Aoyagi, C. (2021), “Effects of COVID-19 on regional and gender equality in Sub-Saharan Africa: Evidence from Nigeria and Ethiopia,” IMF Working Papers, 2021(169), p. 1.
The COVID-19 shock’s effects on households are examined in this paper, with a particular emphasis on Ethiopia and Nigeria. In the early stages of lockdowns, it examines gender differences in employment, household income, and children’s education. It also highlights significant variations in pandemic effects between rural and urban populations, which exacerbate the disparity in economic and educational opportunities between geographic areas within a country. According to Aoyagi, there is mounting evidence that suggests existing gender disparities in economic opportunities may worsen globally in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis. Compared to men, women have more housework and childcare responsibilities, and this burden is exacerbated when schools are closed. Women are unable to participate fully in the labour market due to the disproportionate burden of unpaid care work, and lockdowns present a significant challenge for the economically insecure working population, the majority of whom reside in sub-Saharan Africa, with women being hit particularly hard because of the lower income and the higher poverty rate.
The study also finds that rural households are far less likely to have children engaged in learning activities during school closures than urban households. During the pandemic, parents’ involvement in supporting their children’s continued education at home is more important than normal. However, rural women are already spending more time caring for other household members than men or urban women, so supporting children’s continuous learning at home may be especially challenging for them. The study also reveals that, compared to urban households, rural households have much lower rates of children participating in learning activities during school closures than urban households. It is more crucial than ever for parents to support their children’s at-home education during the pandemic; however, this was found to be particularly difficult for rural women because they already spend more time caring for other family members than men or urban women.
The paper makes the case that one potential explanation for why female employment in Ethiopia appears to be less affected than male employment could be that a significant portion of women were engaged in self-employed or family-supporting work in agriculture, a situation that is frequently seen in low-income sub-Saharan African countries. And this argument was supported by the fact that low-income countries experienced less job loss in the early phases of lockdowns because their economies are dominated by agriculture and own-account work. The paper concludes that policies supporting women are necessary and that formal employment-related policies supporting unpaid care in the COVID-19 response need to be strengthened. These policies include the provision of paid family leave, cash-for-care programmes, flexible and shorter work schedules, or the continued provision of childcare services, including for essential workers.