COVID-19 has “magnified existing disparities” in communities, said Betty Barkha, PhD candidate with the Centre for Gender, Peace and Security at Monash University (Australia).
“You can’t assume that people have access to clean, safe water to wash their hands if they have constantly been fighting for access to safe water and contaminated water has been an issue.”
Barkha was speaking in a webinar, ‘COVID-19 to Climate Change: Gender, Peace and Security in the Asia-Pacific’ held in June. The webinar was organised by the Department of Pacific Affairs and the Department of International Relations at the Coral Bell School.
She said COVID-19 had disrupted everyday lives and what was considered normal had changed but also “as in any crisis it is also gendered.”
“Whether it be a natural disaster or whether it be a financial crisis or a pandemic, it is gendered... the patriarchy is still on which means that this is impacting women way more than it is impacting men - not to say that the individual women or the individual men - but more or less as a marginalised group, women have been affected more,” Barkha said.
Barkha said the current economic crisis is detrimental for women, particularly for younger women and especially those who were already struggling to make ends meet with casual work opportunities.
“Lockdown preventative measures have added to this burden whereby not only have they lost their jobs but they’re unable to access any support mechanisms which would otherwise be available to them,” she added.
Barkha adds the pandemic is a barrier in terms of accessing basic services and resources for basic needs and particularly for developing nations, this has gotten worse.
Technical Adviser of the Shifting the Power Coalition (StPC), Sharon Bhagwan-Rolls, who was also on the panel, said one of the lessons learnt from monitoring the Samoa Measles epidemic (late last year) was realising “the importance of organising the health sector and how to also look at the gendered inequalities when it comes to health care resources information and the other burden of the unpaid care work of Pacific island women.”
Bhagwan-Rolls said economic, health and food security was the priority for many communities, as highlighted in a RAPID Women’s Human Security Assessment for the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict (GPPAC).
Community and personal security in the homes as well as political security at the community level and at the national level was highlighted in the assessment.
“For women to be part of decision-making, it is vital to start to unpack what are the decision-making processes right now and how can women be supported in these times of virtual meetings of curfews and controls around movement.”
One of the coalition’s recommendations to the Pacific Humanitarian Protection Cluster has been to look at ways to overcome discriminatory practices.
“When we look at the gendered impact of any crisis we certainly have to take into account...what needs to be balanced out in terms of the further exacerbation of discrimination but we also need to be looking at what are the gendered opportunities, what can Pacific Island women also provide through our own learning, leadership and innovation.”
The webinar is available here.