The COVID-19 pandemic has reverberated across the world, laying bare power inequalities and threatening to set back decades of gains on gender equality and social inclusion. The pandemic has been especially devastating for marginalized populations around the world who face disproportionate hardship in the face of COVID-19. This is why gender equality and social inclusion is critical for international development and humanitarian response organizations as they work on adapting program responses and staff wellness initiatives.
Members of the Gender Practitioners Collaborative (GPC) and the Endorsers’ Circle have been collecting data as well as developing and sharing resources to support inclusive and equitable design, programming, and implementation for COVID response and recovery efforts.
This post is the second in a series of “round ups,” in which we will periodically share a summary of recently published resources from GPC and Endorsers Circle Members. Please continue to follow us for updates!
The Asia Foundation
The Asia Foundation has published several blog posts and webinars addressing the disproportionate impacts of COVID-19 on women and girls, including the need to address gender-based violence.
- Funding the Frontline: Rapid Response to the Gendered Impacts of Covid-19 in Asia – this blog post highlights the Lotus Rapid Response Fund, made possible with the generous support of The Asia Foundation’s Lotus Circle donors, which enables rapid response to the immediate needs of women and girls by providing additional resources for vital services, new interventions, and working with partners to adapt to these critical needs.
- The Hidden Pandemic: Addressing Gender-Based Violence in Asia during COVID-19 – resources are available from this webinar, which focused on uncovering the rapid increase in domestic violence during the pandemic, promising approaches in responding with programmatic examples from Sri Lanka and Timor Leste, and key issues and areas to address in the time ahead.
- In Asia, not all homes are safe: we need an urgent shift in thinking – this blog post discusses the need to incorporate attention to gender-based violence in COVID-19 response.
International Rescue Committee (IRC)
The International Rescue Committee has published several technical guidance documents to guide humanitarian programming across various sectors, to overcome the digital gender gap with the increase in remote service delivery, support humanitarian staff in a gender-sensitive manner, a global gender analysis in partnership with CARE and a press release highlighting the increase in barriers to women accessing GBV services.
- Gender Recommendations for COVID-19 Program Response in Health, Economic, Education and other sectors (English/French)
- COVID-19 and the Digital Gender Gap Guidance (English/French)
- Supporting Staff through the Gendered Impacts of COVID-19 response (English/French/Arabic)
- CARE & IRC COVID-19 Global Rapid Gender Analysis
- New Data Shows a Decrease in Women Being Able to Report Incidents of Domestic Violence in Fragile and Conflict-affected Settings
Jhpiego
Jhpiego developed operational guidance that synthesizes global recommendations, current best evidence and critical resources to help health care providers, managers and leaders to maintain essential health services, including for family planning, gender-based violence, and maternal health, during and after the pandemic, and ensure families receive the care and treatment they need and deserve.
Myra Betron, Director of Gender at Jhpiego, also co-authored a commentary in the journal Global Public Health, discussing important gender determinants to both men’s and women’s vulnerabilities to COVID-19 and calling on the global health community to unpack and address these early in the COVID-19 pandemic response.
Save the Children
Save the Children has developed various organizational-level technical initiatives to address gender and social inclusion including during COVID response:
- Eight Ways to Ensure Gender Equality is at the Center of Responses to COVID-19
- COVID-19: Gender Equality Matters (English and Spanish)
- READY Online Learning Series. COVID-19: Magnifying Gender Inequalities. Initially labeled the “great equalizer,” the COVID-19 pandemic is anything but. Anchoring the discussion in the feminist perspective, speakers discussed how power hierarchies exacerbate inequalities during a crisis, including the “shadow pandemic” of gender-based violence.
- COVID 19: Gender Analysis Tool
- COVID-19: Humanitarian Gender Equality Marker
Yeva Avakyan, Associate Vice President of Gender Equality at Save the Children, also co-authored an article in the journal Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters, that discusses how emphasizing the needs of “women and girls” doesn’t always focus on the systemic nature of inequality and marginalization and argues for a stronger understanding of discriminatory systems and power hierarchies that better inform programming and advocacy.
Please check out these great resources and check back for future updates, as we will share additional guidance and information about how our members and endorsers are promoting gender and social inclusion as part of COVID-19 response.
This is good.am extremely happy and thank you very much.