Job aid tool for USAID activities: carrying out a COVID-specific gender analysis

Since the start of the pandemic, COVID-19 has reduced access to nutritious foods, caused severe disruptions in food supply chains, accelerated democratic backsliding, widened economic inequalities, accelerated aggravation of the global education crisis, and increased strain on water systems. COVID-19 has had short-term effects, and will continue to have long-term effects across a range of sectors in countries around the world. These effects may potentially counter development gains, including those related to gender equality, such as increasing women’s vulnerability to food insecurity and malnutrition, widening gender poverty gaps, increasing incidence of
gender-based violence, exacerbating burdens of unpaid work, increasing exposure and risk of COVID-19 for frontline workers, hindering women’s access to sexual and reproductive health services, and intensifying forms of violence and discrimination. This tool for USAID staff identifies key issues and implementing recommendations from a COVID-specific gender analysis (CSGA) in USAID programming and can also guide other organisations, including environmental ones, on how to address these gender gaps in activities, regardless of where they are in the program cycle, as they respond to COVID-19.