Navigating the challenges of violence, gender and disability (NAVIGENDI)

NAVIGENDI is a research collaboration that runs from April 2024 to March 2027. It is funded by the UKRI Economic and Social Research Council (grant number ES/Y003373/1).

• Background
• Aims
• Methodology
• Team
• Related links 

Background

There is increasing research evidence which shows how vulnerable children with disabilities are to the multiple forms of violence that more than a billion children across the globe experience every day. 

For young people with disabilities in low-income countries (LICs), like Uganda, the risk is even greater. Forms of violence are often connected with high levels of poverty and the inequalities it gives rise to. Gender also influences risk, with girls and boys with disabilities often affected in different ways by violence.

Despite their heightened vulnerability, in LICs, with many competing demands for resources, children with disabilities are among those least supported by interventions or protection measures to prevent and address violence.

In Uganda, efforts have been made by the government and NGOs to: 

• address violence against children, and
• create disability-inclusive systems.

However, there is very little research to:

• help understand young people with disabilities’ experiences of violence, and
• gather insights to help prevent violence and improve existing services. 

Aims

From the UK and Uganda, this innovative project brings together:

• researchers
• practitioners, and
• activists.

It aims to strengthen our knowledge and understanding of young people with disabilities’ experiences of violence in Uganda.

Especially, we want to understand the following:

• How violence, gender and disability might intersect to shape these experiences.
• How the experiences may change as the young people develop and navigate different stages of their lives, within:
  • school
  • family
  • workplace, and
  • community.
• How they manage and resist these experiences of violence and what forms of support they draw on. 

Methodology

NAVIGENDI’s research approach, which we have called a dialogical approach, has two important dimensions.

The first takes a mixed-methods approach, bringing together and analysing:

• new qualitative data, and
• existing quantitative data.

The new qualitative data will be collected over three years, through in-depth interviews with:

• a sample of young people with disabilities in Uganda, and
• their teachers, caregivers, service providers, and people in the community they interact with.

The existing quantitative data comes from a large research project called the Contexts of Violence in Adolescence Cohort study (COVAC). This project collected data from young people in Uganda between 2014 and 2022 about their experiences of violence. 

Throughout the research process, we will think about what the two kinds of data are showing us when we bring them together.

The second part of the dialogical approach involves coming together as a project team. We will participate in structured discussions where we: 

• reflect on and analyse what we are finding drawing on our different experiences and knowledge, and
• refine and plan our next research steps. 

Team and partner organisations

Related links

• Department of Education, Practice and Society
• Centre for Education and International Development
• Disability Research Group at the MRC/UVRI & LSHTM Uganda Research Unit (MUL)
• National Union of Persons with Disabilities of Uganda (NUDIPU)
• London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM)
• Raising Voices
• University of Oxford, Department for Social Policy and Intervention
• UK Research and Innovation project page
• Economic and Social Research Council
• Contexts of Violence in Adolescence Cohort study (COVAC)

Image at the top: Logos courtesy of Disability Research Group at the MRC/UVRI & LSHTM Uganda Research Unit (MUL), National Union of Persons with Disabilities of Uganda (NUDIPU), Department for Social Policy and Intervention, University of Oxford, and Raising Voices.