The document summarizes findings from phone surveys conducted in 7 countries in Africa and Asia on the gendered impacts of COVID-19. Key findings include: - Both men and women reported losing income, but women generally reported greater challenges accessing food. A majority of women in most countries worried about having enough food. - People used various coping strategies like savings, borrowing, selling assets, and transfers, with trends varying by country. Savings declined over time while selling assets and borrowing increased. - Access to water and sanitation was inadequate in some countries, hindering the ability to prevent COVID spread. - The long-term impacts of loss of income, assets, and savings could be severe and require policy interventions like credit

1. Gendered Impacts of Covid-19
Asia and Africa: Insights from 7
Feed-the-Future Countries
Muzna Alvi
29th IAFFE Annual Conference
22 June 2021
Credit: Carla Roncoli

2. Gender Climate Change and Nutrition (GCAN) Framework
▪ The Covid-19 pandemic triggered both health and economic shocks
▪ The impact of shocks and stressors on people are not direct but follow
different pathways and are influenced by different factors:
oExposure and sensitivity
oResilience capacities
oDecision-making context
oResponses
▪ Exploring such interlinkages is important to understand impact of shocks
along gender dimensions

3. Gender Dimensions of Shocks and Stressors
▪ Applying GCAN framework to explore gendered impacts of COVID-19
▪ Income impacts- Loss of income, control over income
▪ Asset dynamics
▪ Paid and unpaid work- Change in labor allocation, increase in care burden
▪ Changes in mobility, implication for risk of exposure
▪ Food insecurity, changes in dietary diversity
▪ Intra-household conflict

4. Survey Implementation
Countries Round 1 Round 2 Round 3 Round 4 Round 5
Ghana September October January March May
Kenya September
Late
October Late Nov/early Dec March
Nepal July September December February April
Niger October December February April
Nigeria September October January March May
Senegal June August October December March
Uganda October February April June
*All survey rounds supported by USAID, BRFS except rounds in green to be funded by FAO

5. Challenges to Reaching
Women with Phone Surveys
Gender gaps in mobile phone
ownership, access, and data use
Systematic bias: older, poorer,
women less likely to have phones
Privacy issues: lack of privacy,
speakerphone issues.
Source: https://www.gsma.com/mobilefordevelopment/wp-
content/uploads/2020/02/GSMA-The-Mobile-Gender-Gap-Report-
2020.pdf

6. Speakerphone Usage Across Countries
(First round vs last round)
Source: IFPRI GCAN phone surveys
-40%
-20%
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
Senegal Nepal Ghana Nigeria Niger Kenya
Male First round Male Last round Female First round
Female Last round Gender gap First round Gender gap Last round

7. Addressing Challenges in Surveying Women Remotely
▪ Build on existing surveys where contact, rapport is established
oContact through trusted village and women’s groups
▪ Use female enumerators
▪ Cautions against sensitive questions, especially re. domestic violence/IPV
▪ Word questions so that answers would not reveal much to those who overhear
▪ Check use of speakerphone and omit sensitive sections if others can hear
questions

8. Households experiencing loss of income due to COVID-19
Source: IFPRI GCAN phone surveys
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
Senegal Nepal Uganda Kenya Nigeria Ghana Niger
Share
of
respondents
Total First round Total Last round

9. Whose Income Was Affected?
(Share Reporting Own Income Was Affected)
Source: IFPRI GCAN phone surveys
Gender gap= male share minus female share
-40%
-20%
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
Ghana Kenya Nepal Niger Nigeria Senegal Uganda
Male First round Male Last round Female First round
Female Last round Gender gap First round Gender gap Last round

10. Used Savings to Address the Loss of Income due to Covid-19?
(Share of Respondents)
Source: IFPRI GCAN phone surveys
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Uganda Ghana Nigeria Nepal Kenya Senegal Niger
Total First round Total Last round

11. Whose Savings Were Used?
(Share Reporting Own Savings Were Used)
Source: IFPRI GCAN phone surveys
-20%
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
Niger Senegal Nigeria Kenya Uganda Ghana Nepal
Male First round Male Last round Female First round
Female Last round Gender gap First round Gender gap Last round
Gender gap= male share minus female share

12. Sold Assets to Address the Loss of Income due to Covid-19?
(Share of Respondents)
Source: IFPRI GCAN phone surveys
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
Niger Uganda Ghana Kenya Senegal Nigeria Nepal
Total First round Total Last round

