When the first wave of Covid-19 tore through Nairobi last year, few questioned as health officials shut makeshift eateries and warned owners and customers to stay home.
Most of these businesses were operated by women and sold anything from soup to chapatis and tea.
The Ministry of Health said such social places were likely to become Covid-19 hotspots.
Hannah Ngugi’s kiosk was among those closed in Jua Kali area of Kahawa Sukari, Kiambu.
Because many women like her have fewer options for employment, they tend to congregate in such businesses—eateries and green groceries. However, most operate in crowded spaces and were among the first to be shut.
Hannah, 56, said that even when the restrictions were eased, customers were less inclined to pop in.
"My customers believed my place of work was infected with corona,” she told the Star when she unsuccessfully tried to reopen in September last year.
Hannah later started another small business, selling sukuma wiki (collard greens). But it may have also closed as she remains unavailable on the phone.
She joins thousands of Kenyans pushed into extreme poverty by Covid-19 restrictions last year.
Women were disproportionately affected, according to recent research from the World Bank, UN Women, and the Performance Monitoring Action.
Experts say the country now has a harder job ending extreme poverty because the gender gap must be closed first.
In a business-as-usual situation, Kenya will close the gender poverty gap in 2060 – a whole 39 years from today, according to a forecast commissioned by the UN Women and UNDP.
The forecast says to end extreme poverty, Kenya must deliberately enact policies that support women economically.
“Policies must also target women and girls, given their overrepresentation among those living on less than USD $1.90 a day,” says the report: 'From Insights to Action: Gender Equality in the Wake of Covid-19'.
The forecast was commissioned by UN Women and UNDP and conducted by the Pardee Centre for International Futures at the University of Denver.
It offers the first global estimates of extreme poverty by sex and age, taking into account the economic fallout of the pandemic.
It shows gender poverty gaps are deepest in women’s prime reproductive years.
“Women’s increased poverty in these life stages is not coincidental. Over the course of their lives, women are more likely to have prioritised family obligations over paid work, which can adversely affect their incomes in prime working years,” says the report.
For Kenya, this is further illustrated in a separate study by the Performance Monitoring for Action (PMA), a Nairobi-based family planning initiative supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Between August and October last year, PMA and its partners surveyed about 1,300 youths aged 16-26 to assess the gendered impact of Covid-19.
The other partners were the International Centre for Reproductive Health Kenya, Kenyatta University, and a multidisciplinary team of Johns Hopkins University faculty.
They found that 45 per cent of young men and 53 per cent of women were unable to meet their basic needs such as food and rent since the Covid-19 restrictions came into force.
Their findings are published in a report, titled 'Gender & Covid-19: Economic Outcomes and Time Use'. It was released last November.
They reported that more women became dependent on others for financial support, compared to men.
Fifty-four per cent of young women reported an increase in financial reliance on others, compared to 36.2 per cent of young men. This also exacerbated transactional sex and violence against young women in Nairobi.
For instance, more than one third (36 per cent) of young women reported one or more transactional partnerships in the past year, with financial dependence on those relationships increasing since Covid-19 restrictions.
“We see important gender differences that are being amplified by Covid-19. So young women face substantial economic risks that extend financial dependence on their male partners,” said Dr Peter Gichangi, the principal investigator.
“We also see gender differences in time use and time use substitution – where young women tend to continue to play roles which are defined to home care and caregiving in houses, and for men income generation.”
Study advisor Grace Wamue-Ngare, an associate professor at Kenyatta University with extensive gender expertise, also noted the increase in unpaid work for women.
“Male youth are reporting being… [idle] in the homes because of the Covid-19 lockdowns, which means no work, yet the female youths are reporting additional workload at the household level. This shows the unfair division of labour between men and women,” Dr Wamue-Ngare said.
The study explains that the more hours young women engaged in caregiving and household responsibilities detracted them from economic activity.
This may have long-term implications for skill development and labour force participation.
“Local organisations and stakeholders must continue to prioritise economic empowerment programmes for young people, particularly young women,” the report says.
Kenya tried to lessen the impact on women last year.
Early May, Labour CS Simon Chelugui said they had identified 352,943 vulnerable individuals, most of them women, who received a monthly allowance of Sh5,000 each for three months to cushion them from the harsh financial effects of the pandemic.
Hannah Ngugi told the Star she did not make it to the list. Thousands of other disadvantaged women also fell through the cracks.
The UNDP/UN Women report notes only eight low- and middle-income countries are expected to close the gender poverty gap by 2030.
Most will need more than 50 years unless they adopt policies that immediately prevent women’s further impoverishment.
The good news is that this can be done. It is also good for the economy and society as a whole.
The report says such policies comprise strategies to improve access to education, family planning, fair and equal wages, and expanding welfare transfers.
“Despite the clear gendered implications of outbreaks, global response and recovery efforts tend to ignore the needs of women and girls until it is too late. The world needs to do better this time around,” it says.
Edited by F'Orieny
