When the COVID-19 crisis struck in early 2020, it swiftly disrupted the entire world. As the pandemic began to unleash a human development emergency, UNDP moved rapidly with our UN family to help countries prepare and respond to this unprecedented crisis, shifting the Organization’s priorities and how it operates. While the crisis led to an overhaul of our work, one thing it hasn’t changed is our commitment to gender equality, which is now stronger and more necessary than ever. For the first time in recent history, a crisis is threatening to reverse hard-won gains on women’s rights and gender equality by worsening pre-existing gender inequalities and power imbalances. We see the disproportionate economic, social and health impacts of the pandemic on women and girls daily, from a surge in gender-based violence to even greater economic insecurity. Women are nearly twice as likely as men to lose their jobs during this crisis. And yet, alarmingly, women’s voices are missing from crucial COVID-19 decision-making spaces, where they remain vastly underrepresented. Without women in decision-making roles and a shift in the power balance, unequal recovery opportunities from the pandemic could be further exacerbated.
