Data in action: Global COVID-19 Gender Response Tracker

Today I was thrilled to be among a group of stellar panelists to launch a new online gender policy tracker, which — for the first time — provides real-time information on how governments are responding to the COVID-19 crisis, from a gender equality perspective.

The good news: many governments are taking steps in the right direction. The bad news: most are not doing nearly enough.

Why does this matter? As the COVID-19 crisis continues to wreak havoc, it becomes ever clearer that this crisis is having a severe impact on women and girls. The pandemic is acting like a magnifying glass, both revealing and intensifying existing gender inequalities.

For example, we are receiving reports from all over the world that gender-based violence is increasing. So far, we lack robust data to capture the full picture, but the women’s organizations at the forefront of dealing with this ‘shadow pandemic’ tell us that lockdowns are confining women with their abusers and that economic hardship may be one of the factors driving up rates of early marriage.

Governments have a responsibility to take action to prevent COVID-19 rolling back the precious, and fragile, progress that we have made over recent decades.

Here are my three take-aways from this effort by UN Women, in partnership with UNDP:

1. Governments are stepping up to support survivors of violence against women and girls. But the response is not at anything like the scale needed to match the problem

Out of a total of 2,500 measures we analyzed, more than 700 focused on steps to address violence against women and girls. This is promising, and indicates that Governments are heeding the UN Secretary General’s call to deal with the ‘horrifying surge’ in violence we are seeing.

But, many of these measures are relatively small-scale, focused on ensuring help lines are operational, and that shelters have interim funding. We see these kinds of actions from countries as diverse as India and Canada. The use of technology features in many of the measures to ensure survivors can connect to services.

We should applaud this. At the same time, we should acknowledge that a problem that costs economies between 1–2 per cent of their GDP (not to mention the incalculable costs of human misery) requires a much more comprehensive response.

2. Many African governments are taking action to protect women’s economic security

Women’s livelihoods have been hit hard by this crisis. Women are over-represented in informal employment, which lacks basic labour rights and social protection, and in the sectors most affected by lockdowns, such as retail and hospitality.

Overall, less than one in five (18 per cent) social protection and labour market measures taken by Governments protect women’s economic security. The continent of Africa is doing comparatively well in this area (with the second highest number of measures after the Americas), with notable measures targeting women including the extension of cash transfers in Kenya, distribution of food in Rwanda, and support for market traders in Liberia.

3. The severity of the care crisis is not yet cutting through to policy

There are no silver linings to this devastating crisis, but if anything positive could come out of it, it would be the recognition of care as the critical policy issue it is. it is hard to think of something so fundamental to the everyday functioning of our societies and economies, that is so neglected in policy terms. COVID-19 has brought this into the public consciousness in an unprecedented way, but policymakers have still not caught up.

Only 8 per cent of measures taken to respond to COVID-19 address the issue of unpaid care. Even before COVID-19, women were doing three quarters of this work, but measures to support it, like additional leave and cash to support parents, where schools and daycares have closed, are few and far between. Where these policies are in place, it is mostly in high income countries, as well as in Latin America, but women in other developing regions desperately need this support too.

Beyond these headlines, the tracker and the regional and global analyses that accompany it provides a rich treasure trove of policy examples. Yes, there are gaps, but there is also innovation and inspiration to guide Governments and activists alike. This will be critical if #Generation Equality is to become a reality.