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This paper focuses on providing a nuanced understanding of how COVID-19 lockdowns in Zimbabwe exacerbated the vulnerability of women human rights defenders (WHRDs). It utilises a desk research approach to narrate the lived experiences of WHRDs in a context where historically they have faced abuse, exclusion, and social and political stigma. COVID-19 evolved from a public health crisis to a sociopolitical and economic crisis that affected multiple groups. Government responses to COVID-19 exacerbated the 'hostile environment' specifically for WHRDs in different social and virtual spaces, and they had to grapple with the multi-dimensional crises of livelihoods, health, state repression, and everyday survival. Civil and political liberties came under severe attack in Zimbabwe after March 2020. The most apparent were the violations of the right to freedom of movement and the right to freedom of association (including the right to religion) through curtailment of population mobility as well as postponement of political and elections-related activities on 25 March 2020. In all these spaces WHRDs were targeted by government and their activities curtailed by the curfews imposed within communities. The soaring economic crisis and the effects of COVID-19 are intertwined with police brutality, abduction of political and media personalities including WHRDs, and harassment of press and silencing of WHRD voices. State-sponsored attacks against women have come in the form of beatings by the police and army, and arrests under the guise of enforcing COVID-19 restrictions. This paper also highlights the agency of WHRDs to continuously create spaces and ways to keep fighting for improved service delivery in the face of increased state repression, by confronting institutionalised impunity, risking jail to protect and promote civic and political rights, and challenging oppressive traditional practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globally, women have been disproportionally affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. While the impact has varied between groups of women, women in the informal sector, mainly those managing micro- and small-scale businesses, have been severely affected. Drawing on the case of urban Sri Lanka, this paper explores the challenges that women owners of micro- and small-scale businesses faced during the pandemic and how they leveraged digital technologies to overcome these challenges. The paper adopts a feminist intersectional lens, which examines the everyday experiences of women in gendered economies through semi-structured interviews conducted in three phases during the pandemic. The first section of the paper details the challenges that women faced during the pandemic, including issues of mobility, competing care responsibilities, lack of institutional support, financial security, and health. The second section discusses how women used digital tools such as social media to overcome these challenges. The paper argues that although digital tools were initially used in response to the challenges posed by the pandemic, they have been permanently incorporated into everyday entrepreneurial practices of women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As women across the globe continue to be overburdened with child-care responsibilities owing to the closure of institutional child-care facilities due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this paper attempts to posit a viable disaster-resilient model through the idea of community-based care infrastructure. Based on research conducted among parents from low-income groups, whose children attended child-care centres run by Sangini Co-operative of Self-employed women's association (SEWA) in Gujarat in western India, this paper wants to highlight the spontaneity with which the Cooperative responded to the pandemic, underlining the efficacy of community-based interventions in times of crisis. This paper argues that solidarity between care workers and the larger community is only likely to increase during times of crisis, which makes community-based solutions an integral part of addressing future care emergencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In fragile and conflict-affected contexts, the COVID-19 pandemic hit communities much harder than elsewhere by adding another layer of vulnerability to their already precarious circumstances. Around the world, many pandemic recovery plans were devoid of gender-sensitivity, such as lacking explicit recognition of, or introduction of, substantive steps, supporting women's quest for improved care services. In the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), where the pandemic coincided with other crises such as the occupation, an escalated military offensive (May 2021 in Gaza), heatwaves due to climate change, and a longstanding economic crisis, pandemic recovery is particularly challenging. This paper examines the channels through which Palestinian women's multi-layered vulnerabilities continue to worsen despite the Palestinian Authority's pandemic recovery measures. It does so by documenting the plethora of ways in which women's wellbeing is hampered by critical factors such as informal modes of employment, patriarchal social norms, unpaid care responsibilities, and the longstanding absence of any social protections. The policy analysis reveals that there is widespread fragmentation in the design of pandemic recovery policies which attempt to address their highly complex and multi-layered challenges. Using the case of women in the OPT as an example, it proposes several policy recommendations to help address Palestinian women's unique vulnerabilities even within their existing limitations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Domestic labour or care work creates the conditions through which other labour can occur, however, the value that this work provides is scarcely recognised when lawmakers consider its remuneration and regulation. This paper investigates legal discrimination against providers of domestic labour in South Africa, especially at home involving women in relationships and domestic workers. This is done by considering how labour law and gender equity law as well as the Constitution produce inequitable outcomes for women providing care services and contrasting the realities of care workers with legal protections. It also considers the ways in which the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the reality of care. Lastly, it outlines the ways in which the law can enable more equitable dispensations of labour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analysing fiscal policy from the perspective of feminist economics means examining gender equality policies, both in terms of tax revenue and other sources of fund (indebtedness), as well as redistribution and public spending. Finding out the number of resources assigned to these policies, their macroeconomic impact, and their temporality (longevity) is extremely essential. In this paper, we will analyse public expenditure in the budgets of Latin American countries during the COVID-19 pandemic. The budget proposals tabled for the region focus on employment generation through the creation of care centres, with policies that focus on both redistribution of income and redistribution of care work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper speaks of the women sanitation workers who are working at the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic in Pune city, an epicentre of rising COVID-19 cases in India. Prevailing caste and gendered norms of labour roles render the women doubly vulnerable. Within that context, we investigate how the women sanitation workers self-identify their health risks and needs. We document their internal negotiation of health risks, and their narratives pertaining to chronic health issues and deteriorating mental health arising from COVID-19-related uncertainty. We also probe on how their family roles and obligations intersect with their de-prioritisation of self-care. The investigation reveals narratives of lack of agency at work, invisibilised and endemic mental wellness issues, and neglect of personal well-being at the cost of centring the needs of the family. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]