The Global Women’s Institute will partner with international researchers over the next five years to study violence against women and girls in South Sudan, the University announced Tuesday.

The study, which is part of a project led by the International Rescue Committee, will aim to create strategies for preventing and addressing violence against women and girls during humanitarian crises.

Faculty from the Milken Institute School of Public Health, the Elliott School of International Affairs and the GW Law School will also work on the project.

The director of the Global Women’s Institute, Mary Ellsberg, and its research director, Manuel Contreras-Urbina, made a preliminary trip to the country earlier this month. They will return to do research alongside several other organizations, including CARE International UK.

“The cumulative effect of [violence] on women, who have been living in a war zone for more than 20 years, can be both psychologically and physically devastating,” Ellsberg said in a release.

South Sudan became an independent country in 2011, but war broke out in the region again in 2013.

The project is funded by the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development.

The Global Women’s Institute, which was established in 2012, has expanded over the past two years, tripling its staff and forming partnerships with groups such as the Malala Fund.