Tracing intersections of COVID-19: Gender, water and armed conflicts

Reports and papers|Oct 16, 2020

Gender and water Water Diplomacy and Peace

Women in the Katfoura village on the Tristao Islands in Guinea

In disease outbreaks such as COVID-19, the situation is alarming for women and girls in fragile and conflict-affected states experiencing water scarcity. This paper highlights the gendered consequences of disease outbreaks in such states globally and explores how armed non-state actors are responding to COVID-19 in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

This paper, published by Swedish Institute of International Affairs, argue that advancing women’s empowerment and financing women-led organizations present an opportunity to prevent ANSAs from using natural disasters or disease outbreaks such as the COVID-19 pandemic to increase their legitimacy by providing public healthcare and WASH services, while also ensuring that the gendered consequences of disease outbreaks are taken into account.