The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) warned that the coronavirus crisis poses a serious threat to the participation of women in economic activities, particularly in the informal sectors where women constitute a high percentage of the working population.
UNICEF has found that the pandemic has disrupted access to essential services and reduced household livelihoods.
In April, UN chief Antonio Guterres warned that women and children are most at risk of loss due to the pandemic: "Tackling devastating social and economic dimensions of the crisis, the focus must be on the most vulnerable by designing policies that, among other things, support the provision of health and unemployment insurance and social protections, while strengthening businesses to avoid bankruptcies and job losses, "he said.
With the forecast of the worst global recession in decades, the agency said the pandemic is a socio-economic disaster for countries like Afghanistan, where the proportion of the population living below the threshold of national poverty increased from 34% in 2007 to 55% in 2017.
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In Afghanistan, the travel ban widens the gender livelihood gaps and creates a negative impact on household food security. The level of poverty in Afghanistan's Herat province, which is the country's epicenter for the April coronavirus epidemic, is 47.6%.
<< UNICEF is committed to ensuring gender equality at the heart of our front-line COVID-19 service delivery and to supporting systems strengthening in the health, nutrition, water, sanitation, hygiene and protection, as well as our advocacy efforts, risk communication and community participation, "said Aboubacar Kampo, Representative of UNICEF in Afghanistan.