The Head of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) is calling for the urgent implementation of active fiscal policies with a gender approach, as a specific part of the wider menu of measures to mitigate the disproportionate effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on women.
“Concrete budgetary allotments are needed to protect women’s employment, both in the formal and informal sectors; to promote their full participation in production and in the benefits of the digital revolution and to close the gap in access to financing by providing credits and insurance,” ECLAC Executive Secretary, Alicia Bárcena, is quoted as saying in statement issued late last week by the body. And in light of what the Commission sees as the greater impact of COVID-19 on women than men, Bárcena is calling for a sense of urgency by governments in the region for the implementation of these policies in order to provide immediate-term mitigation of the disproportionate effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on women.