HelpAge International
Older people at increased risk in low & Middle income countries as coronavirus pandemic takes hold – Older women & Families alert
10/03/2020 - Governments must ensure that older people and their right to health are protected if coronavirus – or Covid 19 – takes hold in low - and middle - income countries, HelpAge International said.
A health crisis can isolate older people and the risk of this happening is far higher in countries with less developed health systems where access to medical services and other forms of care and support can be challenging.
“Any response from the international community to help manage an outbreak of coronavirus must include protection for older people. Statistics clearly show that this group, alongside those with a weak immune system, is the most at risk and governments, NGOs and other donors must ensure that they are made a priority in any response, providing information, support and health services, as needed,” said Justin Derbyshire, Chief Executive Officer at HelpAge International.
FPG / Getty / Arsh Raziuddin / The Atlantic
By Helen Lewis
Pandemics affect men and women differently.
MARCH 19, 2020 - Enough already. When people try to be cheerful about social distancing and working from home, noting that William Shakespeare and Isaac Newton did some of their best work while England was ravaged by the plague, there is an obvious response: Neither of them had child-care responsibilities.
Shakespeare spent most of his career in London, where the theaters were, while his family lived in Stratford-upon-Avon. During the plague of 1606, the playwright was lucky to be spared from the epidemic—his landlady died at the height of the outbreak—and his wife and two adult daughters stayed safely in the Warwickshire countryside. Newton, meanwhile, never married or had children. He saw out the Great Plague of 1665–6 on his family’s estate in the east of England, and spent most of his adult life as a fellow at Cambridge University, where his meals and housekeeping were provided by the college.
For those with caring responsibilities, an infectious-disease outbreak is unlikely to give them time to write King Lear or develop a theory of optics. A pandemic magnifies all existing inequalities (even as politicians insist this is not the time to talk about anything other than the immediate crisis). Working from home in a white-collar job is easier; employees with salaries and benefits will be better protected; self-isolation is less taxing in a spacious house than a cramped apartment. But one of the most striking effects of the coronavirus will be to send many couples back to the 1950s. Across the world, women’s independence will be a silent victim of the pandemic.
This manual builds on the experiences of women activists to offer practical and interactive approaches that both deepen our understanding of context, power and risk, and help us develop collective strategies and practices which keep us safer and stronger as we defend human rights. We welcome any feedback from organizations, communities and women human rights defenders who use this manual so we can incorporate suggestions in a future revised version. Write us at: Оваа е-адреса е заштитена од спамботови. Треба да ви е овозможено JavaScript за да ја видите. !
Direct Link to Full 123-Page 2020 Report:
EIGE – European Institute for Gender Equality
https://eige.europa.eu/news/coronavirus-puts-women-frontline
In Europe, we are all adjusting to new ways of living because of the effects of the coronavirus. We are learning what it means to self-quarantine, work from home, home-school children, lose a job or even a loved one. Each person’s situation is different, but for sure, the coronavirus will reveal the different realities of women and men.
At the frontline of this coronavirus pandemic are the healthcare workers who are working around the clock and putting themselves at risk to care for patients. Most of the nurses and healthcare workers in the EU are women. Their workload is very demanding, often taking an emotional toll. Yet their profession is one of the most undervalued, and under-paid jobs in the EU.
© Center for Economic and Social Rights
AWID - https://www.awid.org/alternative-framework-economic-governance
The current global economic crisis provides stark evidence that the economic policies of the last 3 decades have not been working.
The devastation that the crisis has wrought on the most vulnerable households in the Global North and Global South is a reminder that the formulation of economic policy and the realization of human rights (economic, social, political, civil and cultural) have for too long been divorced from one another. Economic policy and human rights do not have to be opposing forces, but can exist symbiotically.
Macroeconomic policies affect the operation of the economy as a whole, shaping the availability and distribution of resources. Within this context, fiscal and monetary policies are key.
