are used to share drugs. In addition, the ways that women have been encouraged to go about HIV prevention often lead to more IPV, increasing their HIV risk.
Sexual violence is not the only path to HIV, however. Physical violence is also associated with increased risk of HIV and other STD infections. Genital injuries where blood is exchanged such as vaginal and anal lacerations are more likely to occur during forced, violent sex.
Raising Voices: Catalyzing Social Change
Preventing and eradicating violence against women and children remains a global challenge. In North America alone, the Canadian Women’s Foundation estimates that around 3,500 women and 2,700 children sleep in shelters across Canada on any given night to escape violence happening in their own homes. On the other side of the globe, a study by the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC), illustrates the intense level of violence experienced by women in South Africa. The SAMRC estimate 40-50 per cent of women have at some point been the victim of violence from their male partner.
Raising Voices was founded in 1999 as a non-profit that strives to catalyze social change in vulnerable communities where violence against women runs high. Based in Kampala, Uganda, the organization works closely with their partners throughout East and Southern Africa to build lasting relationships, in an effort to stem the tide of violence. This organization encourages critical thought surrounding human rights and activism and works to engage people from all levels of society so that dignity and respect are recognized. As part of this, Raising Voices attempts to influence local and national policy. Such action also involves a global advocacy initiative including five steps to help prevent violence against women and children.
One methodology that has taken off at Raising Voices is the Good School Toolkit. The Good School Toolkit aims to establish a collective vision for the school, create a nurturing learning environment, implement progressive learning strategies, and strengthen overall school governance. An in-house study conducted in 2005 by Raising Voices found that over 60 per cent of its children experienced violence at school. The Good Toolkit is a child-friendly approach working to eliminate violence in the classroom. Its proactive approach influences educators and enables key stakeholders to create change in a natural way.
The work of organizations like Raising Voices is now more pertinent than ever, and the issue of violence against women and children demands that everyone to work together in unison. “For our part, Raising Voices mobilizes communities to create everyday activists and empowers people through reflection, skill-building, education, and dialogue to promote long-term sustainable prevention," Bahemuka said.
Raising Voices creates evidence-based violence prevention programs based in the everyday realities of schools and communities and supports others to use those methodologies. Everyonehas a right to live free of violence. Learn more about our work. Because of Raising Voices, I am now an activist. I won't ever go back to just doing projects.
I work on preventing violence because I deeply believe in it; it is an expression of my values and how I want to be in the world. Our values are at the heart of our work at Raising Voices. We strive to put people first and believe that it is in our relationships with each other, our partners and others where joy, solidarity and potential live. Experiencing intimate partner violence violates that person’s human rights, and impacts the victim's mental, physical and economic health.
SASA! A Community Activist Social Empowerment Program
Episode 2: How SASA! Together mobilizes communities to prevent violence against women
Raising Voices creates evidence-based violence prevention programs, and supports communities across LMIC in using them. SASA! Is a community activist social empowerment program: it is essentially a toolkit for local activists about how to shift harmful social norms within their local communities, to reduce violence against women. The program involves four phases (start, awareness, support and action), including discussion materials and other methods to engage the community.
Additional funds will be used to scale up SASA!
The SASA! approach has demonstrated promising results in reducing IPV rates in various settings:
| Study | Length of Intervention | Area | Baseline Physical IPV Rate | Physical IPV Rate at Follow-up (Test Group) | Baseline Physical IPV Rate (Control Group) | Physical IPV Rate at Follow-up (Control Group) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abramsky et al. 2014 | 48 months | Uganda | 25% | 9% when program ended | 21% | 22% |
| Dunkle et al. 2020 | 24 months | Rwanda | 49.8% | 34.7% when program ended | 41.1% | 41.7% |
| Wagman et al. 2015 | 24 months | Uganda | 17% | 15% at 16 months, 12% at 35 months | 18% | 16% for both follow ups |
| Ogum Alangea et al. 2020 | 24 months | Ghana | 16.5% | 8.3% at program end | 14.9% | 10.9% |
SASA! is a series of classes given in communities taught by community activists. Community activists are influential members of each...
All women and children can flourish.
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