Impact of COVID-19
on Women in Iraq and Yemen
6 Studies by UN Women and ESCWA
Introduction
The aim of these six reports is to provide a better understanding of the impact of COVID-19 on women’s economic and political participation and on their social protection in Iraq and Yemen. The studies are aimed at supporting the Governments of Iraq and Yemen, plus various stakeholders, in addressing the challenges that women face and increasing the effectiveness of efforts towards gender equality in all sectors, in the era of COVID-19 and beyond. The studies provide actionable recommendations to empower women in the society and the economy, and increase their political participation.
1. Impact of Covid-19 on Women’s Economic Participation in Iraq and Yemen
Iraq
Although Iraq is one of the largest oil producers in the world with $83.3 billion in oil revenues in 2019, non-oil private sector activities are limited and highly informal.
Direct economic and social costs of regional conflicts and ISIS occupation are high, including a large number of internally displaced persons (IDPs).
The Government’s policy response to COVID-19 included general social assistance and some measures to address health and violence against women. However, existing global trackers do not show that the government has implemented any measures related to women’s economic security or unpaid care work.
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Yemen
“ESCWA estimates that 73.7 per cent of the Yemeni population is living in poverty.
The global and regional economic slowdown may affect Yemen through reduced remittances from the GCC.
Prior to the pandemic in Yemen, the labour force participation rate saw a wide gender gap, at 65 per cent for males and 6 per cent for females.
In regions where curfew was imposed, the limited access to markets and reduced mobility had a significant impact on women in the informal sector.
Even women working in the formal private sector were negatively affected. Many private schools, which are mostly owned by women, suffered as parents stopped paying tuition.
Measures after the lockdown, such as social distancing and increased cleaning, have put more pressure on women-owned businesses like salons.
In some instances, women managed to cope and adapt their business to mitigate the negative impact. For example, women owners of salons have started doing house visits.”
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Recommendations:
Iraq
• Provide low-cost financing programmes and increase stimulus funding to support women’s entrepreneurship. • Launch assistance programmes such as temporary financial support for unemployed and informal workers. • Expand the formal care economy to (a) ease the burden on women and allow them to engage in economic activities; and (b) create economic opportunities for women.
• Provide low-cost financing programmes and increase stimulus funding to support women’s entrepreneurship. • Launch assistance programmes such as temporary financial support for unemployed and informal workers. • Expand the formal care economy to (a) ease the burden on women and allow them to engage in economic activities; and (b) create economic opportunities for women.
Yemen
• Responses to COV In some instances, In some instances, ID-19 can be an opportunity to reinforce equality and inclusion.
• Support women’s entrepreneurship through low-cost financing programmes, increased stimulus, subsidized loans, financial inclusion, reduced taxation and support for skill development to sustain small and medium enterprises.
•Governmental agencies are encouraged to implement a policy framework that capitalizes on public works and cash-for-work programmes, which have shown some potential to generate female employment in specific contexts.
•Governmental agencies are also encouraged to take measures that help women engage in higher-value agricultural activities such as food processing and packaging.”
2. Impact of social protection policies
responding to COVID-19
on gender equality in Iraq and Yemen
Iraq
Measures have been implemented to provide social protection to women such as granting paid vacation and reducing working days to a minimum.
There is a good level of awareness of the increased burdens COVID-19 has imposed on women, but this has not translated into policies and measures to alleviate burdens or protect women from the pandemic or threats to their social welfare.
Women’s participation in decision-making processes and policies pertaining to COVID-19 was nearly negli- gible at the highest level, and has improved a small amount, without exceeding 25 per cent, at lower levels.
The lack of disaggregated data poses a strong challenge to all stakeholders attempting to alleviate the impact of COVID-19 on the Iraqi population.
Impact on women seems to have been greater: • Extra workload at home; • Fear of infection; • Psychological pressures, anxiety about a family member falling ill and an increase in cases of domestic violence; • Protection measures that fall on women's shoulders; • Dealing with the presence of children and husbands at home.
