COVID-19 and the Participation of Women and Women's Rights Organisations in Decision-Making

"[I]t is important to have the right women in decision-making positions who might advocate for other women and also to have the right conditions so that women are empowered to act on any specific needs of women..."

This K4D rapid review examines available evidence around the political representation of women and women's rights organisations in COVID-19 decision-making. It consists of 5 sections: (i) a summary of the overall findings; (ii) a presentation of available evidence of women's participation in the COVID-19 response; (iii) a summary of the gendered consequences of COVID-19; (iv) a presentation of available evidence that the inclusion of women in decision-making leads to a more gendered response; and (v) recommendations on how to better engage women in the COVID-19 response.

Overall, evidence on the research questions was somewhat scarce, which is not surprising considering the recent and evolving nature of COVID-19. However, the review found more grey literature representing the stories and voices of women's rights organisations and women activists. A selection of this grey literature in the form of opinion pieces and blogs is included as an annex to this review.

In brief, the review finds the following:

• There is strong evidence that there are low levels of female participation at senior-level decision-making in COVID-19, across countries from the Global North and South. In a survey of 30 countries, on average, women made up 24% of national-level committees established to respond to COVID-19.
• There have been reports on the link between female leaders and effective COVID-19 responses; one that ran statistical analyses with data from 35 countries found:
  • Countries with governments led by women suffered 6 times fewer confirmed deaths from COVID-19 than countries with governments led by men.
  • Female-led governments have been more effective and rapid at flattening the epidemic's curve, with peaks in daily deaths about 6 times lower than in countries led by men.
  • The average number of days with confirmed deaths was 34 in countries led by women and 48 in countries led by men.
• Women's rights organisations face limitations to their ability to advocate and campaign through restrictions to civic space created by the COVID-19 response.
• There is mixed evidence with regard to women's rights organisations participating in COVID-19 decision-making. Some evidence finds they are being marginalised, and some finds they are being included or consulted.
• At the local and community levels, CARE's rapid gender analyses show that women are being left out of COVID-19 response decision-making, and the crisis is only exacerbating barriers to their participation.
• Women are at significant risk of the following secondary effects of COVID-19: increased gender-based violence (GBV), reduced access to sexual and reproductive health services, reduced livelihoods and economic opportunities, and reduced access to education. Despite these hardships and risks, in a survey of 30 countries, 7 were found to have made no commitment to women in their COVID-19 responses.
• Only 40% of confirmed COVID-19 cases around the world included age and sex disaggregation, which hinders the ability to analyse the gendered implications of the virus.
• No evidence was found to indicate that the exclusion of women from decision-making is leading to gender gaps in the COVID-19 response.
• Evidence from other emergency responses shows that women and women's rights organisations are more likely to understand and address the specific needs of women, particularly in relation to GBV. For example, research by CARE (2018) in Malawi and Vanuatu found that women responders are able to contribute to more contextualised and effective humanitarian protection initiatives. Core contributions identified included access to the most marginalised populations, a high-level contextual understanding, increased reach, and ability to contribute to the possibility of interventions becoming both gender transformative and more sustainable.

High-level political actors, United Nations (UN) agencies, and women's rights organisations and networks have made a series of recommendations for how to better engage women and how to integrate gender considerations into COVID-19 response planning, such as:

• Work in partnership with civil society, and ensure that women's rights organisations have access to adequate, reliable, and sustained funding.
• Take action to remove economic, social, and political barriers to participation, and ensure women have the information and resources required to participate meaningfully and as equals.
• Develop fully inclusive consultative mechanisms with women and their organisations at national and local levels.
• Collect disaggregated data, and conduct gender analyses and gender-sensitive research - particularly with the most vulnerable and disadvantaged groups. Ensure that a gender analysis is conducted in all sectors.
• Build towards a gender transformative response that challenges social norms around women's political leadership and resists attempts to roll back women's rights.
• Ensure that COVID-19 responses are gender- and conflict-sensitive and that peacebuilding actors can continue their work while supporting the COVID-19 response. (For example, engagement with women and women's rights organisations could build on the work of organisations and activists involved in work on women, peace, and security, particularly around the implementation of Security Council Resolution 1325.)

This report was prepared for the United Kingdom (UK) Department for International Development (DFID) and its partners "in support of pro-poor programmes".