Peril or protection: The link between livelihoods and gender-based violence in displacement settings

When are displaced due to conflict or human rights abuses, women often adopt new strategies to provide for themselves and their families. CPC partner the Women's Refugee Commission is working to determine whether programs set up to provide women with safe, alternative livelihoods do in fact reduce their risk of exposure to violence. Without economic opportunities, women resort to dangerous and desperate measures to provide for themselves and their families, often heightening their risk of sexual exploitation and abuse. However, when economic opportunities are provided without built-in protective elements, an increase in sexual violence outside the home and heightened domestic violence within the home often ensue.