UN Women contributes towards gender-responsive solutions to COVID-19 crisis

ByLaxman Datt Pant

UN Women contributes towards gender-responsive solutions to COVID-19 crisis

Aiming to integrate women and girls within the COVID-19 response and recovery efforts, UN Women has contributed towards gender-responsive solutions to the pandemic crisis in Nepal and countries in Asia and the Pacific.

A report released today by the UN Women Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific titled ‘Standing Up to the Challenge: Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic in Asia and the Pacific’, highlights how UN Women has been able to apply resources for gender-responsive crisis management to meet the urgent needs of women and girls. The report also outlines innovative research approaches to tackle underlying inequities going forward.

The report traces UN Women’s efforts to safeguard access to emergency hygiene and immediate relief, enduring life-saving essential services for cases of violence against women and girls, integrating gender into national and sub-national crisis response strategies and uplifting women’s economic empowerment.

Stating that UN Women has handed out cash to women in need, analyzed social media for trends of domestic violence, and drawn up checklists that make sure shelters protect women from both COVID-19 and further abuse, the press statement issued today by UN Women reads, “The aim has been to provide both immediate relief and long-term solutions as the outbreak has worsened abuse and discrimination against women in all areas, from gender-based violence to work opportunities, climate change, and migration.”

UN Women engaged hundreds of female home-based workers in Nepal to begin producing masks and to channel these into supply chains with the added benefit of enabling women to sustain their livelihoods.

Articulating that response and recovery efforts must centre on leaving no one behind, Mohammad Naciri, the UN Women Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific said, “The vulnerable and marginalized, usually women and girls, should not be left behind while being grounded in the socioeconomic realities that they face.”

The report records that violence against vulnerable groups has drawn media attention. In Nepal, cases of sexual violence against Dalit women made the headlines while in the Philippines, there was an increased level of discourse regarding the rise in the abuse of overseas domestic workers.

Noting that it quickly became apparent that COVID-19 unleashed not one but two pandemics, as domestic violence against women and girls surged under lockdown, the report states, “While searches for terms, i.e. signs of physical abuse, jumped by half or more in Malaysia, the Philippines and Nepal, calls to helplines in Papua New Guinea tripled.”

  • According to the report, UN Women has been able to carry out big-data analysis and identify specific areas for support
  • UN Women tapped into Twitter across eight countries to make sure women searching for certain keywords were shown a notification in their own language with a hotline number and Twitter handle to contact
  • Communications technology was used to shift the needle of public discourse around gender-based violence
  • In Bangladesh, texts were sent to nearly 17,000 imams encouraging them to spread awareness of domestic violence in their sermons while social media helped to spark public debate of the plight of Dalit women in Nepal
  • The pandemic also presented an increased risk of isolation and abuse for millions of migrant women workers, whether in lockdown far from home or in quarantine following repatriation
  • In Myanmar, UN Women worked with the government and women’s organizations to provide returning migrants with cash for work and improved referral mechanisms for abuse survivors
  • The report notes that a gender equality and social inclusion checklist was established in Nepal for mandatory isolation facilities which became a tool to monitor standards of safety and dignity
  • As many as 3,000 women and excluded groups in seven districts across four provinces of Nepal were supported with comprehensive relief packages with cash and in-kind assistance
  • Malaysia had the highest increase of help-seeking searches (70%) followed by Nepal (47%), Thailand (29%) and Singapore (29%)
  • Public service announcements broadcast via media in Nepal helped reach around 8.7 million people with timely and clear information about the pandemic and available services
  • Online media has been useful to spread the message of a respectful home environment. In Thailand, UN Women kicked off the #HeForSheAtHome campaign, including on TikTok, which received 46 million views
  •  In Bangladesh, a version of the campaign on “sharing the load” streamed images of men helping out in the home out to nearly 408,000 mobile phone users
  • An app in Malaysia called Kiddocare allowed working parents to find babysitting services and provided 600 of those babysitters with jobs.

The report found quarantine conditions were more challenging in many territories which led UN Women to develop a checklist, based on work by the UN Children’s Fund in Vietnam, for gender-responsive facilities. Additionally, the checklist has been rolled out to Nepal, Cambodia, Myanmar, Pakistan and Timor-Leste. UN Women supported this with cash grants in drought-stricken parts of Vietnam and with money via mobile phone apps in flooded areas in Bangladesh.

The crisis is said to have presented an opportunity to build back better for women and girls. The case studies discussed in the report provide insights on how to take action and integrate women and girls in the COVID-19 response and recovery.