Resilient patriarchy: public authority and women's (in)security in Karamoja, Uganda

Who Has Access to Livestock Vaccines? Using the Social-Ecological Model and Intersectionality Frameworks to Identify the Social Barriers to Peste des Petits Ruminants Vaccines in Karamoja, Uganda

Access to veterinary services is important in Karamoja, northeastern part of Uganda, as livestock is a primary source of livelihood. Gender is often overlooked in animal health programs, let alone intersectionality. However, given the socio-cultural intricacies of Karamoja, ignoring these factors may hinder animal vaccination practices, limiting the success of programs designed to control and prevent animal diseases, such as peste des petits ruminants (PPR). The study used qualitative research methods, including focus group discussions, individual interviews, and key informant interviews in a participatory research approach to investigate the constraints faced by livestock keepers when accessing vaccines. The study was carried out in Abim, Amudat, Kotido, and Moroto, four districts in the Karamoja Subregion of Uganda. A modified version of the socio-ecological model (SEM) blended with an intersectional approach were used as frameworks to analyze underlying individual, social and structural determinants of vaccine access with intersecting factors of social inequalities. The results show there are seven intersecting factors that influence access to vaccination the most. These are: gender, ethnicity, geographic location, age, physical ability, marital status, and access to education. The impact of these intersections across the different levels of the SEM highlight that there are vast inequalities within the current system. Access to vaccines and information about animal health was most limited among women, widows, the elderly, the disabled, geographically isolated, and those with unfavorable knowledge, attitudes, and practices about vaccination. Cultural norms of communities were also important factors determining access to PPR vaccines. Norms that burden women with household chores and beliefs that women cannot manage livestock, combined with gender-based violence, leaves them unable to participate in and benefit from the livestock vaccine value chain. Trainings and sensitization on gendered intersectional approaches for those involved in the distribution and delivery of vaccines are necessary to avoid exacerbating existing inequalities in Karamoja.

Policing men: militarised masculinity, youth livelihoods, and security in conflict-affected northern Uganda

Relations between militaries and masculinities-and hegemonic masculinity and the state-are well-established in the literature on gender and development. However, there is less research on how militarised masculinities relate to state governance strategies. This paper, based on qualitative research conducted in northern Uganda between 2014 and 2017, offers a gender analysis of youths participating in informal security arrangements. Civilian male youths accept poorly paid or unpaid work in the informal security sector in the hope of gaining access to livelihoods that will enable them to fulfil masculine ideal-types. However, this arrangement denies them the resources necessary to achieve the ideal-type of civilian masculinity, as well as the state's military masculinity, which produces young men as subjects of the ruling regime. To reconfigure this relationship between civilian and militarised masculinities, one should understand informal security organisations in the context of alternative livelihood arrangements and take a long-term approach to the demilitarisation of the Ugandan state.