Statement regarding the global crisis caused by Covid-19

Introduction

The global health pandemic caused by COVID-19 and the mandatory lockdowns have prompted us, as a CLACSO working group, to reflect on the effects it is having in our countries. In particular, the health crisis compels us to consider women and the consequences of the pandemic on their lives, their bodies, and their daily work. Thinking about women means recognizing the diverse situations faced by those who are in quarantine; those who cannot comply because they must go out to provide for their families; those who are part of the workforce but, due to this situation, are working from home; and those who have been laid off without pay. Likewise, it involves taking into account the situation of women on the front lines of the pandemic, whether as healthcare professionals or volunteers caring for COVID-19 patients. In addition to the obvious risk of infection, these women may be subject to social discrimination. It is necessary to consider the particular situations of vulnerability of elderly women, women with disabilities, indigenous women and migrants, both those who leave our countries and those who are in transit through them, and refugees.  

The pandemic compels us not only to reflect but also to take a political stance on the issue and to call upon Latin American governments to develop feminist public policies. These actions must be geared towards preventing and eradicating domestic violence; educating about the revaluation and redistribution of care work; protecting the lives of women working in the health sector; ensuring decent working conditions for those employed in both the formal and informal labor markets; and creating the necessary mechanisms to prevent women from disproportionately bearing the costs of the pandemic.  

To this end, we propose four fundamental axes to consider in the development of feminist public policies that contribute to equitably mitigating the harmful effects of Covid-19. First, we contextualize the situation of domestic and intimate partner violence experienced by women during the health crisis. Second, we address the economic and care crisis in the face of Covid-19. Third, we consider the impact of Covid-19 on health, education, and food sovereignty. Finally, we present a proposal from the Social and Solidarity Economy to transition towards social and economic relations that promote cooperation, equality, and respect for nature. 

1. The increase in domestic and partner violence against women during the COVID-19 health crisis 

The population mobility restrictions implemented by governments worldwide as a preventative measure to avoid the spread of Covid-19 have increased tension and violence within families, and consequently, domestic violence against women and children. Contrary to the assumptions of some Latin American governments, such as Mexico's, the family is not always an institution that protects and cares for its members. On the contrary, it is often the setting where a high percentage of sexual abuse and other forms of violence against women and children occur, as the following data demonstrates.  

In Mexico, calls reporting various types of aggression against women have increased by 60%. Additionally, more than 41 emergency calls have been received by 911, and asylum requests have risen by 30%, according to the National Network of Shelters. The Attorney General's Office reported a 7.2% increase in arrests for domestic violence. In Colombia, the 155 hotline, which provides guidance and support to women who are victims of any type of gender-based violence, received 91% more calls than a year ago, according to the Colombian Women's Observatory. In Argentina, on the first day of the mandatory quarantine in the country, March 20, 41 women reported gender-based violence in Buenos Aires, the capital. Chile reported a 70% increase in calls made by women to a hotline for guidance on domestic violence. For this reason, we urge Latin American governments to: 

• Disseminate messages through all available media to prevent and eradicate violence against women. 
• Create specific, clear and effective protocols for the prevention and care of gender violence. 
• Adopt gender-sensitive policies to prevent and eradicate domestic and partner violence. 
• To ensure a faster and more effective response for the care of victims of domestic violence.  
• To train and raise awareness among law enforcement officials regarding gender-based violence. 
• Increase resources and coordination with non-governmental organizations that provide shelter services, assistance and legal advice for women victims of violence. 
• Expand the number of government shelters, keep them open, and in the best possible condition. 
• Implement legal mechanisms to ensure that the aggressor leaves the family home, guaranteeing protection for those who remain.  
• Implement re-education and rehabilitation programs for domestic and sexual abusers with a gender perspective, as well as psychological assistance. 
• To provide psychological, legal and health care to victims of gender violence, allocating sufficient public resources for this purpose.

The economic and care crisis is exacerbated by the coronavirus 

The global health crisis caused by Covid-19 is also directly impacting the performance of the world economy, which was already weakened before the pandemic. In 2019 alone, the global economy registered its worst performance since 2009, with a growth rate of only 2,5%, according to ECLAC data. The most optimistic estimates after the outbreak of Covid-19 predicted that the global economic growth rate would fall to 1,0% or less. As the pandemic spread, these forecasts were revised downward. For example, Goldman Sachs indicates that the annual GDP decline in the US will be 3,8%, in the Eurozone 9%, and in Japan 2,1%. Estimates from the International Labour Organization (ILO) indicate an increase in global unemployment of between 5.3 million and 24.7 million people, based on 188 million unemployed in 2019. In a hypothetical scenario middle finger The increase would be 13 million people. 

