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

Moreover, women from the Women’s Network for Peacebuilding in Libya have used their phones to connect and continue their activism for peace online. They spread information through radio stations, including giving out the numbers to hotlines for survivors of GBV and distributing cleaning and sanitising products to low-income households and to migrant and refugee communities. They have also joined forces with health care providers and legal aid campaigners to distribute personal protective equipment to both doctors and nurses, as well as prison inmates, who are at particular risk of contracting the virus. 170 Lesotho’s Ministry of Health, UNICEF and Help Lesotho are providing SHRH counselling remotely and individually by WhatsApp message and phone call.171

Lessons learnt from both the HIV/AIDS and especially the Ebola epidemics in West and East Africa during the past two decades are one of the main reasons for the continent’s preparedness. Many African countries have adopted practices to fight those epidemics that have now been adapted to the new pandemic.172

For instance, hand-washing stations were put in places in which crowds of people gathered, such as schools, prayer houses or marketplaces, which led to quick adoption of hand-washing by the population.173 Access to water also plays a vital role in this pandemic. To ensure this, girls in Senegal have installed 24/7 “Tipi Tapa” water stations in communities where access to drinking water is limited, in order to encourage hand-washing.174 They have also started a campaign called “#RaKhassouChallenge” which translates as “hand-washing,” and visited community members to raise awareness of its importance.175

International observers have lauded the quick jump to action and coordination effort by the AU as “its finest hour” so far since its inception.176 This momentum for cooperation should be upheld to address other transborder issues like climate change and human trafficking, both of which affect women disproportionately. The pandemic response by African countries needs to be gender-inclusive while also taking into account the situation of marginalised women living with HIV, transgender women or sex workers, who are exposed to greater risks of contracting the virus and who often lack housing and resources to protect themselves adequately.177

Current technological advances could be used to strengthen health care systems and make them more accessible.178 Examples are use of the WhatsApp chatbot to answer questions on COVID-19 in South Africa, available in five languages, and the development of a triaging app in Nigeria by a health tech start-up to help users self-assess their coronavirus status or risk category.179 Since the pandemic can be transmitted by both genders, this digitalisation of the health care system will be efficient only if the digital gender gap is eradicated and women and men have the same access to these health care apps. Moreover, these apps should also include corollary health risk information, such as SHRH information.180 Comprehensive and age-responsive sexual education online or via other methods of media should be made available, and adolescents should have access to a broad range of contraceptives.181

As for education, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) recommends appropriate distance learning practices, which take into account the gender digital divide, and adopting policies that ensure the return to school.182 Moreover, “girls’ clubs” could be installed in more countries. These were created in several countries during the Ebola epidemic to provide safe spaces in which to promote girls’ education and other life skills.183 Adopting these safe spaces, as well as policies to track the return of girls to school, is recommended. In turn, this could also lower HIV rates. In the case of Botswana, it has been proven that, after the ninth year of schooling, each additional year reduces the infection risk of girls by 12%, whereas fewer years limit girls’ decision-making power and therefore increases the risk.184 Moreover, back-to-school policies should be adopted in Equatorial Guinea and Tanzania to ensure that the potential of the growing number of young girls who are becoming pregnant is not lost and to thereby mitigate the secondary long-term consequences of the virus.

With regard to access of justice, a number of countries had put in place legal aid frameworks prior to the pandemic.185 During the pandemic, a CSO in Sierra Leone called AdvocAid working with women deprived of their liberty and affected by violence has transitioned its activities to be conducted over the phone or through the passing of forms to be filled out by detainees.186