SDGs after COVID-19: Actions for a gender-responsive recovery
Event description
The COVID-19 pandemic is exposing vulnerabilities in social, political, and economic systems, which are amplifying its impact. The crisis is deepening pre-existing inequalities and structural barriers, particularly in relation to women’s limited access to decent work, social protection systems, healthcare services, safe water and sanitation, decent work, and digital infrastructure.
Rising demand for care will also likely exacerbate inequalities in the gender division of labour, placing a disproportionate burden on women and girls, with potential long-term implications for their health, wellbeing, and economic empowerment.
Responses to COVID-19 are likely to have significant impacts on women’s employment and livelihoods as well as an already beleaguered care economy. Women’s economic and productive lives and their economic and social rights should be front and centre within all plans for economic recovery and resilience, in line with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
This High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) on Sustainable Development side event focuses on both immediate and long-term policy actions that are necessary to ensure a gender-responsive recovery from COVID-19 to achieve gender equality and sustainable development. The 2030 Agenda continues to be relevant and provides the roadmap for recovery to address existing inequalities and systemic challenges that have been exacerbated by the pandemic. In particular, the event focuses on gender-responsive economic recovery, the care economy and women’s leadership and participation in COVID-19 responses at all levels.