Latin America and the Caribbean face a worse scenario than the rest of the world. Before the pandemic, ECLAC projected that the region would grow by a maximum of 1.3% in 2020. In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, a GDP decline of at least 1.8% is now forecast. However, the possibility that the pandemic's evolution could lead to contractions of between 3% and 4%, or even more, cannot be ruled out. The sectors that could suffer the greatest contractions are trade, transportation, and business and social services. ECLAC believes that the final economic impact will depend on the measures taken at the national, regional, and global levels.  

Furthermore, 53% of employment in the region is in the informal sector, which will be significantly affected because it relies primarily on interpersonal contact. The reduction in economic activity in the region would exacerbate the vulnerability, particularly of women workers in the informal sector. According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), 126 million women have been affected, either by social distancing or mandatory quarantine. Moreover, the regional UN office reports that almost 40% of working women are employed in commerce, restaurants, hotels, and domestic work. These are the sectors most affected and the jobs least protected in the economic crisis caused by the coronavirus. Additionally, María-Noel Vaez, Regional Director of UN Women, warns that almost half of the female population in the region is losing their livelihoods and will have difficulty finding other employment.  

On the other hand, COVID-19 also exacerbated the crisis of unpaid work. Domestic and care work is primarily performed by women worldwide; however, in Latin America and the Caribbean, the proportion of hours women dedicate to this activity is much higher than in the rest of the world. For example, in Sweden, men's contribution to these activities is 40%, in the US it is 38%, and in China it is 39%, unlike in our region, where it is only 27%. In Mexico, according to data from CONEVAL, the number of hours women dedicate to domestic work has tripled during the pandemic, reaching 39 hours per week, while men dedicate only 13 hours to these tasks. It is important to quantify the increase in the economic value of these types of activities so far in 2020, as well as to identify the percentage increase, given the mandatory lockdown situation, and its equivalent in relation to each country's GDP.  

Among the domestic and care work that has intensified the most are food preparation, house cleaning and financial management, supporting children's schooling, attending to, preventing, and caring for the physical and mental health of all family members (especially the elderly), recreational activities at home, etc. These tasks fall disproportionately on women, leading to increased physical and emotional exhaustion. UNICEF warned that, as of March 23, 2020, approximately 154 million children and adolescents (more than 95% of those enrolled in the region) were temporarily out of school due to closures caused by COVID-19. These children and adolescents require care that places an excessive burden on families, particularly women, exacerbating gender inequalities within households. 

Therefore, it is necessary for regional governments to implement actions that prevent and mitigate the risk of women being overburdened with care work, such as: 

• Disseminate messages that promote the equitable distribution of domestic activities and care within the home through radio, television, print and digital media. 
• Generate special subsidies for public services and rent payments, and defer mortgage payments.  
• Implement government insurance programs for unemployment or loss of salary due to the indefinite work stoppage caused by the health emergency. 
• Design and implement a basic income for mothers, as well as for women and men who care for children, the elderly, the sick, or people with disabilities. This would be a significant step forward in recognizing care work and its impact on GDP. 
• Implement family vouchers for the purchase of nutritious food. 
• Activate local production and trade networks to support businesses and strengthen the national economy. 
• To stimulate the organization of social solidarity economy mechanisms, such as alternative currencies for the acquisition of goods and services. 
• Generate statistics disaggregated by gender and ethnicity to understand the differentiated economic impact of Covid-19. 

2. The social impact of Covid-19: Health, education and food security

Latin America and the Caribbean, even before the global health crisis, had high rates of poverty and extreme poverty. With the advance of the COVID-19 pandemic, negative repercussions are expected in health, education, and food security, leading to increased poverty, in addition to the previously mentioned impact on the economy, care work, and the rise in violence, which are exacerbated by social class, gender, age, ethnicity, disability, and location. Therefore, it is essential to prioritize the most vulnerable groups, including Indigenous communities, women, and children. 

Health services

ECLAC indicates that most Latin American and Caribbean countries, prior to the pandemic, did not invest sufficiently in health infrastructure, care, and prevention. Furthermore, specialized medical services are centralized in large cities, while peri-urban and rural areas often lack the necessary supply of medicines, personnel, and basic infrastructure. This means that universal access to healthcare, essential for addressing the COVID-19 health crisis, is not guaranteed. 

