Women need more attention in a pandemic

By Oyebola Owolabi

Melinda Gates, co-chair of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) has called on leaders and policy makers to pay greater attention to the needs of women and girls, especially in these COVID-19 times.

In a paper: ‘The Pandemic’s Toll on Women and Girls’, Gates lamented that the pandemic had exploited pre-existing inequalities and impacted women’s lives and livelihoods.

She said: “Early data suggest that in low and middle-income nations, the cutback in maternal care during COVID-19 could claim the lives of up to 113,000 women.

“Previous disease outbreaks, including AIDS and Ebola, exploited existing forces of inequality, particularly around gender, systemic racism, and poverty. The broader impacts of this crisis are having a disproportionate impact on women and girls.

“In Africa, for example, women account for around 40 per cent of COVID-19 cases. However, African women and girls are disproportionately affected by reduced access to health care services and are at greater risk of gender-based violence.

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And because women make up the majority of workers in the informal sector, this leaves them at greater risk of losing their income.

“That is what epidemics do – they not only overwhelm immune systems, they also overwhelm health systems. And because the parts of those systems devoted to caring for women are often the most fragile and underfunded, they collapse first and fastest.

“To recover fully from this pandemic, there must be different approaches and response to dealing with as it affects men and women differently.

Governments should design more inclusive economic policies, gather better data, and prioritise women’s leadership.

“Sexual and reproductive health care must be classified as ‘essential’ services. Leaders must ensure that women and girls are not left behind in the world’s response to COVID-19.

Policy makers should replace old systems with new and better ones, especially in health, economics and decision-making, which can help build a more equal and prosperous future.

“They should also make maternal and reproductive health care an essential service, protecting the contraceptive supply chain, and using the pandemic as an opportunity to integrate women’s health care.

This is how we can emerge from the pandemic in all of its dimensions – by recognising that women are not just victims of a broken world but can also be architects of a better one.”