Women Infrastructure matters

A tale of two female citizens | Development Matters

COVID-19 has brought to the fore a glaring disparity between two groups of women across the globe. On one hand, we have those who  said that they did not think the crisis will influence their next career step, with 51% of this group suggesting that the pandemic could be a catalyst for gender equality, at least in the long term.  On the other hand, we have women whose jobs were identified by the ILO as being 19% more vulnerable than men’s jobs, and who, while making up only 39% of global jobs, accounted for 54% of job losses.

With the recent operationalisation of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) which covers a free trade zone with a combined GDP of US$3.4 trillion, it is important to highlight that that 70% of movement across African borders is comprised of informal traders with a majority of these border crossings made by women. To therefore ignore the participation and needs of the majority of the end-users of transport infrastructure is to fail to recognise their financial contribution to cross border trade within the continent.

This article seeks to highlight some of the policy and regulatory changes that can be effected to successfully implement gender responsive infrastructure with minor adaptations across the entire value chain and life cycle but that would however yield significant dividends and see us achieve a more sustainable, equal and truly inclusive world.

 

Read More :- A tale of two female citizens | Development Matters

Author – Mary Chege