This archive report was first published on 10 May 2020.
As the world grapples with the COVID-19 pandemic, it has become increasingly clear that women and girls are bearing the brunt of the crisis. According to a recent report, disasters, man-made or natural, tend to have a disproportionate impact on women and girls, particularly in their social and economic roles.
However, the COVID-19 pandemic has added a new dimension to this issue. Unlike previous disasters, where response efforts focused on addressing situations of peril and want, the measures taken to combat the pandemic are likely to push more women into poverty and vulnerability.
Published on May 10, 2020, the article highlights the government's efforts to curb the spread of infection, but notes that these measures are likely to hurt players in the informal economy, particularly women. The closure of open-air markets, where most people get food, has disadvantaged mainly women, who are the majority in the low-skill jobs in the informal sector.
Furthermore, the advisory to use mobile money in transactions has hurt women-led microenterprises, which are cash-dependent. Traditionally, women have had higher saving rates than men, but due to gender biases in formal financial markets, most women's savings are held as cash or in non-cash assets or deposits in the informal financial sector.
Despite these savings, women were locked out of credit facilities until recently, when approaches to financial savings and credit emerged to bank the women. The poverty lending approach, which involves individuals creating groups that regularly save and then take out small loans, has been a preferred approach that targets women.
However, the government's measures to combat the pandemic are likely to hinder women from servicing their micro loans, in some cases leading to default. In light of this, the underwriter of these loans, the government, should provide a detailed plan for ensuring that women and vulnerable groups do not end up suffering double vulnerability in the form of inability to repay debts and loss of livelihoods.
As the government ponders a post-Covid-19 recovery plan, it should take into account women's unique role in the microenterprise sector, particularly in the informal economy. A quick option would be to write off loans to groups that are not financially sound, or to consolidate and convert loans of groups with sound fiducial management to equity and then use them as vehicles for deepening affirmative action and mentorship.
