WOM/2219

A crisis, whether it is the COVID-19 pandemic or the devastating effects of climate change, can be an opportunity to empower women and advance gender equality by putting women at the center of the recovery process, stakeholders told the Commission on the Status of Women. during a round table today.

Titled “Harnessing the COVID-19 Recovery for Gender Equality and a Sustainable Future,” the interactive dialogue included presentations from India’s Jayati Ghosh, professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst; Gordana Gavrilović from Serbia, Gender Advisor to the Serbian Deputy Prime Minister and Chair of the Coordinating Body for Gender Equality; Mercedes D’Alessandro from Argentina, Economist, Researcher and Advisor to the Ministry of Economy; Sherilyn MacGregor from the UK, Lecturer in Environmental Policy at the University of Manchester; Lebogang Ramafoko, managing director of Tekano Health Equity of South Africa; and Papa Seck, Chief of the Research and Data Section at the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women).

Ms. Ghosh said the conditions for achieving gender equality and women’s empowerment are more perilous than ever, as governments continue to prioritize profits over people. Stressing the need for a longer-term vision, she said the world needed to see a change in direction and a shift to a new economic model. Instead of thinking about how to make women work for the economy, it is imperative to think about how the economy can work for women. She also highlighted the need to invest in healthcare, the care economy and green jobs and to support women-owned small and medium enterprises by making credit available to them. In this regard, policy measures must be substantial.

Internationally, low- and middle-income countries need more fiscal space, she said, stressing the need to improve financial flows and increase global public investment. “We need to rethink how we look at the international system so that the national system is up to the job,” she said.

Ms. Gavrilović said the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic led to an economic crisis which, once again, had a huge impact on women. Women are mainly employed in lower paid jobs, especially women belonging to vulnerable groups such as Roma women, women from rural areas and people with disabilities. The crisis has led many women to become partially or entirely economically dependent on their partners, some of whom may be violent, making it very difficult for women victims of gender-based violence to leave their abusers and seek help.

Citing a study conducted by UN-Women, she said that nearly 16,000 women were registered as survivors of violence in Serbia in 2020. In this spirit, her country remains genuinely committed to addressing this issue and is committed to increasing and promote gender equality in all areas. sectors of society. Serbia is one of the few countries in the world to have conducted an economic analysis of unpaid care and domestic work which showed that women spend twice as much time doing unpaid work in the home, which leaves less time for education and paid work.

Ms. D’Alessandro said Argentina had made early diagnoses of the COVID-19 crisis, as women suffer the most in any crisis. The pandemic has created a care crisis, in which women’s household chores have increased dramatically. Their share of community care has increased, as most health and education workers are women.

In 2020, her government rolled out measures to mitigate the impact of the crisis on women, including assistance to mothers, who are among the hardest hit, as well as poor households, she said. In 2021, when the economy started to rebound, women were the main actors in the recovery. In Latin America, only Argentina and Bolivia have seen female employment return to pre-pandemic levels, she said, adding that early diagnosis had worked.

Ms. MacGregor said existing visions for a just recovery from the pandemic and for a just transition away from fossil fuel-powered economies have been critically assessed, then remade, through an intersectional ecofeminist lens to propose a new deal. feminist green. This lens offers a set of solutions to the interrelated care and climate crises. Care jobs are green jobs. The Feminist New Green Deal calls for higher wages and better working conditions for social workers and the creation of new care-related jobs, such as health and social services.

Stressing that care work has a relatively low environmental impact, so it should be seen as work that pushes economies towards decarbonisation, she also noted that the agreement also calls for public investment in social infrastructure. Every pound invested in the care sector produces almost three times more jobs than an equivalent investment in construction. The co-location of workplaces and essential services and retail outlets, such as office buildings with on-site care centers, schools, canteens, laundry services, makes juggling multiple tasks more convenient for people with family responsibilities, especially women with children.

Ms Ramafoko said structural inequalities inherited from the apartheid regime mean that inequality in South Africa invariably overlaps with poverty, socio-economic disadvantage and race. The containment and spread of the COVID-19 virus – and the resulting health crisis – have exacerbated existing inequalities and poverty crises, increased unemployment, deepened racial divides and led to higher levels of sexual violence and violence. sexist against women and children.

To build back better, the only way forward is to take an intersectional feminist approach that directs resources to marginalized and disempowered groups first, she said. This approach should be applied to all aspects of life. “We cannot continue to support economic and political systems that are not gender-responsive,” she warned, stressing that the solution is to listen to women’s voices.

Mr. Seck said UN-Women has collected and analyzed data on the impact of COVID-19 on gender equality over the past two years, and also monitored the policy response to the pandemic. There are real concerns that, without decisive action, the pandemic is already causing long-term reversals in gender equality and women’s rights. The COVID-19 Global Gender Response Tracker revealed that only 12% of all social protection and labor market measures adopted in response to the pandemic targeted women’s economic security and only 7% provided support to the increased demands for unpaid care.

However, he pointed out, the recovery offers an opening to do things differently for women. Panelists identified critical steps towards building greener and more equal societies that resonate with UN-Women’s recently launched report “Beyond COVID-19, a Feminist Blueprint for Sustainability and Social Justice”. World leaders can choose between doubling down on past mistakes or seizing the opportunity to do things differently and turn this moment into a “breakthrough” for a green and gender-equitable future.

During the ensuing discussion, the representative of Saudi Arabia said that the empowerment of women is a pillar of public policy in her country, highlighting several measures taken by the government, including the removal of red tape to request benefits and assistance for pregnant and breastfeeding women.

The youth delegate from Switzerland said it was essential for women to be part of a full, equal and meaningful decision-making process at all levels and was curious to hear good practices to ensure this.

In the United States, her representative said, women accounted for 70% of the net job losses from the pandemic, with black women severely affected. Her country is working to expand economic opportunities for women, welcoming the presentation of a panel on the new feminist green deal.

The delegate from Georgia said the government had anti-crisis plans in place, including compensation for those who lost their income during COVID-19; compensation for children; utility subsidies; and business support measures. Some prerequisites and barriers to applying for economic support programs have been removed. Women-led businesses and female applicants received additional points during the assessment.

A speaker from the World YWCA urged Member States to heed the evidence on the ground and work with women’s rights movements and organizations to learn from the experience of recovery and response to COVID-19, and build on that to ensure women, young women and other marginalized genders are at the decision-making board.

The representative of Japan said that her country had integrated a gender perspective into disaster risk reduction policies and programs and used the 2011 tsunami disaster as an opportunity to build back better. Japan is applying this experience to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. An unprecedented crisis offers a chance to build back stronger and achieve gender equality.

The representatives of the Republic of Korea, the United Kingdom, Sudan and the United Arab Emirates also took the floor. A representative of the European Union, in its capacity as an observer, and speakers from several civil society organizations also participated in the discussion.

The Commission will reconvene at 3 p.m. on Friday, 25 March, to conclude its sixty-sixth session.

For news media. Not an official record.