13. Whose Assets Were Sold?
(Share Reporting Own Savings Were Used)
Source: IFPRI GCAN phone surveys
-40%
-20%
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
Nigeria Senegal Kenya Ghana Uganda Niger Nepal
Male First round Male Last round Female First round
Female Last round Gender gap First round Gender gap Last round
Gender gap= male share minus female share

14. Received a Transfer from Government or NGO
(Share of Respondents)
Source: IFPRI GCAN phone surveys
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
Senegal
Kenya
Nepal
Uganda
Ghana
Niger
Nigeria
Senegal
Kenya
Nepal
Uganda
Ghana
Niger
Nigeria
Govt transfers NGO transfers
Total First round Total Last round

15. Respondents who went out to work in last week
Source: IFPRI GCAN phone surveys
-20%
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
Senegal Nepal Kenya Ghana Nigeria Niger Uganda
Male First round Male Last round Female First round
Female Last round Gender gap First round Gender gap Last round
Gender gap= male share minus female share

16. Proportion of time spent by respondent on household care
-20%
-10%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
Ghana Nigeria Kenya Niger Senegal Nepal
Share
of
last
24
hours
Male First round Male Last round Female First round
Female Last round Gender gap First round Gender gap Last round
Gender gap= male share minus female share

17. Food insecurity- worry about not having enough food to eat
-20%
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
Ghana Kenya Nepal Niger Nigeria Senegal Uganda
Male Round 1 Male Round 2 Female Round 1
Female Round 2 Gender gap Round 1 Gender gap Round 2
Gender gap= male share minus female share

18. Water Insecurity During the Pandemic (various indicators)
▪ Ghana- 1/4th of both male and female reported water access issues across
different measures.
▪ Nepal was least likely to report issues related to water, compared to any of the
country in our sample.
▪ Barring Kenya, water issues observed in all sampled countries in Africa.
▪ Role of source of drinking water? Need to explore.

19. Other Issues- Child outcomes and mental health
▪ In Nepal 6% respondents and in Uganda 17% respondents reported
knowing instances of child marriage in their community.
oUganda- parental income loss and economic uncertainty cited as main
reason
oUganda- almost 50% respondents reported knowing or hearing about
girls in community becoming pregnant during school closure
▪ Administered the 20-question Center of Epidemiologic Studies Depression
Scale (CES-D) in Nepal
oA considerably higher proportion of women were found to be
depressed as compared to men
oPositively correlated with experience in food and income shocks.

20. Key Conclusions-Income Losses and Coping Strategies
▪ Income shocks pervasive also in rural areas
▪ Both men and women report own income was affected with differences
across countries and over time
▪ Diverse coping measures were used, including using savings, borrowing,
selling assets, and receiving transfers.
oUse of savings declined between first and last round while selling assets
and borrowing increased
oBoth men’s and women’s savings and assets were used with trends
varying across countries
oFew transfers were received with the exception of Senegal which then
declined dramatically in the last round.
▪ The long-term impacts of the loss of savings, indebtedness and asset sales
can be severe and need to be further studied

21. Key Conclusions
▪ Access to food changed for about two thirds of all survey participants
and women generally reporting larger challenges
▪ Worry about food high especially among women: A majority of men
and women respondents in most countries worried they would not have
enough food
▪ Dietary adequacy for women very poor in Niger and declining in Senegal
between the first and last round
▪ Poor WASH environments affecting fighting Covid-19 More than half of
female survey participants and about half of male participants in northern
Ghana do not have water for washing hands after defecating, changing
diapers, cleaning animal dung; between 20% and one third in Niger,
Nigeria, Senegal, and Uganda.

22. Suggestions for Policy Interventions
▪ Immediately address income shocks and food insecurity challenges that
affect rural households through food banks, food-for-work or other
programs that target poorer rural households
▪ Consider credit support programs at highly favorable rates as well as rural
asset development programs (eg: public workfare program) to counteract
potential long-term indebtedness of rural households due to income
shocks
▪ Target asset-building programs to women particularly in places where
women’s income losses are high and/or women’s savings and assets are
being drawn down
▪ Immediately address the critical WASH environment situation in northern
Ghana, but also Niger, Nigeria, Senegal and Uganda