A recovery for everyone: putting gender at the center of democracy & governance responses to COVID-19

• Opening Remarks: Michelle Bekkering, USAID Assistant Administrator, Bureau for Economic Growth, Education and Environment (E3) 
• Panelists:

Gina Chirillo, Senior Gender Program Officer, and Fauzia Tariq, Senior Gender Advisor, Pakistan - IFES
Valerie Dowling, Director, Women’s Democracy Network - IRI
Caroline Hubbard, Deputy Director, Gender, Women, and Democracy - NDI

• Moderated by: Alyson Kozma, CEPPS Inclusion Specialist 

As governments focus on disaster and public health responses, the COVID-19 pandemic risks effectively turning back the clock on much hard-won progress in increasing access to and participation in public life for marginalized groups.  As shocks such as the current pandemic occur, the political space for all actors shrinks, presenting existing democracy, human rights, and governance (DRG) programs with a changed political and governance landscape. DRG responses to the pandemic must consider how this shrinking space interacts with pre-existing inequalities rooted in gender norms and inequality to have a disproportionately negative impact on women and other marginalized populations. This will require integrating an inclusive, intersectional gender analysis into all interventions to ensure that: the specific needs, barriers, and priorities of women and other marginalized communities are fully considered; that all responses are gender sensitive and inclusive of all segments of the populations; and that these voices are amplified in decision-making processes.

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