In addition to its immediate adverse impact on women’s and girls’ health and education, the COVID-19 pandemic has the potential to further exacerbate existing gender inequalities in economic opportunities across Sub-Saharan Africa. This report highlights evidence from the Africa Gender Innovation Lab and other promising research on mechanisms that can help protect the lives and livelihoods of women and girls—at the household level, in firms and farms, and during adolescence—in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The report provides detail around:
- protecting households
- supporting women-owned firms
- securing farmers' livelihoods
- boosting youth employment
- fostering resilience of adolescent girls
- cross-cutting gender considerations for response and recovery operations
While these interventions focus on improving economic and social outcomes for women, many of them also have positive impacts for men.