Cape Town – Women across Africa are collectively suffering a wave of gender-based violence while there are increasing threats to their livelihoods, health-care and access to education.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) Africa yesterday put gender equality at the centre of a Covid-19 impact assessment update, denouncing crimes against women and children on the continent.
WHO Africa director Dr Matshidiso Moeti, executive director of Unaids Winnie Byanyima, and AU Special Envoy on Women, Peace and Security Bineta Diop asked governments to invest money in improving support structures and justice initiatives.
Diop said women should be uplifted to assume more leadership roles in society that will empower them to empower others.
“Women leadership matters. We will make sure that in the systems that we are putting in place in Africa, that women lead. I can attest that female ministers of health, female ministers of finance, female ministers of foreign affairs bring the human dimension that we are missing,” Diop said.
In Africa, there are currently more than 265 000 Covid-19 cases and 7 000 deaths.
Of the cases, women account for around 40%, Moeti said, ranging from 35% in some countries to over 55% in South Africa.
This put women in vulnerable positions, including when trying to access health care for non-Covid-19-related medical needs.
“Fewer women are accessing oral contraceptives and attending antenatal care visits, and fewer deliveries are being carried out in health-care facilities,” Moeti said.
“In the first quarter of this year, compared to 2019, there are reports of drops in access to essential services for people, including for women.
“This lack of access to care is of grave concern because there were an estimated 196 000 maternal deaths in sub-Saharan Africa each year, accounting for 66% of the global total, and 900 000 new-born deaths, or one third of the global total,” Moeti said.
Amid dealing with everything, women are remaining resilient, the panellists agreed, as they called on governments to heed their call for strict laws against gender-based violence.
Moeti, Byanyima and Diop applauded President Cyril Ramaphosa for his public stance condemning crimes against women and children, which he again addressed in a national broadcast on Wednesday night.
“Very important is for leaders to speak up and recognise that this is happening, and then make it part of interventions that are put in place to mitigate against the impact of the pandemic, and the violence
itself.
“South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has made it a big issue,” Moeti said.
Byanyima said the AU and its Centre for Disease Control was also doing everything it could to buy pool resources and buy test kits.
“Communities are key to fighting a pandemic, we’ve seen this with HIV. We need to be more vigilant and communities need to report violence,” Byanyima said.