COVID-19 lockdown: The triple effects on gender-based violence

Research on how the COVID-19 lockdown affected gender-based violence (GBV) focused largely on the negative effects of the lockdown on GBV. Using a multinomial probit model, this paper assessed the effects of the lockdown on GBV and the determinants of these effects in Northern Uganda. The results show that the lockdown reduced and increased GBV in some cases, but it had negligible effects in other cases. These effects were determined by many factors depending on how they related to economic and food insecurity. Household heads with higher education levels experienced job losses and increased GBV, but those with savings had less food insecurity and GBV. Members of VSLA that were disrupted by the lockdown faced severe economic insecurity, but members of the undisrupted VSLA experienced less economic security and GBV. Households with many earning members suffered more job losses and increased GBV, but those having own houses faced no rent burden and less GBV. Farm households experienced less effects of the lockdown and no change in GBV. Rural households and those far from the main road experienced less stringent lockdowns and GBV, but those that faced financial constraints had more GBV cases. Farm households had less severe food insecurity and GBV. Household heads earning wages and salary had lower household sizes and GBV cases. The paper implies a need for pandemic mitigation measures to balance their health benefits with socio-economic costs, overcome economic insecurity, and consider socio-economic differences. GBV was viewed as a uniform entity, but future studies need to explore the effects of pandemics on different forms of GBV.