COVID-19 has devastated economies around the world. Many governments including the Kenya government have implemented economic and health policies to cushion people and health systems from the devastating effects of the pandemic. Social protection is among the key policies implemented to cushion vulnerable people especially those who have lost their means of livelihoods due to the pandemic. Despite the well-known advantages of gender mainstreaming in economic policies, the Kenya government has somehow ignored gender sensitive programming in social protection and other policies during the pandemic. Gender mainstreaming is not just a strategy to empower women passé; there is plenty of research to demonstrate that closing gender gaps in access to various resources increases the general household well-being and human capital development. At the same time, gender mainstreaming in economic policies enhances the overall economic outcomes. Unless we mainstream gender in economic policies during the pandemic, the strides we had made in gender equality and economic empowerment remain at stake.
The Context
Kenya like many other developing countries has a fragile and underdeveloped health care system. The government has prioritised “flattening the curve” for COVID-19 infections through non pharmaceutical measures. Flattening the curve implies the implementation of measures that stagger the number of those infected by the virus at any particular time to levels that are manageable within the constraints of the health system. There is a negative trade-off between non pharmaceutical measures like social distancing and economic outcomes. Non pharmaceutical measures during the pandemic work for health, but may lead to low productivity, low incomes and depending on severity they could lead to social unrest in low income countries like Kenya.
The government of Kenya generally has implemented good policies to cushion businesses and increase labour productivity during the pandemic. The policies are assumed to be gender neutral; that they will have same effects for all citizens; whether men or women. But is this the case? Will the policies affect men and women in the same way? Does gender mainstreaming matter for social protection and other economic policies? We revert to the issue of gender and economic policies after a brief analysis of government response to COVID-19.
Kenya’s Economic Response to COVID-19
The government of Kenya has announced a raft of economic measures both fiscal and monetary to cushion businesses and the economy at large. From the most recent policy announcements, the central bank of Kenya lowered the base lending rate, and reduced the cash reserve ratio by 1 per cent point in order to enable cheaper credit to entrepreneurs. Small and medium enterprises will also benefit from a reduction in turnover tax.
The government directed that creditors whose loans fall due from April 1st should not be negatively listed by the credit reference bureau while commercial banks are encouraged to negotiate with individual borrowers to reschedule loans in case of difficulties in repayment. Formal sector workers will benefit from reduced personal taxes while consumers will benefit from lower value added tax.
Most basic commodities used by the poor were already at zero VAT and other products that will now attract lower rates of VAT like hand sanitizers may still be out of reach for the poor in informal and casual employment who are likely to loose their jobs or experience much lower incomes.
Government is motivating local production of health products like hand sanitizers, health masks among others. Most recently on May 23rd 2020, the government announced a Kshs 53.7 billion (US$ 537 M) comprehensive economic stimulus package touching all the critical sectors of the economy including, education, health agriculture, infrastructure, tourism, the environment, youth engagement through public works and manufacturing.
The government is implementing social protection targeting the most vulnerable who had no means of earning an income even before the pandemic, or households who are most hit by the Corona virus pandemic. The government is also motivating local philanthropists to contribute to the social protection kitty through an initiative dubbed “COVID-19 emergency response fund”.
Need for gender mainstreaming in economic policies
The government of Kenya has been in the forefront in providing various household reliefs during COVID-19. However there has been no gender focus in their implementation. The assumption is that the impact of the interventions will be gender neutral and that households whether male or female headed, the impact will be same for all households. But is it the case? Neutrality of policy outcomes on the ground can only hold if indeed the policy context is also gender neutral.
There is evidence that the policy context is not gender neutral in Kenya as currently assumed. For example, access to various resources differ by gender. Responsibilities in the household and the community in general are also determined by gender. Indeed the policy context in Kenya is not gender neutral. In this case we expect that policies will have gendered impacts and may alter the intended outcomes unless gender is factored in the process of policy implementation.
Studies have shown that women dominate the small scale micro and informal businesses. Given gender gaps in employment and incomes there are chances that benefits from pay roll tax reliefs may not be equal between men and women because women are marginalised in formal employment. Women dominate informal micro enterprises that government has so far assumed that it will benefit through increased consumption of goods and services on the ground. But will it?
Women are also marginalised in the small formal enterprise sector that the government has prioritised for economic stimulus. Unless there are deliberate efforts to mainstream gender in access to the resources dedicated to the small scale formal sector entrepreneurs, women are likely to be marginalised owing to their low bargaining power.
