April 2020 SUPPORTING WOMEN THROUGHOUT THE CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) EMERGENCY GENDER INNOVATION LAB RESPONSE AND ECONOMIC RECOVERY The Gender Innovation Lab (GIL) conducts impact evaluations of In addition to its immediate adverse impact on women’s and girls’ health and development interventions in education, the COVID-19 pandemic has the potential to further exacerbate existing Sub-Saharan Africa, seeking to generate evidence on gender inequalities in economic opportunities across Sub-Saharan Africa: how to close gender gaps in • Women-owned firms, for example, which are primarily concentrated in earnings, productivity, assets, informal or low-paying sectors, lack basic formal social protection that and agency. The GIL team is would provide a buffer against economic distress. currently working on over 70 impact evaluations in more than • Women farmers often have lower access to productive inputs, information, 25 countries with the aim of and liquidity than men—so in times of crisis, their farm productivity and building an evidence base with food security will likely be hit hard. lessons for the region. • School closures and a reduction in health services can interrupt the The impact objective of GIL is trajectories of adolescent girls at a critical life juncture. increasing take-up of effective policies by governments, • Risks of gender-based violence (GBV) can also be heightened during times development organizations, of crisis, isolation, and confinement. and the private sector to address the underlying The below studies highlight evidence from the Africa Gender Innovation Lab causes of gender inequality in Africa, particularly in terms and other promising research on mechanisms that can help protect the lives of women’s economic and and livelihoods of women and girls—at the household level, in firms and farms, social empowerment. The Lab and during adolescence—in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. While aims to do this by producing these interventions focus on improving economic and social outcomes for and delivering a new body women, many of them also have positive impacts for men. In addition to the of evidence and developing a compelling narrative, geared below strategies, all operations should consider measures to reduce potential towards policymakers, on what violence against women. For project design support and/or more information works and what does not work on any of these studies, please contact afrgenderlab@worldbank.org. in promoting gender equality. http://www.worldbank.org/en/programs/africa-gender-innovation-lab PROTECTING HOUSEHOLDS The positive impacts of cash transfer programs are myriad; safeguarding these benefits for women and men in the household during times of crisis is critical. Implementation details on timing, targeting, and modality—as well as potential tweaks to packages—can ensure that women and girls are not left behind and provide design ideas for navigating the logistics of cash transfer programs under the uncertainty of COVID-19. For women, the positive impacts from cash transfers are just as strong when they are delivered on EMERGENCY a quarterly basis as when they are delivered more frequently—yielding the same impact at a lower RESPONSE implementation cost, with fewer person-to-person interactions. In an impact evaluation in Nigeria, women who received cash transfers were more likely to work and their households ate better (more food, more regularly, with a more diverse diet) and invested more in assets, and these positive effects did not vary by frequency of the transfer. Cash transfers to women can also be used as a tool for economic recovery: women who receive them are more likely to start businesses, which can fuel economic growth. After receiving the cash transfer and ECONOMIC RECOVERY a community livelihoods program, women in Northern Nigeria, a part of the country with low levels of education and many vulnerable households, became more engaged in home-based activities, like petty trading and rice processing. GIL work from the Central African Republic also shows how recovery could be supported through public works programs. The intervention increased the number of days worked, monthly earnings (by roughly 10%), and ownership of durable goods for both male and female participants in a lasting way. In addition to these tested interventions, the Gender Innovation Lab highlights the following promising strategies from a review of the literature. Cash transfers can be bundled with the provision of mobile phones. Delivering mobile phones directly to women can potentially address multiple issues that women might face in a COVID-19 context—like access to mobile money transfers, other banking services, and information. Research has shown that access to mobile money accounts for women can lead to increased financial resilience, especially for female-headed households (Suri and Jack, 2016). Aker et al. (2011 and 2014) found that mobile payments led to an improvement in dietary diversity, as well as boosted intra-household bargaining power for women. Mobile phones can also potentially act as a mechanism to enable reporting of gender-based violence, as women are confined to an environment with