Gender equality

In all South Asian countries, patriarchal values and social norms

keep gender inequalities alive. Discriminatory practices begin even
before birth and affect every aspect of a child’s future.

Challenge
Throughout the South Asian region inequalities arising from caste,
class, religion, ethnicity, location is further complicated by severe
gender-based discriminations that hold back progress and
development for both girls and boys. Existing evidence points to the
fact that despite considerable progress (especially with regard to
education and health) critical gender gaps persist. Across all South
Asian countries, patriarchal values and social norms tend to privilege
men and boys’ access to opportunities and control over resources.
These inequalities are manifested across the life cycle – from
conception, to birth, to childhood, adolescence through to adult life.

Over the years there has been progress in closing the gender

inequality gap, gender discrimination, gender stereotypes and
pervasive gender norms However, in the context of the COVID-19
pandemic the limited gains made so far are at risk of being rolled
back. The pandemic revealed pre-existing inequalities exposing
vulnerabilities in social, political, economic systems also increasing
risk factors for other issues such as GBV and child marriage with
significant impact on women and girls. In addition, the pandemic has
overwhelmed the health and social protection systems, restricted the
movement and accessibility of frontline and essential workers and left
the vulnerable populations isolated from support and protection.
Limited access to health services leading to an estimated 228,000
children and 11,000 mothers’ mortality and morbidity during the first
wave of the pandemic[1]. Reports also warn that 4.5 million girls are
likely to never return to schools and are at risk due to deteriorating
access to sexual and reproductive health and information services[2].
In addition, 147 million children in South Asia cannot be reached by
digital broadcast or remote learning and given the patriarchal context
in most South Asian countries,  girls are less likely to have access to
digital learning than boys[3].

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated key risk factors for

Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG). In South Asia, more
than 37 per cent of women have experienced violence at the hands of
their intimate partners[4]. The increase in VAWG is fueled by
household, economic and food insecurity and confined living
conditions due to lockdown and social isolation measures. There are
also reports of increased sexual abuse and harassment, both online
and offline, and in some settings, an increase in child
marriage[5]. Patriarchal societal norms weaken the participation of
women and children in family and community decision-making,
especially adolescent girls. This reduces their ability to demand
fulfilment of their rights to education, health and protection. This
affects the ability of duty-bearers in fulfilling these rights. It is
imperative to integrate a gender perspective across all UNICEF
programmes to promote the value and empowerment of women and
children in South Asia. 

Solution
Gender equality programming is critical and central to UNICEF’s
work, and it not possible for UNICEF to realize its mission of
advocating for the protection of children’s rights without promoting
and attaining gender equality. Advancing gender equality and the
rights of women and girls is essential to realizing the rights of all
children thus, UNICEF promotes the equal rights of girls and boys,
women and men and supports their full participation in social,
political and economic development.

To address the underlying gender norms which deprive girls of their

basic human rights, UNICEF ROSA recognizes the need to invest
in girl’s intentional interventions and multi-sectoral and integrated
programs focusing on their overall empowerment and wellbeing for
holistic development. UNICEF ROSA also developed a framework to
guide gender-transformative programming for adolescent girls’
empowerment in South Asia. The framework focuses on work at
various levels from individual girl’s empowerment to community
actions for tackling the root causes of discriminations and working at
policy and institutional levels to ensure their safe transitions to
adulthood. The framework is expected to provide practical and
scalable approaches by accelerating results for gender equality
through a girl intentional approach to programming and
advocacy by moving away from gender blind to gender
transformative focus.

Our regional partners strive to provide equal access to services and

opportunities for girls, boys, adolescents and women. We work with
our partners to identify and respond to barriers and bottlenecks that
continue to fuel gender differences in education, health, water and
sanitation, nutrition and national policies. And we ensure that their
programmes integrate stronger gender strategies with a right-based
approach. This helps to generate evidence and data, to influence and
advocate for child-focused policies and national level investments that
are equitable and gender-responsive. UNICEF ROSA has selected
four result areas – Water/IPC, Primary Health Care, Learning and
Mental Health/ Gender-based violence- to focus on in their regional
response measures to address the pandemic. These result areas are
aligned with UNICEF’s five priority actions: (i) Caring for
Caregivers, (ii) Prepare for an increase in Gender-based violence
(GBV) in the COVID-19 outbreak, (iii) Maintain core health,
nutrition and education services and systems, (iv) engaging existing
women’s and youth rights networks to support connectivity and vital
information flow and (v) ensure gender data are available, analysed
and actionable.

UNICEF is committed to meet the standards of international laws,

commitments and donor requirements in gender equality integrating
gender equality throughout its work.  UNICEF’s work is grounded in
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention on the
Rights of the Child (CRC), the Convention on the Elimination of All
Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the
Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and is
anchored in the landmark Beijing Declaration and the Beijing
Platform for Action.