In the three months since CARE released its first Rapid Gender Analysis of COVID-19, the situation has evolved quickly and spread globally. CARE has continued to closely monitor this situation, by conducting context-specific analyses in 5 regions covering 64 countries. This has included conversations and data collection with more than 4,500 women.
This new analysis confirms the initial findings and predictions of the first analysis. It also reveals new areas of high priority for women and girls—and for men and boys—as the crisis deepens. Our recent research reveals:
• The highest immediate priorities 3 months into the crisis are food, income, and rights—including concerns around Gender Based Violence, caregiving burdens, and mobility. Women and girls show these needs most acutely, but they also rise to the top of men and boys’ priorities in COVID-19.
• Women’s burdens are increasing. As frontline workers in the health system, as survivors of Gender Based Violence, as the people primarily responsible for food, cleaning, and childcare—especially with schools closed, women confirm that their burdens are rising, and so is the stress around them.
• Women are displaying remarkable leadership, but are still unable to access most decision-making, around COVID-19 and around daily life. They are also quickly approaching the end of their safety nets.
In this context, this document provides updated recommendations to focus on lessening the immediate impact on women and providing the chance to build back equal. These recommendations cluster around:
• Urgently addressing top priorities of food, income, and rights by expanding safety nets—both in the immediate response and in long-term ways for all people to provide their own food and livelihoods.
• Reducing women’s burdens by providing extra support for caregiving, services for GBV prevention and response, and investing in women healthcare workers.
• Prioritizing women’s leadership by creating space for women leaders at all levels of the response, and consistently listening to women’s perspectives and data as the crisis evolves.