COVID-19 Rapid Gender Analysis in the Middle East and North Africa Summary

The COVID-19 pandemic and efforts at mitigating the virus’ spread in recent months have heightened the insecurity, psychosocial distress, economic vulnerability, gender inequality, and deprivation that already existed in countries in the Middle East and beyond. While men appear to have worse outcomes when infected with the coronavirus, women and girls are being deeply impacted– and fragile gains in women’s workforce participation are in jeopardy.

Refugees and the displaced, the majority of them located in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, are now faced with the COVID-19 pandemic and economically damaging efforts at its mitigation. Fragile gains in women’s workforce participation are at risk, gender-based violence is on the rise, and women’s voices are going unheeded. CARE’s Rapid Gender Analysis gathers together data from its country offices in MENA and beyond to provide a sobering picture of the pandemic’s impact on women and girls