Global gender response tracker: Monitoring how women’s needs are being met by pandemic responses
COVID-19 is hitting women hard. Without decided action, the pandemic risks erasing the important but fragile progress that women have made in recent decades. What are governments doing to prevent backsliding and protect women’s rights? To answer this question, UN Women and UNDP developed the COVID-19 Global Gender Response Tracker – a unique database that monitors policy responses to the pandemic. It focuses on measures that address three key challenges: the surge in violence against women and girls, the unprecedented increase in unpaid care work, and the large-scale loss of jobs, incomes and livelihoods. As of March 2021, the tracker has compiled over 3,100 policy measures across 219 countries and territories. In addition to policy measures, the most recent update of the tracker now includes a brand-new dataset on women’s representation in COVID-19 task forces. Here, we provide a snapshot of the findings.
The tracker identifies 1,299 measures across 187 countries that are ‘gender-sensitive’, which means that they: address violence against women and girls (VAW), strengthen women’s economic security (WES) or support unpaid care (UCW). Only 42 countries, 19% of those analysed, have a holistic response, with measures that span all three domains. Worryingly, 15% of countries analysed (32 out of 219) seem to have no gender-sensitive measures in response to COVID-19 at all.
Countries with gender-sensitive measures by type
Source: UNDP-UN Women COVID-19 Global Gender Response Tracker. For more information about the methodology, including data sources, date and limitations, please click here
Note: The designations employed and the presentation of material on this map do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of UN Women concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. VAW = violence against women; WES = women's economic security; UCW = unpaid care work.
Addressing the surge in violence against women is still a priority
The bulk of gender-sensitive measures continue to focus on addressing violence against women and girls, with fewer measures aimed at strengthening women’s economic security or addressing unpaid care work. While Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand are leading responses on violence against women and unpaid care, Latin America and the Caribbean is the region with the most measures prioritizing women’s economic security, followed by sub-Saharan Africa.
Number of countries that have taken at least one gender-sensitive measure
Click on the label to see a breakdown by region.
Source: UNDP-UN Women COVID-19 Global Gender Response Tracker. For more information about the methodology, including data sources, date and limitations, please click here.
Violence against women needs to be integrated within COVID-19 response plans
The strengthening and adaptation of services for survivors, including shelters, hotlines and police and justice services, make up almost two-thirds of measures taken to respond to violence against women in the context of COVID-19. More than 136 countries have measures in this area. However, only 52 countries have Integrated violence against women into COVID-19 response planning to ensure that support for survivors can continue unimpeded, with a total of 59 measures recorded within such plans, few of which are adequately funded. This is worrying, as the pandemic will have long-lasting consequences that could potentially increase the risk of violence for women and girls.