heightened tensions and exacerbated economic stress. EMERGENCY RESPONSE Carefully designed cash transfer programs have been shown to reduce levels of intimate partner violence. In a recent review, 11 out of 14 impact assessments found decreases in intimate partner violence attributable to a cash transfer program. Authors note that cash could decrease violence by decreasing household poverty and poverty-related stress and reducing intra-household conflict. When paired with cash transfers, SMS messages or radio programming as light-touch behavioral nudges for couples could promote more equitable sharing of household resources or intra-household allocation of labor without requiring physical gatherings. Couples’ interventions designed to increase household cooperation and change gender norms have shown promising results—and could be adapted to reach couples virtually in this crisis context. In Cote d’Ivoire, for example, export crop farmers who filled out a two-year action plan with their wives shared more agricultural decisions, and women managed more cash-crop tasks. GIL- IFPRI research from Uganda showed that small incentives paired with a couples’ workshop helped to encourage cash crop farmers to transfer contracts into their wives’ names—which led to more women interacting with the purchasing company, and holding contracts. SUPPORTING WOMEN-OWNED FIRMS Women in Africa are more likely than men to be entrepreneurs, and they make up 58% of the continent’s self-employed population. However, women-owned businesses are particularly vulnerable to shocks, as they are disproportionately informal and operate in less-profitable sectors. Providing critical liquidity and other buffers against shocks can help to protect women-owned firms from the effects of COVID-19. Lines of credit and meso-financing can provide much-needed liquidity to women-owned firms in times of crisis. The Women Entrepreneurship Development Project (WEDP) issued 23.3 million USD to women EMERGENCY RESPONSE entrepreneurs in just its first calendar year, with 66% of recipients being first-time borrowers. Three years later, women who received the credit line increased their profits by an average of 40%, and repayment rates stand at 99.1%. Psychometric tests may also help bolster women’s access to loans by providing alternative data for credit decisions. In Ethiopia, one study showed that customers who scored at a high threshold on the test were seven times more likely to repay their loans compared to lower-scoring customers. Helping urban firms to formalize through small incentives and a banking information session can also boost their access to financial services. In Malawi, a GIL study showed that encouraging women entrepreneurs to register their firms, coupled with an information session at a bank, increased their use of formal financial services, which helped boost their profits by an average of 20%. A similar effect was observed for men. This model could be adapted to the current crisis by offering the bank information via mobile phones. Business plan competitions could be another tool to address capital constraints and encourage investment and risk-taking during the post-crisis recovery. In Nigeria, a business plan competition providing cash grants averaging $50,000 increased the likelihood that women would operate a firm, boosted employment, and led to increases in sales and profits. These competitions could also foster innovations around ECONOMIC RECOVERY the Coronavirus response. Personal initiative training—which teaches women entrepreneurs to be proactive and demonstrate perseverance—may help them to bounce back from the economic ramifications of COVID-19. In Togo, the training resulted in a 40% increase in profits for female entrepreneurs compared to those who took a traditional business training, and it was successfully scaled up in over ten countries. It could be a key tool to promote investments, decrease risk aversion, and increase worker productivity during crisis recovery. Depending on mobility restrictions, the training could take place virtually. This training also boosted the profits of male entrepreneurs who were trained. Coaching as well as providing information and training on sector choice can be crucial to guide women who are starting new self-employment livelihoods during the recovery phase. Evidence from Ethiopia and Uganda highlights that women entrepreneurs’ profits are significantly higher in sectors in which women are typically less likely to operate, compared to those they earn in female-dominated sectors. Counseling women on the implications of sector choice during the very initial startup phase may support improving women’s business outcomes in the medium-term. SECURING FARMERS’ LIVELIHOODS Over 90% of Sub-Saharan Africa’s extreme poor, who are some of the most vulnerable to shocks, are engaged in agriculture. Women contribute a large share—roughly 40%—of agricultural labor across the African continent. Yet designing an agricultural intervention that meets the needs of women farmers can be challenging, especially in times of crisis and food insecurity. Providing productive inputs directly to women farmers can have positive impacts for women—including increasing their use of that