Critical Roles of Refugee Leaders and Service Providers in the Gender-based Violence (GBV) Help-Seeking of Refugee Survivors

Gender-based violence (GBV) is a complicated challenge embedded in displaced
 people’s lived experiences throughout the conflict displacement cycle.
 Despite the awareness of existing institutionalised help-seeking referral
 pathways, these do not necessarily translate to the full utilisation of such
 services. This paper examines the critical role of refugee leaders and service
 providers in potentially enabling and realising a GBV survivor’s
 help-seeking. By adapting a meso-level analysis, it attempts to explain how
 social networks built within conflict and displacement contribute to responding
 to GBV. Based on the review of collected interviews in 2019 from refugee leaders
 and service providers working with South Sudanese refugees in selected
 settlements in Uganda, the paper reflects on the importance of network, norms
 and trust in effectively responding to GBV in conditions of conflict-affected
 displacement.