Demand for non-essential goods like crafts, clothing among other commodities dominating the informal sector is currently low and it’s expected to be even lower as households prefer to spend only on essential services like food and health. Small food kiosks that are significantly run by women have been driven out of business due to recommended social distancing rules. Schools have closed, child care facilities in both formal and informal settlements have also been closed, jobs have not only been lost but child care burden has shifted to households and more specifically to women. The extra care work and deteriorated incomes indicate that the pandemic could indeed have gendered impacts that can only be addressed through gender sensitive policies.
There is more evidence that COVID-19 presents special challenges for women. The World health organization has reported an increase in gender based violence within the period of virus related lock-downs as more families stay within the same spaces for longer periods. There is evidence that cases of gender based violence are also in the increase in Kenya.
In April 2020 the National Council on Administration of Justice reported “a significant spike in sexual offenses in many parts of the country” following the lock-downs in Nairobi, Mombasa, and Kilifi. “In some cases, the perpetrators are close relatives, guardians and/or persons living with the victims.” It is clear that “COVID-19 has the potential to widen gender inequalities, including those related to loss of livelihoods, reproductive health risks, disproportionate burden of care, and violence against women and children.
Gender mainstreaming in economic policy pays dividends to the economy
There is overwhelming evidence that women are not only the biggest contributors in subsistence farming, but also bear the biggest responsibility in food preparation and serving. There is plenty of literature on the impacts of women’s incomes on the overall household well-being. There is evidence that incomes accruing to women have larger impacts on nutrition, education and heath compared to incomes accruing to men. There is a lot of literature on how incomes accruing to men and women affect household expenditures, nutrition and human capital development. Indeed there are differential impacts on economic outcomes depending on whose hands incomes are placed.
Studies have shown that incomes accruing to women will have a great impact for children education and nutrition (Alam 2012, Quisumbing 2007, Smith 2003). Using household expenditure patterns to measure intra-household allocation, results show that women were better,
“able to allocate their incomes towards goods more valuable to them and make major household decisions when their incomes increase”
(Alam, 2012).
Studies also provide evidence that women economic empowerment increases women’s ability to contribute to major household decisions and hence increases gender equality and improves the bargaining power for women.
“Evidence from a wide range of developing countries shows that women’s status and control of resources within marriage has significant impacts on two aspects of the next generation’s human capital—children’s nutritional status and educational attainment”
(Quisumbing and Smith 2007, p. 3).
Mainstream gender in social protection and other economic policies
We have a great opportunity to ensure that the various economic responses including the most recent economic stimulus package have more efficient outcomes in terms of protecting/cushioning all citizens (Men, women, children and youth) while enhancing economic resilience and growth. A good way to achieve the twin goals is to ensure that gender mainstreaming is key in the implementation framework.
“A gender equality approach to social protection policies, strategies and programs is key to enable equal access to protection from extreme poverty, vulnerability and social exclusion.”
(Sida 2019 p.1)
The need for gender mainstreaming in social protection and other economic policies is even greater now during Covid-19 pandemic to ensure that the emerging inequalities are addressed while protecting the people (men, women, youth and children) and the economy at large. Gender programming in social protection and other economic policies would be a good strategy to ensure more efficient outcomes for the people of Kenya and a more resilient economy with more chances of a “quick bounce-back” after the pandemic.
References
Alam, s. (2012) The effects of Gender Based Returns to Borrowing on Intrahousehold resource allocation in Rural Bangladesh. World Development Volume 40. No. 6 pg 1164-1180
Quisumbing, A. (2007), Intrahousehold allocation, gender relations, and food security in developing countries. Cornell University
Quisumbing, A. and Smith, L (2007) Intrahousehold Allocation, Gender Relations, and Food
Security in Developing Countries. Case study #4-5 of the Program:“Food Policy for Developing Countries : the role of government in the global food system” IFFRI 2007.
SIDA (2019) Gender and Social Protection: Gender Tool Box Brief March 2019 https://www.sida.se/contentassets/2ade7bb05f114060b443ae0a63080c11/brief_gender_and_social_protection_webb.pdf
Dr. Joy Kiiru is a Senior Lecturer, School of Economics; University of Nairobi. Email: jmueni@uonbi.ac.ke
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of the University of Nairobi.
The Forgotten policy: Corona and Gender Mainstreaming in Economic Policies
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