input, shifting time-use patterns, and encouraging dietary diversity—and EMERGENCY RESPONSE can spur economic recovery following the crisis. In Côte d’Ivoire, an impact evaluation of the World Bank’s Agriculture Sector Support Project tested the effectiveness of providing oxen to household heads via matching grants of 50% of the cost of animals and equipment. Preliminary results show that households were able to expand their cultivated land, and women in the households were able to shift their time use patterns towards self-employment. In Mali, an impact evaluation found that when women received free fertilizer, they increased their use of fertilizer as well as other complementary inputs, including herbicides and hired labor. A GIL study in Uganda tested the introduction of a nutrient-dense crop, the orange-fleshed sweet potato, and found that providing subsidized crop vines and trainings helped boost the number of households cultivating and consuming sweet potatoes by 68% and 50%, respectively. Encouraging couples to create joint action plans can help include women in higher-value agricultural ECONOMIC RECOVERY activities, offering an opportunity to promote market inclusion in the aftermath of the crisis. In a separate intervention in Cote d’Ivoire’s Agriculture Sector Support Project, male export crop farmers in an agricultural extension training were asked to fill out a two-year action plan together with their wives to manage their farms. Compared to those who did not fill out a plan, couples who did shared more agricultural decisions and women managed more cash-crop tasks. Such joint planning may also help households navigate the effects of the crisis in a more gender-equitable way. In Uganda, small incentives paired with a couples’ workshop encouraged sugarcane farmers to transfer outgrower contracts into their wives’ names. The contract intervention led to marked increases in women’s agency and control over productive resources. In addition to the tested interventions, the Gender Innovation Lab highlights the promising below strategies from a review of existing literature. Digital extension services can be used when traditional agricultural extension programs are curtailed EMERGENCY RESPONSE to limit person-to-person contact. Research has noted that mobile phones can connect farmers to information about agricultural technologies, and increase farmers’ contact with other technology adopters in their social network. There are limits, however, to the types of information that is easily disseminated via mobile phone. Digital services might include a call center or helpline: in Kenya, a service called M-Kilimo is a farmer helpline, where farmers can call in and speak to a real person for agricultural advice. An estimated 43% of the callers to the service are women (USAID, 2013). Research has shown that video-enabled extension messaging helped to increase women’s participation in agricultural-decision-making, adoption of agricultural practices and inputs, and production outcomes for plots that women manage (Lecoutere et al, 2019). BOOSTING YOUTH EMPLOYMENT Young people make up a majority of the population in African countries, but youth unemployment rates are double those of adults. Due to gender-specific constraints, like differential access to key resources as well as underlying social norms, young women in particular face higher unemployment rates than men, making them even more vulnerable to economic shocks. Programs that can help young people regain their livelihoods during and in the aftermath of COVID-19 will be critical to their wellbeing—as well as economic growth and productivity more broadly. Adding in an element of “action planning” can help youth better navigate the job search. In a study ECONOMIC RECOVERY in South Africa, unemployed youth who completed a detailed job search plan as part of the project increased the number of job applications submitted, but not the time spent searching, and this translated to sizeable improvements in employment outcomes. Soft skills training can increase employment of the most vulnerable to help them bounce back from the crisis. Preliminary results from a GIL study in Togo showed that a soft skills training had large and positive impacts on number of hours worked (10%), reservation wage (7%), and income (15%) for only the poorest participants, indicating the effectiveness of the intervention for low-income, more vulnerable groups. ECONOMIC RECOVERY Complementing training with cash grants can enhance entrepreneurship and employment outcomes as part of the crisis recovery. In Benin, a World Bank project which offered business and life- skills training as well as cash grants (approximately $400) to vulnerable youth yielded positive short-term impacts on employment outcomes. Both training young women to operate as franchisees of large firms and cash grants can increase entrepreneurship and short-term incomes. In urban Kenya, a bundled project that offered business and life skills training, a capital grant, and links with firms to start small-scale franchises, yielded similarly persistent increases in entrepreneurship rates and short-term increases in income as cash grants of comparable value (approximately $220). FOSTERING RESILIENCE OF ADOLESCENT