Women represent a population group at higher risk of contracting Covid-19, as they are the first responders to the health emergency as healthcare professionals, community volunteers, and caregivers, thereby bearing the greatest physical and emotional costs. Furthermore, in the face of the health emergency, the majority of resources and efforts are focused on addressing the situation, leaving sexual and reproductive health care neglected or overlooked.  

In 2017, a group of UN experts recommended the inclusion of gender analysis in emergency health policies, recognizing the crucial role of women in situations like the one we are currently facing. Furthermore, the lack of female representation in the agencies and committees that design strategies to combat the virus is also disproportionate to the number of women working in health and care services as nurses, cleaners, cashiers, social workers, and caregivers for infants, the elderly, and the sick. They face a disproportionately higher risk of infection compared to men. Therefore, it is essential that the governments of the region commit to the following actions:  

• Guarantee health services for the entire population, with special attention to immunocompromised people, people with disabilities and the elderly, pregnant women, victims of violence, migrants, peasant women, especially those who are in the most remote areas and have less access to information, as well as to health services.  
• Recognizing that without the work of rural women we cannot guarantee the production of food necessary for the rest of the population.  
• Incorporate services to ensure psychosocial health and sexual health from a holistic health perspective that also includes ancestral health practices. 
• Ensure the supply of medicines for hospitals and centers in suburban, rural and peri-urban areas.  
• Adopt measures that guarantee the establishment of comprehensive health prevention and protection systems that take into account both scientific and technological development and ancestral knowledge. 
• To generate the necessary ethical and legal frameworks to allow the human right to a dignified death – including assisted death – when people, due to their health condition, so decide.  
• Strengthen the participation of women in the councils and committees for implementing strategies against Covid-19. 
• Generate gender- and ethnic-differentiated statistics on the health impact of Covid-19. 

Education

The use of digital technologies has helped mitigate the impact of the pandemic on education and work, while also allowing for personal communication and entertainment activities at home. As of March 20, 2020, a large number of Latin American countries had suspended classes at all educational levels. In Brazil, localized closures of educational centers had been implemented. 

The abrupt interruption of classes led, almost immediately, to the implementation of digital teaching services through various applications, especially in private educational centers that have the digital infrastructure and use of ICT necessary to continue classes and meet the evaluation periods. 

According to information released by ECLAC, in 2019 more than 67% of the region's inhabitants used the internet, and this percentage is rising with the implementation of broadband and the increased use of digital technologies. However, it is essential to recognize that in Latin America and the Caribbean, a significant portion of the population lacks internet access and electronic devices such as computers, tablets, or cell phones, which could exacerbate inequalities in access to these services among countries. For example, in 2017, more than 80% of the population in Chile, Brazil, Costa Rica, and Uruguay had mobile internet access, while in Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua, only 30% of the population had access. In the context of the health crisis, these gaps could widen, having significant effects on learning, especially for those already in vulnerable situations, such as students in rural areas, impoverished urban areas, and people with disabilities. 

Therefore, it is important that Latin American governments and educational institutions plan for the measures to be taken for the remainder of the year in light of school closures. In this regard, we believe that the establishment of public policies in education should include:  

• Provide digital devices to the population that does not have access to them to continue their education during the health crisis. 
• Ensure training in the use of digital technologies and virtual education modalities, both for students and for teachers. 
• Consolidate broadband access for the entire population. 
• Develop mechanisms to prevent school dropout caused by the imminent economic crisis and the digital divide.  

Food safety

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) reported on March 31, 2020, on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the food sector. The report stated that global food production is sufficient to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic, provided that policymakers worldwide do not repeat the mistakes made during the 2007-08 food crisis.  

The sectors most vulnerable to the Covid-19 pandemic are expected to be those countries already suffering from chronic hunger, affecting some 820 million people, and acute hunger, affecting 113 million people worldwide. Small-scale farmers could also be impacted, as they may be unable to work their land, sell their produce through supply chains and local markets, and acquire other necessary inputs, while facing rising input prices.  

The FAO recognizes that family farming will play a central role in food production during the COVID-19 crisis. In some Latin American and Caribbean countries, this type of agriculture contributes to meeting the food needs of a large segment of the population. For example, in Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, family farming is strategic for the domestic market, while in Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and Chile, this type of agriculture is more integrated into global supply chains; that is, these are export products, which in turn can lead to shortages in the domestic market due to increased international demand for food and higher acquisition costs. 

