The effect of armed conflict on intimate partner violence: Evidence from the Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria

Uche Eseosa Ekhator-Mobayode, Lucia C. Hanmer, Eliana Rubiano-Matulevich and Diana Jimena Arango

World Development, 2022, vol. 153, issue C

Abstract: Intimate partner violence (IPV) is the most common form of violence against women in both conflict and non-conflict settings but in conflict settings it often receives less attention than other forms of gender-based violence (GBV), such as conflict-related sexual violence. To examine whether increased rates of IPV are linked to conflict we use data from Domestic Violence module of the Nigerian Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) collected in 2008 and 2013 and spatially link them to the Boko Haram (BH) actor file of the Armed Conflict Location and Events Database (ACLED). To estimate whether the BH insurgency is associated with increases in IPV we use a quasi-experimental approach, employing a kernel-based difference-in-difference model. We also examine the effect of the BH insurgency on women’s likelihood of experiencing controlling behavior from a husband or partner, women’s autonomy in household decision-making and their control over their own earnings. We find that the presence of BH increases the probability that women experience physical or sexual IPV by about 4 percentage points after controlling for known correlates of IPV; partner’s alcohol use, previous exposure to IPV and condoning IPV as a social norm. Further, we find controlling behaviors from husbands/partners – another form of IPV - are heightened in locations that are impacted by the BH insurgency. In these places women’s risk of experiencing controlling behavior increases by 14 percentage points, indicating that the BH insurgency exacerbates another form of IPV; behaviors that are often pre-cursors to physical and sexual IPV. Our results underscore the need for policy makers to prioritize programs that respond to and prevent IPV in conflict affected settings. Effective program responses can be both integrated into sectoral programs and delivered as standalone programs alongside other interventions that provide services to communities living in conflict-affected settings.

Keywords: Armed conflict; Forced displacement; Intimate Partner Violence; Boko Haram Insurgency; Nigeria, Africa (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X21003958
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:153:y:2022:i:c:s0305750x21003958

DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2021.105780

Access Statistics for this article

World Development is currently edited by O. T. Coomes

More articles in World Development from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().