Supporting Batwa women to challenge gender-based discrimination and violence in the Great Lakes Region of Africa
Background
The Batwa are an indigenous people traditionally inhabiting the forests of the Great Lakes region of Africa – Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo. They are poor and marginalised in all four countries in which they live. Batwa women and girls suffer multiple or intersectional forms of disadvantage and discrimination.
Project aim
The aim of the project is to build the organisational capacity of Batwa NGOs to challenge multiple discrimination against Batwa women and girls. It focuses on the areas of discrimination in education and violence against women.
When MRG began discussing the programme with Batwa NGOs a major obstacle emerged. There was no official data that could be used to demonstrate to potential donors the extent of the marginalisation and discrimination against Batwa women. It seemed that the lack of data on Batwa women rendered them virtually invisible. It was for this reason MRG and its partners decided to focus the work on equipping Batwa NGOs with improved skills to conduct rigorous research and to support them to undertake research on an issue of importance to Batwa women in their country.
Project activities
Training
A regional workshop on data collection methodology was held in Kampala, Uganda in September 2008. Representatives from participating Batwa partner NGOs were trained on the skills they would need to design and carry out research in their communities. The sessions included ethics of research, sampling, various data collection methods, data analysis and reporting. During the workshop, the NGOs from each country together designed a research project to study the exact situation in that particular country.
Research projects
Partners have implemented research projects aimed at shedding light on some of the problems affecting Batwa women. Partners in Burundi and DRC chose to research the situation of education of Batwa girls and partners in Rwanda and Uganda undertook research on violence against Batwa women. The results of the research in each country are available for download in the links at right. MRG has produced a synthesis of the research results in a briefing available in English and French.
Advocacy planning
A regional planning workshop was held in Kabale, Uganda, in July 2009. Participants discussed the research they had undertaken and shared the findings. They received training in advocacy skills including use of the media and lobbying. They were also trained on designing an effective advocacy strategy and began the process of discussing how to use the results of the research to improve the situation of Batwa women and girls in their country.
Advocacy
Partners are currently conducting advocacy projects, using the results of their research as the basis for obtaining change. The projects vary according to the situation in each country. In the DRC, the focus is on persuading UN agencies such as UNDP, UNICEF and UNESCO to implement programmes to provide financial support for Pygmy girls to attend school. In Burundi, the projects aim to focus the attention of government officials, both national and local, on the barriers to education faced by Batwa girls and to discuss with the officials what measures can be taken to improve the situation. In Uganda and Rwanda, the projects aim to raise awareness of the problem of violence against Batwa women amongst the community and teach both women and men about the right of women to live free from violence. A second strand of the projects aims to highlight the problem to local officials. For example in Uganda the project will address with local officials the barriers faced by Batwa women victims of violence when they attempt to access justice and to develop strategies to reduce those barriers to justice.
Research projects
MRG’s Batwa partners in Burundi, DRC, Rwanda and Uganda conducted research in their countries between the end of 2008 and mid-2009 on the situation of Batwa women and girls. The studies focused either on education for Batwa girls or violence against Batwa women. The four studies produced following the research are unique and have resulted in new statistics and insights into the situation and problems facing Batwa women and girls.
MRG has published a briefing paper examining the importance of data disaggregated by ethnicity and gender in challenging discrimination against Batwa women and providing an overview of the four research studies. Read the briefing paper in English and French.
Access to education for Batwa girls
MRG's partners in Burundi and the DRC chose to focus their research on education. They particularly wanted to examine the reasons for the low level of enrolment of Batwa girls in school and their high drop-out rates.
Burundi
The general level of Batwa children attending school is very low and there are proportionately far more Batwa boys at school than Batwa girls. In addition to this, drop-out rates are high, especially for girls.Whilst the reasons given for the low levels of Batwa girls attending school vary, factors such as poverty (leading to a lack of school materials and hunger), the ignorance of parents about the importance of education for girls and early marriage emerged as the most prevalent causes.
Read the full report on the Burundi research project in English and French.
Democratic Republic of Congo
In the DRC, there are fewer Batwa girls than boys attending school. It is not possible to know definitively whether they are disproportionately disadvantaged in comparison with other ethnic groups because of a lack of national or provincial statistics.The research produced mainly qualitative results which built up a picture of the causes of the lack of education of Batwa girls. As with Burundi, the poverty of Batwa families emerged as very important, as did insufficient awareness of parents of the benefits of education and early marriage of Batwa girls. Other reasons mentioned included the distance of Batwa villages from schools and the insecurity in the Eastern DRC.
Read the full report on the Democratic Republic of Congo research project in English, French and Swahili.
Violence against Batwa women
MRG’s partner organisations in Rwanda and Uganda selected violence against Batwa women as the theme for their research. Anecdotal evidence suggested that violence, both from inside and outside the Batwa community was a frequent problem for Batwa women. The aim was to discover more about the prevalence of violence and its causes in order to suggest strategies for tackling the issue.
Rwanda
In the districts surveyed, the respondents mentioned that the main forms of violence perpetrated against Batwa women and girls in their neighbourhoods are physical violence, psychological violence and marginalisation of natural resources. Very few respondents maintained that Batwa women and girls are not victims of violence and the vast majority believe Batwa women experience more violence than other Rwandans.The respondents in the research believe that extreme poverty is the main cause of violence against Batwa women. Other reasons mentioned include membership of a minority, bad historical antecedents shaping relations between Batwa and non-Batwa communities, lack of education and prejudices against the Batwa.
Read the full report on the Rwanda research project in English and French.
Uganda
In the three districts of the study, 100% of the individual Batwa women interviewed had experienced violence with 64% of them experiencing it on an on-going basis or within the past 12 months. 57% of them had experienced sexual abuse and 46% had experience marital rape.Respondents reported that violence against Batwa women was perpetrated by husbands, non-Batwa community members and local leaders or officials of different levels. The widespread violence against Batwa women was largely attributed to alcoholism, and poverty. The research discovered the majority of victims of violence had asked for help from the local council, other local bodies or a member of their family. However, it also highlighted corruption amongst local officials which blocked Batwa women’s access to justice.
Read the full report on the Uganda research project in English.