As COVID-19 impact might stop 11m girls’ education

By Gabriel Ewepu – Abuja

As issues affecting women and girls continue to take centre stage, PMNCH, Women in Global Health, UHC2030, and Global Health 50/50 demand women’s leadership, gender equity and resilience to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs.

According to the stakeholders, during a virtual leadership dialogue held on, Wednesday, July, 13, 2022, an official side-event to the HLPF, Choice, Voice and Autonomy: Women’s political leadership for health in a fragile world, which was jointly organized by PMNCH, Women in Global Health, UHC2030 and Global Health 50/50, and hosted by the Government of Estonia, pointed that
half-way toward the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the world is at a point where instead of working towards closing the gender equity gap, decades of progress are being rolled back, with women’s fundamental rights and health under threat. 

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They further stated that these reversals are being exacerbated by COVID-19 and other compounding crises, such as increasing incidences of conflict and the climate emergency. 

They also lamented that these challenges came at a time when the world was just starting to see decades of hard-earned labour and effort bear fruit, with the number of girls in education increasing, maternal mortality rates falling, and child marriages and deaths decreasing.

However, they said with United Nations High-level Political Forum (HLPF), currently underway in New York, it is a critical opportunity to reflect on progress made to date and agree on a way forward to tackle the significant risks being faced at this midway juncture.

The virtual leadership dialogue has brought together global policymakers, government representatives, business leaders, health care providers, youth and community representatives from around the world.

They have reflected on the importance of women leaders in making a difference on social progress via gender equity in the context of health and education to deliver the Sustainable Development Agenda.

Women and girls represent half of the world’s population, yet their full potential remains largely untapped.

They are too often subject to sexual or physical abuse and exploitation, threatened with harmful traditions and practices, denied the right to education and healthcare, discriminated against in employment, and often deterred from participating in political processes, including voting.

Globally, 143 countries legally guarantee equality between men and women. But in practice, gender inequalities subsist in most parts of the world, and in many cases are being rolled even further back.

PMNCH Board Chair, and former Prime Minister of New Zealand, Helen Clark, said: “At a time when compounding crises are rolling back previous progress made on women’s empowerment and the health of communities, war is also being waged on the fundamental rights of women and girls.”

“We need urgent and transformative action to reverse these worrying trends. Women must have both seats and voice at decision-making tables.

“To achieve the vision of leaving no one behind in development, societies must move beyond lip service to implementation of rights-based and gender sensitive approaches to achieving equality, resilience, and sustainability.”

Stakeholders also expressed worry over the US Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade as it could have drastic impacts on US funding and policies for sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) in the region.

Experts predict a fall in US bilateral and multilateral funding for family planning, sexual education, and gender-related public health programs for low- and middle-income countries.

Meanwhile, Global Health 50/50 tracking of over five years indicated that among 138 organizations tracked over five years 54 (39 percent) have had neither a female CEO nor a female board chair in this period.

It also made it known that the pervasive leadership gap between women and men can only be closed by addressing systemic barriers to women’s advancement.

This is especially important as emerging evidence from the pandemic shows that female-led countries have generally fared better in terms of outcomes during COVID-19 through instilling proactive and coordinated policy responses.

For future pandemics, women must not only have equal participation in COVID-19 response and recovery efforts, but also equal decision-making power and leadership opportunities, and policies and programmes must also include a gender lens.

Global Health 50/50 co-directors, Prof Sarah Hawkes and Prof Kent Buse said, “The collective failure to deliver equality in global health is inextricably linked to a failure to ensure equality in voice, representation, and inclusion at the top.

“We urgently need feminist leaders, especially women and other under-represented groups, to push for health rights, equity and gender equality. But promises and commitments are not enough.

“We also need robust systems of accountability to ensure that promises made are promises kept – something we at Global Health 50/50 aim to deliver.”

Co-Chair, UHC2030 Steering Committee,  Gabriela Cuevas Barron, said: “Health is a right, not a privilege.

“It requires political will and leadership. But women need to have an equal say in the health systems that impact their health and well-being.

“Yet they only have 25 percent of the seats in parliaments and hold 25 percent of the senior roles in global health.

“The rules must be change to advance from this unequal reality.”

However, expressing worry over education of the girl -child following impact of COVID-19 pandemic, stakeholders said,  “Some 11 million girls might not return to school this year due to COVID-19’s unprecedented education disruption.

“This not only threatens decades of progress made towards gender equality, but also puts girls around the world at risk of adolescent pregnancy, early and forced marriage, and violence.”

They added that women have been disproportionately hit by unemployment, losing 4.2 percent of jobs as a result of the pandemic, compared to three per cent job losses for men.

“If no action is taken to counter the gendered effects of the pandemic on women’s jobs, it is estimated that global GDP growth will be $1 trillion lower in 2030 than it would if women’s unemployment simply tracked that of men.

“Women are the majority of the global health workforce (70 per cent of all workers and 90 per cent of frontline workers), yet only 25 per cent of senior leaders in health”, they pointed.

Vanguard News Nigeria