Make Every Woman Count
7.10. National Responses in Support of Women A number of countries have assisted MSMEs by providing tax exemptions or financial help. Banks in Malawi have been allowed to offer a three-month moratorium on interest payments by the Reserve Bank of Malawi for SMEs.150 A competition to provide technical and financial aid to SMEs to re-launch the economy of Guinea targets rural women and youth.151 Some countries have therefore included gender-smart stimulus packages that support smaller businesses too.152 Moreover, African banks’ loans have been adapted to women lenders by relaxing both the collateral requirement and the interest rates.153 More specifically, a livelihood assistance safety net is being developed for the informal sector in Morocco and South Africa.154 In Burkina Faso and Senegal, a solidarity fund has been set up to finance women’s vegetable and fruit businesses (US$9 million and US$10 million, respectively).155 More holistically, the four countries of the MENA region have started to focus on mainstreaming gender in their immediate response, in cooperation with national and international women’s organisations, thereby potentially paving the way to standardise their inclusion in future policy-making.156 In Algeria and Morocco, the National Crisis Committee also includes representatives from the Ministry of National Solidarity, the Family and Women’s Affairs and in Tunisia the Ministry of Finance cooperates with the Ministry of Women, the Family, Children and Seniors to tailor the response to the most vulnerable.157 Women have adapted their businesses to produce masks for the general population. Mounia Lazali, for instance, a professional designer and painter based in Algeria, has been producing face masks since March, using African prints cotton and cotton waxed fabrics.158 In Madagascar, the chocolate brand MIA (Made in Africa) is procuring funds to secure the local production of face masks and free meals with the help of women unemployed as a result of the virus.159 Women who have lost their jobs are now sewing medical gowns blouses on behalf of the Tunisian government in return for a small sum.160 The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) sees an opportunity for triggering the remuneration of subsistence activities more broadly, though, also identifying the risk that women could be segregated into entrepreneurship associated mostly with sewing and cooking.161 Technology has played a big role in addressing the challenges women are facing under COVID-19. Dr Ola Brown, the founder of the Nigerian Flying Doctors Investment Group, has launched mobile testing booths, which reduce the use of personal protective equipment.162 The South African founder of Robots Can Think and leader of the educational stream for Women in AI South Africa, Natalie Raphil, has developed a 3D printer to produce 100 masks a day for hospitals within Johannesburg.163 The Ugandan NGO Institute for Social Transformation has created the Market Garden App, through which market women in Uganda have been able to sell virtually and deliver food by boda bodas before the 2pm curfew.164 Technology has played a role in addressing SHRH issues. In order to address the growing rate of teenage pregnancy, Plan International has created animations and radio programmes on SHRH and teenage pregnancy, in cooperation with the nationwide youth radio and broadcasting station in Malawi, Timveni, as well as television programmes in Rwanda and Zambia and radio stations across Zimbabwe.165 Sierra Leone has adopted back-to-school policies to allow pregnant girls to pursue their education.166 Since women could not access shelters owing to the lockdown, the Ministry of Women, the Family, Children and Seniors in Tunisia opened a new half-way centre in which the survivors of domestic violence could self-quarantine before accessing the actual shelter.167 Aside from Tunisia, seven other countries (Angola, Egypt, Mozambique, Rwanda, South Africa and South Sudan) have launched or extended GBV helplines to operate 24/7.168 Using technology, the National Union of Moroccan Women has created an app for smartphones to work in partnership with the Department of Justice and police units, which has a location feature to trace the caller. 169
36
> back to contents
