A new UN plan has been rolled out for economic recovery and transformation from the corona pandemic in a way that helps women close gender inequality with access to economic opportunities.
The plan by the world body’s agency UN Women comes as estimates say millions of women may not be able to regain their jobs lost to the pandemic due to a variety of reasons.
The plan calls for seizing the opportunity to handle coronavirus-related crises better.
Called ‘UN Women’s Beyond COVID-19: A Feminist Plan for Sustainability and Social Justice,’ it draws on the latest data, analysis, and input from more than 100 global experts.
“We have a generational opportunity to break the vicious cycle of economic insecurity, environmental destruction, and exclusionary politics and shape a better, more gender-equal and sustainable world”, Pramila Patten, UN-Women’s Acting Executive Director, said.
The paper makes note of the fact that the pandemic has exacerbated pre-existing gender inequalities and laid bare weaknesses in the already fragile global care economy.
“Globally, in 2019 and 2020, women lost 54 million jobs, and even before the pandemic, they took on three times as much unpaid care work as men”, according to UN Women.
Moreover, women are disproportionately impacted by environmental degradation while also being left out of decision-making around policy and financing to address climate change.
And by the end of 2021, men’s jobs will have recovered, but there will still be 13 million fewer women in employment, the gender empowerment agency pointed out.
The trio of interconnected crises of jobs, care, and climate, systematically undermines gender equality and threatens the survival of people and the planet, but there is still an opportunity to change course.
“Today’s report provides a roadmap for how to do this while recovering the ground that’s been lost on gender equality and women’s rights”, Ms. Patten said.
To address these intersecting crises, UN Women is calling for better policy, action and investment, including in the care economy and social infrastructure, such as creating jobs and increasing support for unpaid caregivers.
The report maintains that public investments in care services could create 40 to 60 per cent more jobs than the same investments in construction.
Under the premise that transitioning to environmental sustainability can create up to 24 million new green jobs, the report stresses that women should have their fair share of these opportunities, including by getting the necessary training and skills.
And women’s leadership must be promoted across institutional spaces, from governments to civil society and the private sector, and especially in crisis response.
Despite having been on the frontlines of the COVID-19 response, making up 70 percent of healthcare workers globally, the roadmap notes that women currently hold only 24 percent of seats on COVID-19 taskforces that have coordinated the policy response around the world.
Moreover, despite their critical roles as watchdogs and providing a social safety net in communities, women’s organizations are woefully underfunded.
In 2018-19, women’s rights organizations received only one percent of all aid allocated by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to gender equality, amounting to only a tiny fraction of total aid.