Additionally, around 85 million children in the region receive breakfast, a snack, or lunch at school. Due to pandemic-related closures, families are currently bearing the brunt of this expense, despite reduced incomes due to the economic crisis. In the worst cases, children are suffering from a lack of this food support, which poses a significant risk to their health. To guarantee food security, we urge the governments of the region to:   

• Deliver basic food baskets to families who lack access to food during the quarantine, continue school breakfast programs, and provide food pantries to families with students, senior citizens, and people with disabilities. The food provided must be approved by public medical and educational institutions. 
• Ensure that companies producing non-perishable goods rationalize and inventory their products to avoid excessive purchases and ensure that the entire population has access to them.  
• Implement solidarity food service mechanisms for those who have the least. 
• Introduce redeemable food vouchers in popular markets, solidarity markets, local shops and cooperatives as a way to deliver healthy food and strengthen the local economy. 
• Ensure the continuity of the food supply system through adequate protection of producers and local trade. 
• To provide economic and material support to implement, strengthen and give continuity to family farming, as well as urban gardens. 

3. The social and solidarity economy: a way to reorganize life during and after COVID-19 

Throughout this political statement, we have reported on the statistics regarding the increase in domestic violence due to mandatory confinement, as well as the effects on the global and regional economy, the care crisis, the collapse of the healthcare system, and the consequences for education, food production, and distribution systems. However, the COVID-19 pandemic is not the primary factor that has triggered this series of global situations. Long before the pandemic, the world was already experiencing a profound social and environmental crisis, a product of capitalism, in addition to the increase in violence, specifically against women and children. 

The capitalist system of production is based on relations of exploitation and subordination, as well as on a rationality that legitimizes the unlimited concentration and accumulation of wealth. In this system, the environment and people are only considered for their value as raw materials and as a labor force, the latter being increasingly replaceable by automation and technological advancements. Continuing with the current system would put life in its broadest sense at risk. 

Given this possibility, and beyond the current health crisis, we must rethink and establish actions that contribute to building just relationships between societies, genders, and generations, as well as transitioning toward sustainable forms of production, distribution, and consumption, primarily focused on meeting the needs of all people. There are many challenges to overcome: inequalities, marginalization, discrimination, and poverty, which, although they existed before, the pandemic has shockingly exposed.   

One alternative whose relevance stands out in the context of the current crisis is the Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE), It places life at the center of its work, as well as the interrelation between communities, nature, the means of production, and emancipated living labor, which function as an integrated circuit for building relationships based on justice, equity, and the production of use values. The Social and Solidarity Economy proposes a series of principles for collective, collaborative, and community work, as well as ethical values ​​based on inclusion, democracy, and solidarity, for building alternative forms of sociality. Additionally, the Social and Solidarity Economy recognizes care work as one of the activities that generates the most well-being for society as a whole, thus positioning it as the foundation of a new way of relating to one another. 

Thus, prioritizing collaboration, cooperation, and solidarity for the care and reproduction of life, the governments of Latin America and the Caribbean are urged to facilitate the transition from the current capitalist system to the Social and Solidarity Economy through the implementation of public policies to:

• Guarantee food sovereignty through the protection of native seeds and the non-approval of the genetic transformation of staple grains. 
• Activate the production of the national and regional peasantry, as well as provide the necessary infrastructure and technology for the transition to agroecological forms of production. 
• Protecting the national peasantry through guaranteed prices and the placement of their products in local, national and regional markets. 
• Develop distribution networks for safe food, goods and services for the population under quarantine through the various entities of the social economy (solidarity networks, fair markets, cooperatives). 
• Consider food production, the provision of care and essential life services such as health and education, as high priority activities, and a central engine to reactivate the economy after the pandemic, by promoting decent jobs for women and men on equal terms and within the framework of the social solidarity economy. 
• Generate a regional mapping of the strategies that different types of SSE entities are using to deal with Covid-19. 
• When the time is right, assess the impact of the current health emergency on the social and solidarity economy (SSE) fabric in order to reorient or incorporate other strategies or innovations that strengthen the SSE in the region. 
• Regional governments must guarantee a favorable legal framework and an adequate and sufficient budget for the promotion and strengthening of the social and solidarity economy at the local, national and regional levels. 

CLACSO Working Group
Emancipatory feminist economics (Michoacan node)
May 2020

This statement expresses the position of the Working Group on Emancipatory Feminist Economics and not necessarily that of the centers and institutions that make up the CLACSO international network, its Steering Committee or its Executive Secretariat.

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