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International Development and Studies

Understanding the Agency of Smallholder Women Farmers with and without Disabilities in Post-Conflict Northern Uganda Through a Participatory Research Approach Sooyoung Choi*, Sooyoung Choi, Amanda Crump, David Agole,

Women in rural Uganda shoulder multiple responsibilities as subsistent farmers and primary household providers, while facing restricted access to resources and exclusion from decision-making. In the Acholi region, Northern Uganda, the civil war from the 1980s to the 2000s rendered gender disparities even more multifaceted. Although women have played central roles throughout communities during the war and rehabilitation processes, they are frequently excluded from major discussions of development and reconstruction both by external actors and through internalized norms. In this context, women with disabilities experienced further layered forms of marginalization. This study employs participatory methodology to reposition these excluded women at the center of knowledge production and community discourse. Through participatory methods such as community concept drawings and transect walks, the research examines how women farmers construct and exhibit agency in their everyday lives. For the smallholder women farmers in the region, empowerment is perceived as a relational concept encompassing household wellbeing, children’s education, and broader community prosperity. Women with disabilities actively reconfigure agency through collective strategies, particularly participation in agricultural groups, which function as alternative support structures in response to limited external support. By positioning participants as co-interpreters of their lived experiences, participatory methods contribute to revealing the intersecting dynamics of gender, disability, and family relations in post-conflict rural livelihoods.