Source: OXFAM

Lan Mercado is a development worker and an activist from the Philippines, with over 30 years of experience working with civil society coalitions, environmental movements, and international women's rights organizations. Here, she shares her personal opinion on how economic and gender inequalities play out in a public health crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic, and how local governments can respond with a pro-poor, pro-women approach.

On 11 March 2020, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 as a pandemic with 114 countries affected and more than 4,000 people dead as a result of the coronavirus. The Philippines is among those countries and the Philippine government, foremost the Department of Health, has issued various guidelines. The Food and Drug Administration has approved the test kit developed by the University of the Philippines and this could hasten and improve the tracking and monitoring of persons who might have been exposed to the virus, thus leading to the treatment of patients. Information on self-quarantine or isolation, social distancing, working from home and lockdowns are being spread through various communication channels. As with any crisis, local governments are taking action and are rightly at the forefront.

But as with any humanitarian situation, the approach tends to overlook how inequality plays out and how the crisis has a different and worse impact on poor people, especially poor women. Anyone can be exposed to the virus. But the poor are most vulnerable because they do not have the means to cope on their own. They are the majority users of jam-packed MRTs, buses, and jeepneys where social distancing will be next to impossible, and are dependent on public health systems that are often overwhelmed in normal times, let alone in a crisis. Poor workers, especially those dependent on a daily wage ─ isang kahig, isang tuka (work for a day, eat for a day) ─ would not be able to afford to miss work. An ER nurse had posted a story about someone running away because he did not want to be forced to go on sick leave. But at some point, businesses will likely have to slow down or close temporarily, leaving workers empty handed with even lesser means to buy food and medicine. Meanwhile, urban poor homes and communities are also going to be the places where disease can spread easily and quickly.

As with any crisis, the responsibility of caring for the family and making both ends meet grow heavier on the shoulders of women, including elderly women who, by social norm and by convenience, often take care of the family while the younger ones go to work. Women’s multiple burdens of needing to contribute to the household income while also taking care of the young, the elderly and the sick mean women have the longest days, the shortest rest and the highest stress, making them easy targets of disease. Even if they do manage to stay healthy, their conditions require special attention and action.

As with any crisis, the responsibility of caring for the family and making both ends meet grow heavier on the shoulders of women, including elderly women

It does not help that society behaves in a selfish manner during crises. The tendency to put one’s self above others – instead of leaning on cooperation and compassion as a community and as a society – leads to the concentration of resources in the hands of those in a position to amass them, depriving others who are equally in need. Supermarket scenes starkly illustrate how hoarding essential sanitation & hygiene items as well as food, puts social cohesion at risk, thereby worsening the effects of COVID-19.

What can local governments do?

Local governments are rooted in the context of their communities. At the same time, they are the interlocutors for local community concerns with national government. While COVID-19 cases have not yet peaked in the Philippines, there is plenty that local governments can do to address COVID-19 in a way that is pro-poor and pro-women.

Government needs to develop an approach that relies on whole-of-government and whole-of-society strategies. While its bias is towards the poor and women, we are all in this public health situation together, and thus must work as one. A very initial thinking on a pro-poor, pro-women COVID-19 approach has raised the following ideas to see which ones can be done immediately in partnership with other stakeholders such as civil society and business.

These include:

Information Campaigns

Public Health Measures

Social Protection Measures

Women & Gender

Working with Business

Government needs to develop an approach that relies on whole-of-government and whole-of-society strategies. While its bias is towards the poor and women, we are all in this public health situation together and thus must work as one.

Contingency Planning for Community Quarantines and Lockdowns

The Role of the Police & Military During Community Quarantines and Lockdowns

These ideas came from a public online discussion to which I added some more, and framed and systematized them. I am posting this to give the ideas back. Please feel free to share them even more widely especially with those who can take action on the ground. Although current data is uncertain and evolving, it appears the Philippines has not yet reached the peak of COVID-19 and there is time to plan and execute a response that cares for the marginalized sections of society. But we have to act fast, decisively, and together.