AUTHOR : RFLD’s Research Team
Despite numerous international commitments, gender inequality remains one of the fundamental causes of exclusion worldwide. The most recent data attest to the fact that gender inequalities lead to a multitude of deficiencies in Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH). The fight against gender inequality is a prerequisite for the protection, respect and realization of the right to sexual and reproductive health. Gender inequalities, harmful gender-based norms and stigmatization remain commonplace. Disparities are pervasive, and girls, women and transgender people continue to be disproportionately discriminated against in all aspects of their economic, social and political lives. This is an obstacle to sustainable development, as highlighted by the inclusion of a stand-alone Sustainable Development Goal aimed at achieving gender equality and empowering all young people and women. For years, international organizations have been taking pioneering action to transform gender norms and establish gender equality, with the aim of improving the sexual and reproductive health situation. Gender equality is a fundamental human right. Guaranteeing universal access to this right for all
for all is essential to achieving gender equality. However, to transform gender relations, we need to change their structural underpinnings. Women, girls and transgender people should be able to lead lives free from violence and discrimination. They should have the opportunity to develop their potential and have access to a wide range of resources, on an equal footing with their opposite-sex counterparts. To advance gender equality and empower girls and women, it is imperative that governments provide the quality services, education and social conditions that enable women to maintain their sexual and reproductive health in the first place, and to use their skills wherever they feel comfortable.
ENJEUX TRANSVERSAUX DE L’ÉGALITÉ ENTRE LES SEXES
Here, we’ll be tackling gender equality issues in a set of four priority outcomes and strands. We will do this by strengthening the leadership of girls and women, and by promoting policies and laws aimed at eliminating gender inequalities once and for all. We will seek to participate constructively in the fight against harmful norms and norm-based practices. We will inscribe a gender-sensitive approach and ensure that the fight against gender-based violence is an important component of integrated and comprehensive programs. Gender equality – the concept that all people should be treated equally, with equal opportunities and outcomes – is a human right. It is only through gender equality that the best state of sexual and reproductive health can be achieved, a fact that has been recognized in international public policy. For example, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) recognize the indispensable role of gender equality in achieving sustainable development.
IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON GENDER EQUALITY IN AFRICA
The advent of the Covid-19 pandemic, like a truly disruptive element, has destabilized and even silenced the economies of African countries. While the impact of Covid-19 has spared no sector, it is important to identify and recognize the different ways in which the crisis has affected men and women, and to highlight the specific mechanisms by which the epidemic has affected women and girls, particularly those already at risk. This development will therefore enable organizations in Africa, development partners and governments to identify the main impacts of the crisis on women and girls for consideration in socio-economic impact assessments relating to the pandemic, with the ultimate aim of developing policy actions to mitigate these impacts and lay the foundations for a corrective effort that takes into account the needs of girls and women. In order to better understand the impact of the pandemic on different population and gender groups, we will carry out prospective analyses of different sectors, in particular the water, sanitation and hygiene sector, and the unpaid care sector, and explain why this is so important.
The Covid-19 pandemic, far from being a simple pandemic, has a different impact on men and women due to the differentiation observed in socio-economic roles and existing gender inequalities. General measures of social distancing and the economic slowdown resulting from the crisis have hit women in vulnerable jobs the hardest. The syntagms of women at risk who are particularly vulnerable to the crisis are informal sector workers, domestic workers and day laborers, girls living in food-insecure households, refugee women and girls, victims of gender-based violence, health sector workers and elderly women.
WOMEN IN THE INFORMAL SECTOR AND THOSE IN VULNERABLE JOBS
Barrier measures, especially social distancing, were more likely to affect women working in the informal sector, as well as daily wage earners. Some, such as domestic workers, have lost their jobs or seen their incomes considerably reduced. Others, on the other hand, have seen their incomes and livelihoods considerably reduced as a result of mobility restrictions, border closures and the closure of certain large gathering places. 87% of women work in the informal sector, 70% in agriculture. By April 2020, it was estimated that one month of cordon sanitaire had resulted in several thousand cases of domestic violence against women, already affecting one in three women worldwide each year. In its first year, the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted thousands of women’s access to contraception, resulting in thousands of unwanted pregnancies.
INCREASE IN THE COST OF NON-REMUNERATED ACTIVITIES
The burden of unpaid care work within households has increased as a result of the coronavirus crisis, as mobility restrictions have limited the availability of domestic work and other household support services. Women do 4 times as much work as men, and this pattern has greatly increased during the crisis. It is therefore likely that women will shoulder the heavy burden of unpaid care work during this difficult health period for most of the world’s countries. Despite the global expansion of the pandemic, the consequences of gender-based violence have increased exponentially, and the crisis has contributed to this in several ways. Firstly, social distancing measures, such as the cordon sanitaire in Benin, have worsened the situation of victims of domestic violence, who have found themselves locked up with their aggressors in conditions of heightened stress. Confinement has also increased internet use, particularly among young people, and could increase young girls’ exposure to cybercrime and gender-based violence. Secondly, the erosion of household livelihoods can lead to an increase in harmful practices towards women and girls, such as trafficking and early marriage, which has pushed women to adopt coping strategies involving transactional sex.
Immediate reporting and support services have also been harder to access due to mobility restrictions, and essential services, including life-saving care such as mental health, clinical rape management, psychosocial support, can be disrupted when health and social service providers are overloaded and focused on managing the pandemic.
To eliminate gender inequality, governments must implement policies that obey a number of rules:
Rule 1: Governments must adopt transformative policies that promote the respect and protection of gender equality and the empowerment of women to use their skills everywhere.
Indeed, gender equality will only become a reality if there is the political will to promote gender equality and protect the human rights of all citizens, especially those of girls and women in all their diversity. A simple declaration by governments or public authorities of the need to transform harmful practices and norms will therefore not suffice. A necessary step in this direction is the study and adoption of laws aimed at combating gender inequality, as well as the development of measures to guarantee their application. For this, the existence of non-discriminatory gender equality legislation is mandatory. It must be comprehensive, including all individuals in all their diversity.
Rule 2: Draw up policies that allocate sufficient resources to gender-related programs and define macroeconomic budget lines.
The commitment of governments to gender equality through national policy is evidenced here by budget allocations at national level for the implementation of relevant gender-transformative strategies, and by the respect and fear of the relevant laws.
Rule 3 : To this end, in all ministries, public programs to promote respect for human rights and implementation will adopt a published gender perspective wherever possible.
This information is important for assessing progress and understanding appropriate interventions. Presence of mechanisms for meaningful CSO participation in the defense and advancement of gender equality. Civil society should see these as opportunities to support and objectively assess budgets, projects and strategies for their gender-transformative potential, and to include community representation, especially of women and youth in all their diversity.
