Gendered impacts of COVID-19: Insights from 7 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia

Gendered impacts of COVID-19: Insights from 7 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia
Author: Alvi, Muzna Fatima
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
Total Pages: 144
Release: 2022-02-18
Genre: Political Science
ISBN:

It is widely recognized that periods of crisis affect men and women differently, mediated by their access to resources and information, as well as social and institutional structures that may systematically disadvantage women from being able to access relief, institutional support, and rehabilitation. To capture the gendered impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns, we conducted phone surveys in seven countries spread across Asia and Africa. The study was designed as a longitudinal panel study with five rounds of data collection in Ghana, Nepal, Nigeria, and Senegal, and three rounds of data collection in Kenya, Niger, and Uganda. Both men and women were administered the same survey, with some modifications made across countries to adapt to local contexts. This report gives an overview of our findings covering several topics including income loss, coping strategies, labor and time use, food and water insecurity and child education outcomes. We find widespread reports of income loss, which declined over time, but increased again as countries experienced a resurgence in COVID-19 cases and fatality. We find that households first depleted savings when faced with income loss and over time, use of savings reduced while other measures began to be adopted. Women reported greater food and water insecurity compared to men, including worrying about insufficient food and eating less than usual. This is particularly worrying since a large proportion of women also did not have adequately diverse diets. Moderate to severe water insecurity was reported in many of the countries, and as with food insecurity, women were more likely to report issues with accessing water for drinking and other household activities. In some countries, additional modules were added to capture country specific issues of policy relevance, such agriculture extension, mental health, and child marriage. The results make it clear that proactive investments will be needed, including social safety nets, favorable credit policies, nutrition and water investments, to ensure that the crisis does not further widen the gender gap in resources and achievements in rural areas of low- and middle-income countries.

The Green Belt Movement

The Green Belt Movement
Author: Wangari Maathai
Publisher: Lantern Books
Total Pages: 166
Release: 2003
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9781590560402

Wangari Maathai, founder of The Green Belt Movement, tells its story including the philosophy behind it, its challenges, and objectives.

Enhancing the Climate Resilience of Africa's Infrastructure

Enhancing the Climate Resilience of Africa's Infrastructure
Author: Raffaello Cervigni
Publisher: World Bank Publications
Total Pages: 219
Release: 2015-09-01
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1464804672

To sustain Africa’s growth, and accelerate the eradication of extreme poverty, investment in infrastructure is fundamental. In 2010, the Africa Infrastructure Country Diagnostic found that to enable Africa to fill its infrastructure gap, some US$ 93 billion per year for the next decade will need to be invested. The Program for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA), endorsed in 2012 by the continent’s Heads of State and Government, lays out an ambitious long-term plan for closing Africa’s infrastructure including trough step increases in hydroelectric power generation and water storage capacity. Much of this investment will support the construction of long-lived infrastructure (e.g. dams, power stations, irrigation canals), which may be vulnerable to changes in climatic patterns, the direction and magnitude of which remain significantly uncertain. Enhancing the Climate Resilience of Africa 's Infrastructure evaluates -using for the first time a single consistent methodology and the state-of-the-arte climate scenarios-, the impacts of climate change on hydro-power and irrigation expansion plans in Africa’s main rivers basins (Niger, Senegal, Volta, Congo, Nile, Zambezi, Orange); and outlines an approach to reduce climate risks through suitable adjustments to the planning and design process. The book finds that failure to integrate climate change in the planning and design of power and water infrastructure could entail, in scenarios of drying climate conditions, losses of hydropower revenues between 5% and 60% (depending on the basin); and increases in consumer expenditure for energy up to 3 times the corresponding baseline values. In in wet climate scenarios, business-as-usual infrastructure development could lead to foregone revenues in the range of 15% to 130% of the baseline, to the extent that the larger volume of precipitation is not used to expand the production of hydropower. Despite the large uncertainty on whether drier or wetter conditions will prevail in the future in Africa, the book finds that by modifying existing investment plans to explicitly handle the risk of large climate swings, can cut in half or more the cost that would accrue by building infrastructure on the basis of the climate of the past.

Gender, the Environment and Sustainable Development in Asia and the Pacific

Gender, the Environment and Sustainable Development in Asia and the Pacific
Author: United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific
Publisher: United Nations
Total Pages: 110
Release: 2017-09-27
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9213627335

This publication is the first Asia-Pacific report that comprehensively maps out the intersections between gender and environment at the levels of household, work, community and policy. It examines gender concerns in the spheres of food security, agriculture, energy, water, fisheries and forestry, and identifies strategic entry points for policy interventions. Based on a grounded study of the reality in the Asia-Pacific region, this report puts together good practices and policy lessons that could be capitalized by policymakers to advance the agenda of sustainable development in Asia and the Pacific.

The Challenge for Africa

The Challenge for Africa
Author: Wangari Maathai
Publisher: Anchor
Total Pages: 337
Release: 2009-04-07
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0307378098

In this groundbreaking work, the Nobel Peace Prize-winner and founder of the Green Belt Movement offers a new perspective on the troubles facing Africa today. Too often these challenges are portrayed by the media in extreme terms connoting poverty, dependence, and desperation. Wangari Maathai, the author of Unbowed, sees things differently, and here she argues for a moral revolution among Africans themselves. Illuminating the complex and dynamic nature of the continent, Maathai offers “hardheaded hope” and “realistic options” for change and improvement. She deftly describes what Africans can and need to do for themselves, stressing all the while responsibility and accountability. Impassioned and empathetic, The Challenge for Africa is a book of immense importance.