GIRLS In times of crisis, when schools close and economic opportunities diminish, adolescent girls’ vulnerability can heighten. Evidence from Sierra Leone during the Ebola epidemic indicates that girls spent an additional 1.3 hours per week with men than they did prior to the crisis. In areas severely affected by Ebola, girls were also twice as likely to become pregnant compared to girls in less-affected communities. This increased their likelihood of leaving school, adversely affecting their life trajectories. Adapting adolescent girls programs—focused on mentoring, support networks, and providing vocational and life skills training—to a virtual format could help reach girls in the context of confinement due to COVID. In Uganda, an adolescent girls program implemented by the NGO BRAC EMERGENCY RESPONSE increased the likelihood of girls engaging in income-generating activities by nearly 50%, trebled their earnings, decreased teen pregnancy by a third, and led to a drop in girls reporting sex against their will by close to a third. During the Ebola epidemic, an adolescent girls program implemented by the International Rescue Committee in Liberia increased adolescent girls’ transition from primary to secondary school and led to sustained impacts on educational achievement. The program adapted to the crisis by ensuring that mentors leading the programming could disseminate public health information, and discuss the Ebola epidemic in group sessions. In the COVID-19 context, mobile delivery modes (text messaging, chatlines, and apps) and virtual mentoring/meeting groups—while untested—could help to diffuse information on a range of topics and connect girls to important vocational and life skills training. Offering adolescent girls programs could help expand girls’ economic opportunities and mitigate the ECONOMIC RECOVERY effects of future crises. Adolescent girls programs implemented in Sierra Leone (preceding the Ebola epidemic) and South Sudan (in conflict-affected areas, before conflict intensified) helped young women remain in school and avoid unintended pregnancies following the crises, suggesting that these programs could be implemented in the recovery phase to help buffer girls against future shocks. Notably, in Sierra Leone, unwanted and transactional sex increased among older girls during the crisis—likely due to the fact that younger women involved in the program spent less time with men. However, older girls were more likely to use modern contraceptives and there were no resulting increases in pregnancy rates, suggesting that the program helped mitigate some of the risks around transactional sex. CROSS-CUTTING GENDER CONSIDERATIONS FOR RESPONSE AND RECOVERY OPERATIONS Distributing mobile phones directly to women can facilitate operations, given existing gender gaps in mobile phone ownership. World Bank data show that across Africa, on average, 71% of men have a mobile phone compared with 58% of women, revealing a gender gap of 13%. Mobile phone access will be critical for many operations—giving EMERGENCY RESPONSE women access to one will enable her to benefit from mobile cash transfer programs, agricultural extension advice, mobile banking, and even potentially reporting services for gender-based violence. The social distancing and quarantine recommendations in a COVID-19 context can heighten the risk of gender-based violence (GBV). Reports of domestic violence have increased in contexts where COVID-19 has spread widely, including China and the United States. Economic stress and times of crisis can exacerbate risks of GBV, and COVID-19 is likely to spark both of these conditions. Crisis response programs should consult available global guidance on how to prepare health systems to respond to GBV in emergency situations and should consider allocating funding for GBV-response service providers. Providing access to caregiving resources can facilitate women’s ECONOMIC RECOVERY engagement in economic activity. Women bear the brunt of responsibility for care in societies across the world. COVID-19 related increases in mortality and morbidity could further increase households’ caregiving needs during the recovery period, which could inhibit women from engaging in paid work to ensure their economic wellbeing. Studies from Kenya and Mozambique have found that supporting women’s access to childcare increases their employment rates and raises the likelihood that older siblings enroll in school. FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT afrgenderlab@worldbank.org 1818 H St NW Photo credit: Lindsay Mgbor, World Bank / Lewis, World Bank / Arne Hoel, World Bank Washington, DC 20433 USA This work has been funded in part by the Umbrella Facility for Gender Equality (UFGE), which is a multi-donor trust fund www.worldbank.org/africa/gil administered by the World Bank to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment through experimentation and knowledge creation to help governments and the private sector focus policy and programs on scalable solutions with sustainable outcomes. The UFGE is supported with generous contributions from Australia, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Iceland, Latvia, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.