GAPS Newsletter: May 2020

29 May 2020

Research & Resources

Creating lasting impact: The power of women-led localised responses to COVID-19

ActionAid’s policy brief highlights why COVID-19 poses a significant threat to women’s rights, and makes a series of practical recommendations for COVID-19 response efforts to be driven by local women, including women’s groups, women-led organisations, women’s rights organisations, and women-led networks, as decision makers and partners. In this policy brief, ActionAid urge the international community, including donor governments, to promote women-led localised responses to COVID-19 by investing in women-led gender analysis and research to inform immediate and longer-term gendered response efforts, channelling resources directly to local women-led actors, and increasing women’s representation and power in decision-making spaces and structures at all levels.

Where are the Words? The Disappearance of the Women, Peace and Security Agenda in the Language of Country-Specific UN Security Council Resolutions

WILPF and the LSE Centre for Women, Peace and Security released their joint report which explores the extent to which the UN Security Council (UNSC) is fulfilling its obligations on the Women, Peace and Security agenda as outlined in the ten Women, Peace and Security resolutions and through its country-specific resolutions. This report outlines the relationship of the UNSC and the Women, Peace and Security UNSC resolutions to international law and analyses the UNSC’s incorporation of these commitments into the 2018-2019 UNSC resolutions, as well as the UNSC resolutions adopted around the four focus countries: the DRC, Libya, Syria and Yemen.

Unheard Unseen: A Global Agenda for Action for 2020 and Beyond

Women for Women International’s Unheard, Unseen – A Global Agenda for Action identifies five priority action areas and provides analysis and recommendations on the important policy changes that are urgently needed for marginalised women affected by conflict. In the report, they outline how important it is to create space for marginalised women in conflict-affected countries to share their experiences and influence change. Now, they have added a briefing on COVID-19, this briefing serves as a reminder that the existing, long-term challenges we face as a global community are exacerbated in times of crisis – and how the impacts of COVID-19 are deeply gendered. Read the Agenda for Action and the COVID-19 briefing.

Stepping Stones for a Better Future: 10 Ideas for World Leaders who are Serious about Building Back Better

The United Nations Association – UK’s network, Together First launched their 10 Ideas for World Leaders. This follows from extensive consultations with current and former policy-makers and shapers. The 10 ideas included in this report are those considered to be at or near a “tipping point” moment, where a concerted campaign could lead to implementation in the foreseeable future. Their 10 proposals serve as stepping stones for the international community, comprising concrete, feasible steps to mitigate global catastrophic risk and move us towards a more effective global system. Read in full here.

Maintaining Peace and Stability in Mali’s Sikasso Region

International Alert’s research explores land-related conflicts in the Sikasso Region in southern Mali and examines the potential for land-related conflict to destabilise the region, alongside the relevance and effectiveness of different mechanisms and actors to support the resolution of these conflicts. This research focuses on a region where extensive violence has yet to be observed, as a result, the research seeks to identify ways to manage and prevent the escalation of land-related conflict at early stages, thereby preventing the spread of instability and violence witnessed elsewhere in Mali. Read their findings here.

A New Scourge to Afghan Women: COVID-19

Oxfam’s briefing looks at how COVID-19 is exacerbating the inequalities that Afghan women face. They carried out a set of structured qualitative interviews amongst female beneficiaries, women’s rights activists, civil society actors and government representatives, and based on the responses the following key concerns were identified: COVID-19 eroding hard won rights of women, social norms inhibiting women’s medical care at a time of increased need, increase in domestic violence, and the deepened economic inequality. Read the briefing here.

Justice for Women Amidst COVID-19

This report by the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security, UN Women, IDLO, UNDP, UNODC, World Bank, and The Pathfinders for Justice documents major challenges to women’s access to justice in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and puts forth recommendations to accelerate action and push back against threats to progress. This report documents threats to women’s lives and livelihoods associated with COVID-19 – such as curtailed access to justice institutions, rising intimate partner violence, threats to women’s rights to sexual and reproductive health, growing injustice for workers, discriminatory laws and lack of legal identity, as well as repercussions on forcibly displaced women and those deprived of their liberty. Read in full here.

Gender Dimensions of the COVID-19 Pandemic

The World Bank Group’s policy note on the Gender Dimensions of the COVID-19 Pandemic summaries key gender differentiated transmission channels and impacts on outcomes across the three areas of endowments, economic conditions, and agency. This note aims to systematise the lessons from the existing literature, from previous similar crises and the unfolding COVID-19 pandemic, and also provides recommendations for action. Read the policy note in full here.

COVID-19 at the Intersection of Gender and Disability

As seen in this report, Women Enabled International identified a gap in initial global responses to COVID-19, they found that many actors were discussing how to include women and persons with disabilities in the response, but few were considering the unique experiences of women with disabilities and others living at the intersection of gender and disability. As such, they created a survey to better understand these issues and how the lives of women, girls, non-binary, trans, and gender non-conforming persons with disabilities were being impacted by the COVID-19 crisis. This report provides a summary of the survey and the findings related to health, meeting basic needs, and violence. The report concludes with recommendations to states, U.N. agencies, healthcare systems, and violence service providers about how to ensure that issues at the intersection of gender and disability are included in COVID-19 responses.

Events

Gender in Peace Deals and COVID-19 Responses

Hosted by the Global Network of Women Peacebuilders.

When: Wednesday 3 June 15:00-16:30

For more information, click here.

Transformative Peace and National Action Plans: Yemen’s story

Hosted by the LSE Centre for Women, Peace and Security.

When: Tuesday 2 June 15:30-17:00

For more information, click here.

COVID-19 and Violent Extremism: Gender Perspectives

Hosted by the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security, the LSE Centre for Women, Peace and Security, the PRIO Centre on Gender, Peace and Security and the Women, Peace and Security Institute in the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre.

When: Wednesday 3 June 13:00-14:30

For more information, click here.

Global Crises, Local Action: a Humanitarian Reset in Response to COVID-19

Hosted by the Overseas Development Institute.

When: Wednesday 3 June 10:00-11:30

For more information, click here.

Opportunities

Cora Weiss Fellowship for Young Women Peacebuilders

The Global Network for Women Peacebuilders’ fellowship aims to support the development of young women peacebuilders and ensure that more young people share Cora Weiss’ vision for sustainable peace and gender equality as strong and integral parts of our global culture. The Fellowship provides a young woman with the opportunities and platforms to elevate the concerns and priorities of women and girls in their country in global policy discussions at the UN Headquarters in New York.

Deadline to apply: Wednesday 15 July

For more information and to apply click here.

Call for Submissions: Feminist Economic Perspectives on the COVID-19 Pandemic

Feminist Economics are asking for papers for their special issue on the gendered dimensions of the COVID-19 pandemic in both the global North and South, with a focus on how gender differentiates the experience, impact and risks associated with COVID-19, how the hardships that women and men face may be mitigated as governments work to contain the virus and rebuild their economies, and how public health systems may be reformed to prevent such wide-scale losses from happening again.

Deadline to submit: Sunday 31 May

For more information and to submit, click here.