The op-ed written by Susan Papp, the Managing Director of Policy and Advocacy at Women Deliver, and Marcy Hersh, the Senior Manager for Humanitarian Advocacy at Women Deliver, provides recommendations for taking on COVID-19 with a gender lens.
Some recommendations include:
- During the COVID-19 pandemic, the most effective policy responses will be those that account for how the crisis is experienced by women and girls.
- Protect and support the global health workforce, 70% of whom are women. It is crucial that these health workers are trained, resourced, and equipped, which means filling global shortages in protective gear like medical masks and gloves, so that they and their patients are adequately protected.
- Tackle the 28% gender pay gap in the global health workforce and ensure decent and safe working environments with proper protective equipment.
- Dismantle the discriminatory system that excludes women health workers from the decision-making bodies that initiate life-saving emergency protocols in health-care settings.
- Invest in the timely collection of gender- and age-disaggregated data in all surveillance and monitoring efforts.
- Ensure that essential maternal, sexual, and reproductive health services are not disrupted.
- Ensure the participation of girls and women in all local, national, regional, and global task forces on COVID-19.
Read the full piece here.
