Coronavirus: West African women excluded from pandemic info sharing, key decision making - Report
Abidjan, Ivory Coast (PANA) - Women are excluded from information sharing on Covid-19 and from key high level decision making processes at national and regional levels, says a new gender analysis by humanitarian charity, CARE.
The NGO, which is fighting global poverty by lifting up women and girls, said on Thursday in a report that despite the exclusion of women from information sharing, the analysis also reveals how coronavirus is creating opportunities to disrupt deeply entrenched gender inequalities.
CARE said it interviewed more than 260 people representing communities, health ministries and local aid organizations, from 12 West African countries.
It found some major gaps including access to basic needs like food and handwashing supplies, health services and official information on prevention measures.
"Despite this, the analysis also revealed emerging examples of women’s innovation and resilience in the face of the COVID-19 outbreak," CARE said in a press statement.
It noted that the vast majority of countries in West Africa like Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso are very fragile.
Covid-19 is expected to severely exacerbate an already volatile situation, particularly in the Sahel Region.
Here, COVID-19 adds to an existing combination of poverty, climate change impacts, low human development and conflict, the report said.
“Over 44 million people in our region (West Africa) were already in urgent need of humanitarian assistance before the pandemic, and national response plans remain significantly underfunded,” said Claudine Mensah Awute, CARE Regional Director for West Africa.
“The many critical gaps across the region force both us, as humanitarians, and families in dire need to undertake challenging prioritization exercises on a daily basis.”
COVID-19 is also disproportionately impacting women and girls across the West Africa region.
"Information sharing and dissemination of hygiene and prevention messaging is one good example of gender bias," Awute said.
Many of the traditional media outlets used to communicate on the pandemic are not sensitive to the specific needs of women, she noted.
“Despite this, there are also some emerging rays of hope and opportunities for women."
The report said the majority of respondents in the survey said that there had been an increase in shared decision making on the management of household resources.
The report also found that the most significant effects of Covid-19 are the reduction of economic activities and income.
Businesses closing or reducing their activities, and the loss of work for many informal and daily wage workers has a huge impact on their economic well-being.
Fear of contracting the disease combined with a mistrust of health workers means less women are accessing services like reproductive health which could lead to increased maternal and neonatal mortality.
A large segment of the population does not have access to information on the virus and best practice hygiene measures for containing it.
CARE said it has reached 68 million vulnerable people in 100 countries around the world in 2019.
Since the onset of Covid-19, it has pivoted its life-saving food security, health services, educational, and women’s empowerment programming to directly fighting the spread and impact of the disease, it said.
-0- PANA DJ/MA 21May2020
