The chapter introduces the core subject areas, case study, and research approach, as well as the overall framework of the book. Focusing on refugees’ lives in encampment in Uganda, the chapter first identifies and explains the inherently interrelated subject areas of gender-based violence, humanitarian aid, gender roles and relations, and coping strategies—each then explored in its own subsequent chapter. While of main interest is the perspectives, experiences, and practices of women, the research is not limited to them—those of women and men, of all different age groups, are consistently examined due to their mutual influences on one another. The chapter then sheds light on Uganda’s response to refugees and the case of Kyaka II, which is at the heart of the book. Although refugee protection in Uganda is often described as ‘progressive,’ the chapter summarizes the problems faced on-site and nationally, paving the way for further analysis in due course. The third part introduces the research approach taken along with reflections on ethical considerations and the writing of the book. The chapter closes by outlining the structure of the book and summarizing the main arguments of each of the subsequent chapters.

How do aid agencies deliver protection and assistance in Uganda’s Kyaka II, and specifically seek to prevent and overcome gender-based violence? In what ways do they affect the women and men living there? Focusing on these questions, the chapter explores the overall camp structures and scope of aid via the humanitarian apparatus, power practices, and decision-making—as well as their effects on the refugees living in Kyaka II. Divided into four parts, the first addresses developments and aid in the camp alongside hierarchies, and argues that refugees are made ‘protection objects.’ The second part centers on projects tackling gender-based violence, and their links with global refugee policies. It reveals how preventive and protective projects against gender-based violence as well as those to support empowerment essentially draw on ‘vulnerability’ categorizations, which portray women primarily as ‘vulnerable protection objects.’ The third part addresses correlations between aid, the camp architecture, and the prevalence of gender-based violence, revealing the three issues of aid workers at times perpetrating violence, the structural effects of aid, and the risks resulting from the camp landscape. Before concluding, the fourth part considers whether the broad critique of aid provision and of the camp is reasonable in light of the challenges that aid agencies themselves face.