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Yemen
“During the pandemic there were relatively few gender sensitive policies:
•Working hours were reduced for the civil service; female civil servants were given paid leave;
•Pregnant women were given the option of not going to work;
•Women’s traditional role of caretaker was recognized critically important in preserving their families.
Women were included in bodies formed to counteract the pandemic on an ad hoc basis. Women’s participation varied from none at all to 15 per cent or 20 per cent.
A gender-sensitive response to the COVID-19 crisis is clearly missing. Inequalities remain across key spheres of life and in the public sphere.
Women are increasingly vulnerable. Women in many jobs were the weakest link, i.e. the first to be let go. Women are also under the burdens of intensified chores sanitizing and cleaning the home as well as increased responsibilities managing domestic affairs and the household economy.”
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Recommendations:
Iraq
• Introduce intersectionality into social protection measures (and all other gender-related policies) to serve all groups of women. • Develop a strategic plan to respond to crises and address the gender implications of this pandemic which means: (a) Including women and women's orga- nizations in developing response measures; (b) Transforming unfair unpaid care work into a new inclusive care economy that works for all; (c) Designing socio-economic plans with a deliberate focus on the lives and futures of women and girls; and (d) Mainstreaming gender perspectives in this strategy. • Ensure the continuation of basic health services provided to women and girls, as well as nutritional services for infants, children, girls and women in camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs).
Yemen
For social welfare and social protection, more and better financial and in-kind assistance is suggested, accompanied by small projects that lead to self-sufficiency, including for women; Authorities should allow civil society organizations to participate in the distribution of humanitarian assistance and monitoring of the implementation of assistance programmes; Interventions should be based on the needs of the Yemeni people and not based on preconceptions and assumptions; International donors and civil society organizations are advised to examine social protection services they provide to Yemeni society and ensure that they adequately address gender considerations; Initiatives to expand the registry of vulnerable people and improve the delivery mechanisms for all aspects of social protection should be based on an understanding of and consideration for gender constraints; Authorities should be cognizant of socio-cultural barriers, such as lack of decision-making power among adolescent girls and women over expenditures, restrictions on their mobility and cultural attitudes that reinforce harmful traditional practices.
3. Impact of the Conflict and COVID-19 on Women’s Political Participation in Iraq and Yemen
Iraq
Enabling factors for political participation of women
• Intensified and well-organized women’s activism in securing women’s rights; • Male support for women’s rights.
Obstructing factors
• Weak electoral support by women for female candidates. Women’s participation in the 2018 parliamentary elections reached 50% in 14 governorates, but none of the candidates on the eighteen lists which included women got enough votes to reflect women’s electoral weight; • The lack of political will to grant women a greater role in the political and peacebuilding processes; • Unconstitutional discrimination embodied in some laws, in particular the Penal Code.
Negative impacts of the conflict and the pandemic: threats and obstacles
• Threats to personal safety; • Threats to livelihood and survival; • Minimal representation of women in successive governments; • Gender norms and traditions.
Positive impact of the conflict and the pandemic: potential opportunities
• Changes in women’s self-perception and increased self-confidence; • Increased role of women in mediation; • Increased awareness of the need for legal and security protection for women; • Increased interest by women in joining security forces and other fields; • Shift to humanitarian aid and awareness raising.
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Yemen
Enabling factors for political participation of women
• Existence of political will; •Serious governmental efforts at empowering women of all social classes; •Decision makers’ acknowledgement that securing women’s rights within the family is a major determining factor of social acceptance of women’s public and political involvement; •The positive role played by political parties; and The role model played by elite women in mobilizing and encouraging ordinary women to venture into public life and political engagement;
Disabling factors
•The role of religious extremism and tribalism, which rationalized the adoption of discriminatory laws; •The deep gap between northern and southern women in capacities, experiences and concerns; •Successive armed conflicts from 1994 to the present day; •The increasing dominance of a patriarchal culture undermining women’s abilities as political leaders and defenders of the group’s interests.
