PAR Organizers, Agencies, and Partners

1. Girl Mothers in Armed Forces and Groups and Their Children in Northern Uganda, Liberia and Sierra Leone: Participatory Action Research to Assess and Improve their Situations PAR Organizers, Agencies, and Partners

2. Funding • The Rockefeller Foundation (NYC/Italy), Oak Foundation and Pro Victimis Foundation (Geneva), UNICEF West Africa, & Compton Foundation (CA/USA)

3. Why do this PAR? • Girl mothers and their children have been discriminated against/marginalized/made invisible within DDR processes & their rights disregarded. • Reintegration has been constructed according to adult ideas without including girls’ voices. • What agencies have been doing with respect to girl mothers and their children is not working. • The PAR finds ways to create safe spaces for girl mothers’ participation within communities and to garner community support for sustainability.

4. What is Participatory Action Research? “An approach to research that aims at promoting change; that occurs through a cyclic process of planning, data collection, and analysis… and in which members of the group being studied participate as partners in all phases of the research, including design, data collection, analysis, and dissemination.” (American Journal of Public Health, 2008)

5. Who are the PAR members? Liberia: • Save the Children, UK in Liberia • THINK Sierra Leone: • Christian Brothers • Christian Children’s Fund • Council of Churches in Sierra Leone • National Network for Psychosocial Care Northern Uganda: • Caritas, Gulu Archdiocese • Concerned Parents Association • Transcultural Psychosocial Organization • World Vision Plus academic partners in each country.

6. Demographics of Participants How many participants? How many participants formerly associated? 33% vulnerable community girls 67% formerly associated • Liberia = 111, average age 20 • Sierra Leone = 266, average age 22 • Uganda = 281, average age 18

7. Demographics of Participants Who do the participants live with? How many children did they have at the start? 93 had only 1 child 191 had 2 children 107 had 3 children 38 had 4 children or more • 273 (41%) live with boyfriends or husbands • 234 (36%) live with parents or guardians • 36 (5%) live alone

8. Do No Harm • Code of Conduct • No research without action • Manage expectations • Confidentiality • Informed consent • Avoid excessive targeting • Ethical interviewing • U. Wyoming IRB and local consultation

9. The PAR Process Community Outreach Outreach to Girl Mothers Follow up initial recommendations with home visits. Hold group meetings to describe project. Ask girl mothers to invite others for inclusion in the project. • Identify communities with strong need. • Meet with community leaders to solicit interest. • Hold community meetings to describe project. • Work with TBAs and leaders to identify girls

10. PAR Process (continued) “Train” girl mothers to gather data Girl Mothers Research Girl mothers conduct research Girl mothers learn to analyze data Data sharing and problem identification • Participants used focus group discussions, individual interviews, role-play and songs.

11. PAR Process (continued) Social Action Implementation Girl mothers, community advisory people, and NGO staff decide what projects they can implement within their community to address the problem identified.

12. Social Action Initiatives • Discussion and Support Groups • Micro-Credit and Micro-Grant for Individual Business • Group Business • Agriculture Projects • Dramas and Songs

13. Role of the Community • Monitoring and supporting girls • Advising other community members on how to interact with girls • Issuing proclamations protecting the girls • Donating land and material support to the projects • Reaching out to parents and encouraging family reintegration • Giving emotional support

14. Shared ownership: The girl mothers are free to disseminate on their own their experiences, products, and learning. Girl mothers select publicly shareable material and identify key messages to be brought forward. Use of raw data from the girl mothers (e.g., poems, videos, dramas) by project stakeholders can occur only in consultation with the girls and/or representatives of the girls and with their agreement and consent. Ownership of Data and Dissemination Rights

15. Evaluation Methods • Survey developed with the girl mothers and implemented in all communities • Thematic analysis of monthly reports • Regular country-wide girls’ meetings where participants synthesize findings • Ethnographic fieldwork

16. Findings: Survey Results I feel involved with what the group is doing. Involvement in the project has made me and my children more liked or loved by my family.

17. Findings: Survey Results I feel I am able to be supportive to my family by buying basic necessities. I can take better care of my child than I could before I joined the group.

18. Findings: Survey Results Has your health changed since you joined the project? How has the health of your child or children changed since you joined the project?

19. Findings: Survey Results I feel more respected and supported by my community. Through the group, I help other people in the community.

20. Findings: Survey Results Through participating in the group, I can now speak in public more easily.

21. Findings: Survey Results I get pregnant even when I don’t want to. If someone wants to go to bed with me by force, I know how to report it and get help.

22. Findings: Ethnographic & Synthesis • For girl mothers returning from armed groups, and other vulnerable girl mothers (re) integration means being respected and being taken seriously, being responsible to her children, family, and the community. • Stigma toward girls formerly associated with armed groups and their children is significantly reduced and often eliminated when girls engage in sustainable livelihoods and behave according to community and gender norms.

23. Findings: Ethnographic & Synthesis • From the onset, community-based reintegration involves community leaders and influentials as well as boyfriends and family members. Community advisory committees with a commitment to the girls’ development is essential to the success of participatory integration processes.

24. Findings: Ethnographic & Synthesis • Girls “giving back” to their communities is important in sustainability of integration. • Participation that is meaningful is process oriented, puts girls at the center of decision making, and supports their development and their relationships with family and community members.

25. Findings: Ethnographic & Synthesis • Participatory processes develop girls’ capacities in a supportive environment so that they increase confidence and develop capacity to live harmoniously in their communities. • Participating in groups of other similarly-affected girls and being guided by a caring facilitator is essential to (re) integration. • Deep participation requires a relatively slow process and a special set of facilitation skills.

26. Findings: Ethnographic & Synthesis • Changes in girl mothers in the PAR had a “spill-over” role modeling effect for other girls. • Although they can be more risky, group social action projects facilitate group cohesion and promote sustainability. • Girl mothers whether returned from armed groups or other vulnerable girl mothers want to improve their lives and be responsible and participating members of their communities.

27. Findings: Ethnographic & Synthesis • Livelihoods are most sustainable when participants have business, health, and life skills training and have skilled advice about diversifying their businesses. • Sustaining livelihoods in urban and town sites is more challenging because of market conditions and require that girls have expert advice as they make their choices.

28. Findings: Ethnographic & Synthesis • Well-functioning health clinics with nominal fees are essential to girls’ health and that of their children, markedly improving sustainability. • Reproductive health care is essential. • Children of girl mothers, whether formerly abducted or other vulnerable girl mothers, are all viewed as “the same.” Some exceptions occur in families when resources are scarce.

29. Findings: Ethnographic & Synthesis • Survival or exploitative sex work significantly decreases as girls gain confidence, have peer support, learn behaviors that earn them respect, and gain alternative livelihoods. • Community chiefs/leaders who use traditional authority to establish rules of conduct (such as prohibiting domestic violence) improve the situation of all girls and women and support empowerment and gender equity.

30. Findings: Ethnographic & Synthesis • A small amount of grant money goes a long way if preceded by group development, guidance in money management, business skills, and sustainable choices and when this guidance is ongoing and supportive of girls’ development. • Engaging in PAR means a commitment to staff development & supervision, and donors who do not mandate outcomes specified in advance of program initiation.

31. Conclusion • Participatory action research is a highly effective programming strategy to facilitate girl mother’s reintegration. • We thank all the participants in this project.