The Forgotten Policy
Kenya like many other developing countries has a fragile and underdeveloped health care system. The government has prioritised “flattening the curve” for COVID-19 infections through non pharmaceutical measures. Flattening the curve implies the implementation of measures that stagger the number of those infected by the virus at any particular time to levels that are manageable within the constraints of the health system.
The government of Kenya announced a raft of economic measures both fiscal and monetary to cushion businesses and the economy at large. From the most recent policy announcements, the central bank of Kenya lowered the base lending rate, and reduced the cash reserve ratio by 1 per cent point in order to enable cheaper credit to entrepreneurs. Small and medium enterprises will also benefit from a reduction in turnover tax.
The government has been in the forefront in providing various household reliefs during COVID-19. However there has been no gender focus in their implementation. The assumption is that the impact of the interventions will be gender neutral and that households whether male or female headed, the impact will be same for all households. But is it the case? Neutrality of policy outcomes on the ground can only hold if indeed the policy context is also gender neutral.
Catch up on the latest publication, “The Forgotten policy: Corona and Gender Mainstreaming in Economic Policies”. Read more https://uonresearch.org/blog/the-forgotten-policy-corona-and-gender-mainstreaming-in-economic-policies/
