Treating sexual violence as a “business”: Reflections on national and international responses to sexual and gender-based violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo

This chapter aims to question the ways in which sexual and gender-based violence have been framed in international discourse and policy and thus to examine some of the causes of the perceived failure of international responses to this violence.

The chapter is based on qualitative research carried out through key informant interviews and focus groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The research highlights the ways in which limited understandings of sexual and gender-based violence lead to interventions which have unintended and sometimes negative consequences for gender relations in the DRC.

The chapter calls on researchers, policy makers, and aid practitioners to rethink their approaches to tackling sexual and gender-based violence and to incorporate these into a more coherent overall approach to gender inequality.