Today, women’s economic empowerment has become an essential component of economic development programming. However, it is now known that improvement in women’s economic situation often comes with heavy unanticipated costs to women. Violence, in particular, is too often a by-product, as our research and that of others elsewhere have shown. The Do No Harm project addresses the question of how to improve women’s economic agency and the security of their livelihoods without compromising their safety.

This report draws on primary qualitative research carried out in three districts (Kieta, Panguna and Tinputz) of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville which shows that women’s income generating activities brought increased violence against them as well as other problems.