• Women in most households take more responsibilities for childcare and for caring for family members.
• Data from the WHO shows that most healthcare workers in the public sector in Kenya are women.
Image: MAGDALINE SAYA
Only 28 per cent of the national Covid-19 response teams in Kenya are women, the latest report by the World Health Organization shows.
Dubbed ‘The World in Disorder: Global Preparedness Monitoring Board Annual Report 2020', says this is despite 70 per cent of women globally working in health and social care.
The global average stands at 24 per cent, with Canada having the highest representation at 52 per cent followed by Turkey 41 per cent, Finland 39 per cent, the UK 34 per cent and France 31 per cent.
Kenya, Ethiopia and Germany each have 28 per cent women representation in their Covid-19 national response teams.
“Women remain inadequately involved in preparedness despite bearing the brunt of the impact of health emergencies,” the report says.
The report says that in many countries, women are essential workers providing healthcare or social services, employed in food processing or critical retail, exposing them to greater risks of infection yet are under-represented in decision-making positions.
Data from the WHO shows that most healthcare workers in the public sector in Kenya are women.
In 2013 for instance, of the 31,060 healthcare workers in the public sector, women represented 60 per cent.
This is a result of the significant weight of the nursing category which is traditionally women-oriented.
Incidentally, more than 73 per cent of all registered community health nurses (13,326) in the public sector in the country and 62 per cent of all BSc nurses (335) are women.
According to the report, women in most households take more responsibilities for childcare and for caring for family members, with more women than men having lost employment or reducing hours to support children homeschooling during lockdowns.
“Covid-19 is putting women’s safety and well-being at greater risk due to restricted access to maternal and reproductive health care services but also to the increase in domestic and gender-based violence,” the report says.
It added, “However, few women wield the political power necessary to ensure pandemic preparedness policies address the needs of women and girls.”
In the report released last year, the board warned that the world is at a grave risk of a global pandemic that could cause immense loss of life, threaten economies, and create social chaos.
The GPMB urged countries and the international system to prepare for a high impact respiratory pathogen spread via respiratory droplets that “can infect a large number of people very quickly and with today’s transportation infrastructure, move rapidly across multiple geographies”.
Despite making numerous calls for action, progress in implementing the actions has been limited, with no country putting in place the needed changes. Financial and political investments in preparedness have been insufficient.
Edited by R.Wamochie