REPORT:A Rapid Gender analysis on COVID-19

A Rapid Gender analysis on COVID-19

Juba-South Sudan, 2020

https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/rapid_gender_analysis_on_covid-19-south_sudan.pdf

Key findings 

 The majority of respondents were aware of how they can prevent COVID-19 (out of 189 respondents, 18 (8 males and 12 females) did not know how to prevent it. 

 Women and girls literacy levels are very low and this places them at a disadvantage to receive written texts pertaining to their safety. During the war, it was established that more women and girls were unable to read and thus were unable to extricate themselves from dangerous situations in time. This is the same with COVID-19 where it was expressed that women preferred megaphones as a preferable mode for disseminating key messages about the disease. 

 Fake news surrounding COVID-19 was cited as a problem by women who were unsure of what was “real” or not so they could share with friends. 

 Despite the mobility restrictions brought on by the lockdown, women who feared the loss of their livelihoods continued to sell goods at markets which placed them at high risk of contracting COVID-19. 

 There is a lack of support for women and girls to buy sanitary pads. 

 Girls are doing double the housework due to their confinement at home. 

 Boys are fearful of the negative impacts that school closures and the lockdown will have on them whilst girls are fearful of being married off because of their prolonged stay at home. Society in South Sudan puts an emphasis on bride price which is paid before marriage and in the event of hardship brought on by the restriction in movement, families can be pressured to force girls into early marriages for financial gain. 

 Despite that some of the WASH facilities are deemed safe, they are not constructed to cater for disabled people 

 Women respondents gave mixed reviews on the safety and accessibility of WASH facilities. Both primary and secondary data has shown that women are responsible for water fetching and they therefore predominantly walk to these water points which are sometimes deemed to be unsafe. 

 Gender Based violence is rarely reported because most respondents did not believe in the justice system-they expressed a lack of trust with law enforcers who they said were violators of rights. 

 Other respondents including male and female were unaware of any laws that dealt with gender based violence, early/forced marriages, elderly abuse and property rights.