Developing an intersectional and socioecological approach for engaging with religion to prevent and respond to sexual and gender-based violence

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The number of forcibly displaced people doubled in the last decade, around half of whom are women and girls. Women and men experience forced migration differently with distinct vulnerabilities to widespread sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) across dangerous journeys, in countries of transit and refuge. More than eight in ten people globally, and most migrants, affiliate with a religion. On the one hand, in crises, people turn to religion for meaning and relief from anxiety, and on the other, displaced populations often experience religion-based discrimination, inter-sectarian persecution and patriarchal violence from within and outside of religion. In my doctoral research, I examined the religious influences on experiences of SGBV in forced migration and uncovered the religious and spiritual dimension of survivors' fortitude and vulnerability. I explored both the protective and risk factors associated with religion intersecting with other factors at interpersonal, community and societal levels. Based on interviews with displaced women in Turkey and Tunisia and service providers, I show religion influences the way forced migrant survivors experience SGBV, in terms of their vulnerability and resilience, but service providers tend to neglect this lived reality. I elicit a better understanding of experiences of gendered violence by accounting for survivors' intersecting identities and focusing on religion, as an overlooked and under-theorised category. To improve SGBV mitigation and mental health and psychosocial support for victims, I point to the urgency of integrating religion into gender analysis, policy and practice in ways where lived experiences of religion are understood.This project acts upon my PhD thesis' recommendation to develop an integrated intersectional and ecological approach to enable the integration of religious factors into SGBV and mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) programme design and delivery. I argue such an integrated approach is more effective to identify and mitigate multiple risks and strengthen resilience and healing of victims than traditional approaches. While my PhD united and applied an integrated intersectional and ecological approach in the novel theoretical framework, during the fellowship I will transform this framework into a practical tool to enable users to apply it in situational and needs assessments, strategic analysis, project planning and monitoring frameworks, to name a few, in humanitarian, conflict and development settings. In doing so, I will develop an integrated analysis tool to support gender and diversity integration into interventions, which will be field tested.Also, publishing an article, initiating a monograph project, conference presentations and academic exchange, will help build a track record and ensure a parallel academic progression by developing scholarship on intersectionality, resilience, religion and forced displacement, mobilising new voices and resources to respond to global displacement. The publications will inform the development of policy brief and guidance notes (with a tool piloted in the field) oriented toward practitioners and policymakers which will be launched in multi-stakeholder events, accompanied by blog posts and policy engagements. A special stakeholder group, comprised of leading agencies and practitioners interested in SGBV and religion, will be formed early in the project to gather input into development of technical documents and ensure user engagement. Outputs of this fellowship are wide-ranging and oriented toward achieving academic excellence and maximising impact through multi-stakeholder engagement to ensure research dissemination and uptake. The additional analysis of my PhD quantitative data sets aims to better understand relationship between SGBV and mental health outcomes, and additional analysis of how service providers approach religion.