OECD: Effective Strategies on Financing GEWE Programs

Cabinet Secretary, Prof. Margaret Kobia yesterday joined partners in a virtual event organized to celebrate International Women’s day. The event, organized by OECD Development Co-operation Directorate was held under the theme ‘From recovery to sustainable development: Where is the money for gender equality and women’s empowerment? ‘.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is an international organization that works to build better policies for better lives and has 60 years of experience and insights to better prepare the world of tomorrow. Together with governments, policy makers and citizens, they work on establishing evidence-based international standards and finding solutions to a range of social, economic and environmental challenges.

The discussions by participants centered on effective strategies on financing Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment programs.

The Global Gender Index of 2020 report indicates that gender gap is widest globally in the economic participation and opportunity sub index which stood at only 58 percent. This indicates that economically, women are more vulnerable to economic shocks brought about by crises including COVID-19 pandemic.

“The impact of the pandemic on women has been significant. It has led to loss of jobs, increase in GBV cases and has eroded the gains made in the fight for gender equality.” Prof. Kobia noted.

She pointed out that Kenya developed a blue-print ‘Building Back Stronger: Transforming the Kenyan Economy Post-COVID-19’, which among other strategies, addresses the socio-economic impacts of COVID-19, including targeted women’s economic strategies and cash transfer programming; containment and mitigation measures to address the burden of care work, particularly those that affect women and girls, including supporting them to recover and build resilience for future shocks; and, programs and policies to provide economic relief based on needs and vulnerabilities.

The Cabinet Secretary added that in order to address gender inequalities and create meaningful change, development partners need to scale up their investment support across key sectors and ensure full participation of women in all Post-COVID-19 response and recovery mechanisms. She called on partners to complement government efforts by increasing their focus on social protection and through skills development and widening their market opportunities. She called on them to invest in programmes that seek to end violence against women and increase access to healthcare, including sexual and reproductive health services.

“The global public health crisis has direct implications on gender equality and women’s empowerment. Kenya stands in solidarity with the rest of the world and will continue to advocate for effective response and recovery for the gendered dimension of COVID 19, leaving no one behind and towards achieving Sustainable Development Goals.” She concluded.