Populations living in fragile and conflict-affected settings (FCS) endure serious hardship, often including witnessing or having direct exposure to violence. These experiences adversely affect the mind, body, and spirit, and diminish the capacity of individuals and communities to take full advantage of economic empowerment opportunities. A small but growing number of programs have begun to combine psychosocial support with livelihood support in FCS, with some promising indication that this combination can enhance project outcomes. This paper assesses evidence to generate a 'hypothesis of change' that combining psychosocial with livelihood support can improve development outcomes in FCS. We reviewed evaluations of three categories of programs: (i) those that provide psychosocial support and assess impact on economic empowerment, (ii) those that provide livelihood support and assess impact on psychosocial well-being, and (iii) those that combine both types of support and assess impact on one or both outcomes.
This study analyzes the commercial sex market in Managua, Nicaragua, to understand risky behavior among sex workers. While health risks are a major concern for sex workers, the risk of violence weighs more heavily in decision making, such that they more often take risks to their health than to their immediate, physical well-being. These concerns are reflected in the lower premiums sex workers charge for unprotected sex (39 percent more for vaginal sex without a condom) compared with risks of violence, such as accompanying a client to an unknown place (a 118 percent premium). Risk behaviors reflect a rational calculation of actual risk: while only 9 percent of the sample knew anyone diagnosed with HIV, nearly 44 percent of sex workers had been assaulted. These observations indicate the need to consider sex workers' physical safety in policies to contain the spread of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases.Nicaragua, risky behavior, violence, HIV/AIDS, public policy, sex work, JEL Codes: A1, B54, D81,
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.