We can counter the effects of the pandemic on women by putting gender equality at the heart of Covid recovery

Countless effects of Covid-19 on basic health services in many countries hit women and girls hard. In the face of surges and disruptions, contraceptives are not available at local clinics, access to sexual health information is no longer a priority, and female health workers – the beating heart of many communities – are overwhelmed at work and at home. Without proper protective equipment, many face risks at work.

As Covid-19 exposes deep and persistent inequalities, world leaders have an unprecedented opportunity to take concrete and transformative action to advance gender equality. The Generational Equality Forum, which President Macron is hosting in Paris this week, will highlight the huge gap between what the world is like today and what we hope to be by 2030.

The call for accelerated and irreversible action on gender equality has never been more urgent.

Accelerated action is needed as modest progress that was initially slow and uneven is now threatened. We just need to look at sexual and reproductive health and rights to see what remains to be done. Every year at least 10 million teenage girls give birth as a result of rape or involuntary pregnancy, nearly 300,000 women die during and after pregnancy, and 220 million women who do not want to become pregnant have no access to contraception – with another 5 million women who lose access to contraceptives from disruptions caused by Covid-19.

Irreversible action is needed because the Covid-19 pandemic has shown that basic systems that underlie many societies also tend to be gender-specific.

The last 15 months of the pandemic had a significant impact on women and girls. Gender-based violence has risen sharply; protracted school closings will keep millions of girls away from classes forever; more marriages at a younger age; more unpaid care falls on women; and malfunctions in the health and nutrition systems mean that millions more women and girls will suffer from hunger and malnutrition if nothing is done. Since the beginning of the pandemic, the provision of basic health services for women and girls in the GFF partner countries has declined by up to 25 percent. This equates to four million women who are not receiving obstetrics and 17 million children are missing vaccinations.

Eliminating the gender inequalities that stifle women’s health needs is not just a moral imperative. It also makes good business sense and is vital to recovery from Covid-19. For example, World Bank research shows that Nigeria’s GDP per capita could be more than 25 percent higher if gender inequality were reduced.

As global and local efforts focus on building resilient recovery, ensuring gender equality and providing comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services must be part of that effort. The good news is we know what to do and that we have tools and partnerships in place that can help bridge this growing divide.

The Global Financing Facility (GFF), a partnership within the World Bank, has gender equality as its focus. The GFF has been working with countries since 2015 to make the health of women, children and adolescents a priority. It has helped countries push funding – including increased budgets and private capital – behind a health plan that prioritizes innovation, impactful interventions and systems needed to support women and youth.

The GFF approach is working well and on a scale that the world desperately needs. In the countries supported by the GFF, more women and adolescent girls have access to modern contraception, more women have received prenatal care and access to birthing facilities, and fewer adolescent girls have given birth to the pandemic, we need to use innovative and catalytic approaches that Free up additional public and private funding, including from the capital markets.

But expanding the amount of money will not be enough if it is held in cities and does not reach the last mile. Today more than ever, countries need to take and fund measures that prioritize primary health care, including sexual and reproductive health services. We need to broaden access to family planning and integrate comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services as a core part of health systems into all social settings.

By putting gender equality at the heart of politics and funding, we can work together to counter the effects of the pandemic on women and girls. Together we can reclaim the achievements and rebuild the world more just, safer and healthier. But we need decisive action now and urgently

SE Professor Awa Marie Coll-Seck, Minister of State of the Republic of Senegal; The Honorable Karina Gould, Minister for International Development, Global Affairs, Canada; and Ms. Mari Pangestu, Director General for Development Policy and Partnerships, World Bank.

source https://dailyhealthynews.ca/we-can-counter-the-effects-of-the-pandemic-on-women-by-putting-gender-equality-at-the-heart-of-covid-recovery/