• Experts say since women were the hardest hit by Covid-19, they must be central in recovery plans.
• Since society has worked in favour of men for so long, men have many advantages and women need a leg up to catch up.
Image: REUTERS
The road joining Oloyangalani area to the Isinya Road in Kajiado county has become even dustier after it was recently levelled, Sarah Naeku complains.
She has to endure it every morning carrying a 20-litre jerry can of water.
A plume of greyish dust blows away whenever vehicles pass. It slowly settles into the far-off fields, one which belongs to Robert Shompole, Sarah's husband.
She completed a diploma in food and beverage service in 2012, and after being jobless for four years, found work in a small restaurant in Isinya town as a waiter. Women are preferred for this low-paying job, and they end up working 12 hours a day.
Sarah and five of her colleagues were laid off in April last year when the restaurant was closed following the Covid-19 outbreak in the country.
She now tends her husband’s 20 or so goats, and takes care of their four children.
“Every day is the same, going to the community borehole to get water, milking goats, cooking. I stopped checking the [Covid] death count every day, but I really wonder when it will finally be over,” she says.
Experts say it will not be over soon, especially for women like Sarah. Women were the hardest hit by the aftereffects of Covid-19.
The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics says about 1.72 million workers lost jobs between April and June last year, majority of them women in small businesses and casual jobs.
The economy also contracted for the first time in almost 12 years in the second quarter of 2020 as the impact of the pandemic battered key sectors.
In December, President Uhuru Kenyatta unveiled a Sh132 billion, three-year post-Covid-19 socio-economic recovery strategy.
Experts say since women were the hardest hit, they must be central to recovery plans. Otherwise, the economy will recover more slowly, and will be built on top of the same social cracks that disadvantaged women.
Sarah says she thought of starting a business last December but her husband, a fuel station attendant, said No—she must just take care of their family.
She cannot raise any capital without a job. The land, the goats and all property belong to her husband.
Even before the pandemic worsened the situation, Kenya had one of the world’s highest gender disparities, with women playing second fiddle in the economy.
The country is trying to bridge the gap. However, at the current pace, women will have to wait 95 years for gender equality, according to the Global Gender Gap Report 2020 published by the World Economic Forum.
Gender equality is often described as equal ease of access to resources and opportunities regardless of gender, including economic participation and decision-making.
It does not necessarily mean that everyone is treated exactly the same. For instance, since society has worked in favour of men for so long, men have many advantages and women need a leg up to catch up.
The situation in Kenya is worse or better in different aspects of life.
The report shows women in Kenya are way poorer than men and will take up to 257 years to catch up economically unless they are deliberately supported.
Out of the 153 countries surveyed last year on equality in economic participation and opportunities for both men and women, Kenya ranks at position 114. The worst country for women in this index is Iraq at position 153.
Kenya fares better in equality in education attainment for both men and women, at position 126. Health-wise, it’s one of the best in the world and ties at position one with 39 other countries.
However, the country performs poorly in political empowerment at position 85, because men have inordinately higher representation in Parliament and county assemblies.
"Projecting current trends into the future, the overall global gender gap will close in 99.5 years, on average, across the 107 countries covered continuously since the first (2006) edition of the report," the report stated.
Klaus Schwab, the founder and executive chairman of the WEF, pointed out in the preface to the report that there is a road map to follow when it comes to reaching gender parity.
"Governments must create policies that provide talent development, integration and deployment opportunities for all genders,” he says.
He says companies must also treat people with dignity and respect and offer equal opportunities to all members of the society, leveraging gender diversity.
Global think-tank McKinsey says if countries support women to get equal opportunities in life as men, it’s good for everyone.
“In a ‘full potential’ scenario in which women play an identical role in labour markets to that of men, as much as $28 trillion, or 26 percent, could be added to global annual GDP by 2025,” McKinsey says in The power of parity report.
A separate brief by ten institutions including the World Bank, International Labour Organization and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, says data disaggregation is where to begin.
They say although emerging evidence shows women were the worst hit, most countries still lack gender disaggregated data, which impedes their ability to respond appropriately to the adverse effects of the pandemic.
The brief is titled ‘An Urgent Need for Change Strengthening Gender Measures and Data in the Covid-19 Era’.
“High quality gender data is the bedrock of effective policymaking to ensure equal rights and opportunities for all, and has become increasingly critical in the context of Covid-19,” the brief advises.
“More and better data is needed to identify the most urgent needs of populations that have been most harmed by the pandemic and to formulate gender-responsive policies to effectively spur an equitable recovery.”
Kenya’s recovery plan prioritises agriculture, water and sanitisation, urban development and housing, transport, tourism, health, education, social protection, and gender and youth as anchor sectors.
Edited by F'Orieny