Client: The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN WOMEN) and Gender Monitoring Office (GMO)
Contract timeline: February – May 2021
Objective:
The main objective of this assignment is to provide evidence of the socio-economic impact of Covid-19 pandemic on both women and men involved in informal cross border trade in three identified districts in the Western province (namely Rusizi, Rubavu, and Nyamasheke districts).
Scope of the assignment:
- This assessment covers 3 administrative Districts of Western provinces bordering with Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). These include Rubavu, Rusizi, and Nyamasheke districts. The choice of these districts was guided by the high-level traffic of informal cross-border trade as compared to other borders in Uganda and Tanzania
The HLC-L4D was tasked to undertake the following activities:
- To assess the extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic and its associated restrictions measures on movement have affected livelihoods and conditions of women and men involved in informal cross border trade in the study area;
- To assess the impact of Covid-19 pandemic on economic indicators (including income, burden of care work, access to finance, ownership of businesses, use of mobile money, access to remittances, among others);
- To examine the impact of implemented restrictions measures mainly total and partial lockdown on GBV and other forms of violence and GBV Service delivery especially for women in informal cross border trade;
- Asses the different coping mechanisms or strategies against COVID-19 impacts adopted by women and men small scale cross-border traders in the research area;
- Assess whether cross-border traders have access to the on-going recovery fund or other support services aimed at supporting them in their recovery process.
- To propose a policy and suggest programmatic recommendations in response to COVID-19 pandemic to address the impact of the epidemic on women and men in informal cross border trade.