Negative impact of the conflict and the pandemic on gender equality
•Threats to personal safety; •Threats to livelihood and survival; •Loss of democratic mechanisms for women’s participation in the political sphere; •Weakened influence of women in decision-making positions; •Women’s rights pushed to the back stage; •Excessive restrictions on the work of women’s organizations; •Change in social attitudes towards women’s work outside the home.
Positive impact of the conflict and pandemic: potential opportunities
•Increased support from Yemeni women living abroad; •Broadening the women’s movement’s support base and geographical scope; •Unity is the best means for making women’s voices heard; •Emergence of alternative ways to contribute to peacebuilding; •Women’s mediation: a stepping stone towards a greater role in pandemic response and peacebuilding; •Leveraging women’s experiences for post-war reform of the security forces; •Greater appreciation of the role of the United Nations and its agencies.
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Recommendations:
Iraq
To increase women’s engagement in responding to COVID-19 pandemic
• Engage women at the national and governorate levels in drafting COVID-19 related policies; • Raise public awareness of the role played by women and youth in responding to the pandemic; • Provide governmental and international support for women’s organizations working with internally displaced persons; • Support the extension of the Women Advisory Boards in Iraq project and/or similar projects to all regions of Iraq.
To increase meaningful participation by women in the national reconciliation and peacebuilding processes
• Ensure women’s representation in all reconciliation, peacemaking and building processes; • Require a quota for women in government and top public positions; • Ensure allocation of funds to implement the Iraqi National Action Plan (INAP) for the Implementation of UNSCR 1325 and the National Women’s Strategy; • Provide national women’s agencies with the necessary authorities and financial and decision-making independence to increase their effectiveness; • Train women politicians on how to demand their rights within their parties; • Train and support women candidates in the upcoming parliamentary elections, especially independent women candidates; • Issue a code of conduct for the security forces on dealing with women candidates and human rights activists.
To sustain women’s participation in crisis response and engagement in peace-building
• End prevalent corruption, adopt policies that encourage investment and job creation in all regions and rehabilitate infrastructure; • Remove discrimination against women from the Constitution and laws; • Make education compulsory as well as free; • Mainstream the consideration of gender in all government policies and programmes; • Introduce human and women’s rights courses in school curricula and trainings for judges and security forces and make human rights courses compulsory for all university specializations; • Implement a national poverty alleviation programme and graduation from poverty programmes in all regions; • Train security forces on how to deal with cases of domestic violence and gender-based violence; • Implement nationwide literacy and computer literacy programmes and programmes aimed at improving women’s legal literacy; • Increase the number of women in the security forces and make police stations gender sensitive; • Train potential young female and male leaders; • Coordinate and cooperate with donors to ensure effective use of available resources.
Yemen
To increase women’s engagement in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic
•Network, assess and prioritize governorates’ needs based on women’s experience in the field and revise the national response plan; •Seek support of WHO and Ministry of Health to ensure the government adopts the revised response plan; •Raise public awareness that COVID-19 is not a weapon of war; •Build capacities of potential young male and female mediators; •Harness donor support for women’s activities.
To increase meaningful participation by women in the national reconciliation and peacebuilding processes
•Hold networking and consultations among women’s organizations across the country to draft a list of priorities for peace negotiations; •Cooperate with the UN Special Envoy to put the list on the negotiating table; •Pursue intensive campaigns demanding 30 per cent women’s representation in peace negotiations; •Have donors use all means at their disposal to ensure women’s representation in peace negotiations in accordance with UNSCR 1325 and NDC outcomes.
To sustain women’s participation in crisis response and engagement in peace-building
•Start a legislative reform workshop to prepare drafts of needed amendments to remove discrimination against women; •Adopt a compulsory free education law; •Train potential male and female youth on mediation and conflict resolution; •Introduce human rights courses in training of judges and security forces and in school and university curricula; •Empower women through legal literacy, adult literacy and computer literacy programmes; •Raise donor support for the implementation of UNSCR 1325 NAP and the drafting of a national women’s strategy and an IDP strategy; •Train women IDPs on income-generating activities; •Provide international funding for graduation from poverty programmes; •Coordinate among international donors to provide aid in support of women’s rights;