Impacts of Climate Change and Variability on Pastoralist Women in Sub-Saharan Africa

Impacts of Climate Change and Variability on Pastoralist Women in Sub-Saharan Africa
Author: Melese Getu
Publisher: African Books Collective
Total Pages: 360
Release: 2013
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 9970252364

The term climate change is used to denote any significant but extended change in the measures of climate. The changes could be due to natural variability or as a result of human activities, such as the burning of fossil fuels to produce energy, deforestation, industrial processes, and some agricultural practices. Such activities release large amounts of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere that hang like a blanket around the earth, thus trapping energy in the atmosphere and causing it to warm up. This results increasingly in climate variability, which is characterised by extreme seasonal, annual, temporal and non-spatial variability in temperature, vagaries of precipitation (rainfall patterns and amounts) and/or wind patterns occurring over a prolonged period of time. The last decade (2001 - 2010) has been the warmest on record; with the average temperatures reaching 0.46∞C, above the 1961 - 1990 mean, and 0.21∞C warmer than the 1991 - 2000 period. It has been proved that the African continent is warming up faster, all year-round, than the global avera≥ a trend that is likely to continue. By the year 2100, it is predicted that temperature changes will fall into ranges of about 1.4∞C to nearly 5.8∞C increase in mean surface temperature compared to 1990, and the mean sea level will rise between 10cm to 90 cm (AMCEN 2011). The interior of semiarid margins of the Sahara and central southern Africa will be the most affected by such warming (AMCEN 2011). To tackle the phenomenon of climate change effectively, human societies have put in place a combination of mitigation and adaptation mechanisms and strategies. Whereas mitigation aims at avoiding or lessening the impacts of the unmanageable, the goal of adaptation is to manage the unavoidable. That men and women are affected differently by climate change suggests that they also differ in terms of the adaptation mechanisms they employ. Despite the existence of gender-based differences in the effects of climate change and in adaptation and coping strategies, studies on the gender differential impacts of climate change and variability on women in general and pastoralist women in particular in sub-Saharan Africa are limited. This volume offers insights and knowledge that pastoralist women developed on climate change adaptation through their experiences in their households and communities and thereby tries to narrow this gap.

Women's Empowerment for Sustainability in Africa

Women's Empowerment for Sustainability in Africa
Author: Robert Dibie
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages: 498
Release: 2019-01-17
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1527526224

This book uses an open, explorative approach to deal with the different aspects of gender discrimination and gender empowerment policies, as well as their impact on economic development and capacity-building in several African countries. It uses primary and secondary data to present the argument that, without the full input of women, sustainable development will not be achieved in many African countries. This book is the first text written by knowledgeable gender issue experts that understand the culture of, and lived and conducted research in, Africa. It provides many examples of the relationships between gender and economic development around the African continent, highlighting different processes and practices. As such, the contributors here illustrate the impact of weak gender policies, and the ability to adequately develop female capacity building that could lead to wide-spread sustainable economic growth in Africa. They also explore a wide range of new dimensions and variables that are commonly ignored by other text books on gender equality. The book will help graduate, undergraduate students and other readers to understand women’s policies in the past, present, and future by analysing and illustrating cultural, political and socio-historical contexts which have shaped women’s role in the economic and sustainable development of Africa.

Environment and Sustainable Development in Eastern and Southern Africa

Environment and Sustainable Development in Eastern and Southern Africa
Author: Abdel Ghaffar M. Ahmed
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 244
Release: 2016-07-27
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1349266434

This book sheds light on the sources of environmental concerns in Africa. It shows that not all environmental issues command the same priority interest and, thus, emphasis must be laid on those that are of pressing concern to the continent as a whole and to the Eastern and Southern African regions in particular. The case studies address this topic in detail.

Women's Economic Empowerment

Women's Economic Empowerment
Author: Kate Grantham
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 211
Release: 2021-03-04
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1000340341

This book investigates the barriers to women’s economic empowerment in the Global South. Drawing on evidence from a wide range of countries, the book outlines important lessons and practical solutions for promoting gender equality. Despite global progress in closing gender gaps in education and health, women’s economic empowerment has lagged behind, with little evidence that economic growth promotes gender equality. International Development Research Centre’s (IDRC) Growth and Economic Opportunities for Women (GrOW) programme was set up to provide policy lessons, insights, and concrete solutions that could lead to advances in gender equality, particularly on the role of institutions and macroeconomic growth, barriers to labour market access for women, and the impact of women’s care responsibilities. This book showcases rigorous and multi-disciplinary research emerging from this ground-breaking programme, covering topics such as the school-to-work transition, child marriage, unpaid domestic work and childcare, labour market segregation, and the power of social and cultural norms that prevent women from fully participating in better paid sectors of the economy. With a range of rich case studies from Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Kenya, Nepal, Rwanda, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, and Uganda, this book is perfect for students, researchers, practitioners, and policymakers working on women’s economic empowerment and gender equality in the Global South.