Paper by the COVID-19 Response Gender Working group.
April 2020.
On 11 March 2020, the World Health Organisation classified COVID-19 as a pandemic.1 Pandemics affect men and women, boys and girls differently, as they often magnify all existing inequalities. A COVID-19 outbreak in Fiji will disproportionately affect women and girls with women at increased risk of infection, intimate partner violence, job losses and vulnerable work. This is coupled with, limited social protections and less access to formal safety nets, less access to finance, increased burden of unpaid care work, loss of livelihoods, and having less access to sexual and reproductive health services.
This guidance note intends to contribute to an effective, gender responsive and coordinated COVID-19 national response and recovery packages. It is also expected to inform relevant stakeholders of gendered challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic while provide brief analysis and recommendations. The note sets out key principles, background information while highlights the gendered impacts of COVID-19 on selected sectors including agriculture, tourism and health as well as important issues such as violence against women and girls and the human rights of the most at-risk, marginalised and vulnerable groups.
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