Join Women RISE at the upcoming Acfas Congress
Women RISE is supported by IDRC, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).
The Acfas conference will be held at the University of Ottawa from May 13-17, 2024, and will focus on the theme “Mobilizing Knowledge in French.” Aligned with this theme, representatives of five research projects under the Women RISE initiative will participate in a panel discussion from 9:00 to 11:45 a.m. EDT on May 13 to explore the impact of COVID-19 on adolescent girls and women, and post-pandemic recovery in the South.
Montasser Kamal, director of Global Health at IDRC, said, “While the life experiences of women under COVID-19 may have had many similarities, these experiences were also shaped by the sociocultural, political and economic contexts where they live. Women RISE researchers are studying these experiences and drawing unique lessons for future programming and policies in each context and globally, including French-speaking contexts. Acfas is a welcome opportunity for the research community and decision-makers to stop and listen to these voices and learn about these experiences.”
Sana Naffa, a senior program specialist with IDRC’s Global Health division, will be joined by grantees representing the following five Women RISE research projects:
- Strengthening the resilience of young self-employed women in Nigeria project represented by Srividya Iyer (McGill University)
- The effects of COVID-19 pandemic response measures on women's health and socioeconomic well-being in the Republic of Guinea: a mixed explanatory approach project represented by Alexandre Delamou (African Center of Excellence for the Prevention and Control of Communicable Diseases, Université Gamal Abdel Nasser de Conakry)
- Public policies to reinforce vulnerability? Taking into account adolescent girls and women in the informal sector in mitigation measures for COVID-19 in Burkina Faso project represented by Madeleine Wayack Pambe (Higher Institute of Population Studies, Université Joseph Ki-Zerbo)
- The "shadow pandemic": COVID-19, economic degradation and multifaceted violence against women in South Benin project represented by Maude Jodoin Léveillée (Université de Montréal) and Anne Calvès (Université de Montréal)
- Ukuvula Isango: Opening the door to women's empowerment and post-pandemic reconstruction in rural South Africa: Lessons learned and ways forward represented by Kathleen Rice (McGill University)
“Women RISE provides an interactive platform for the exchange of experiences and approaches among the research teams who unpack the multifaceted aspects of women’s vulnerabilities and resilience and inform a systems’ approach to national responses to pandemics and epidemics,” Sana said.
The panel will explore the various approaches taken by the projects in identifying the impact of COVID-19 on women and young girls and the complex factors that hinder their post-pandemic recovery and resilience. Speakers will highlight how women and girls were disproportionately affected by the pandemic and pandemic mitigation measures, and how they were mostly excluded from many government-supported pandemic recovery and response initiatives.
Preliminary findings and evidence will also be included in the discussion of potential long-term policy and programmatic solutions in the African context. The research projects will speak to the need for more inclusive, multi-sector post-crisis preparation and response. The research teams will delve into potential opportunities for concerted interventions in critical areas such as gender-based violence, violence against women, mental health, sexual and reproductive health, care and unpaid work, crime, substance use, rural policing and livelihood diversification.
About Women RISE
Women RISE seeks to support action-oriented, gender-transformative research on how women’s health and their work (paid or unpaid) intersect and interact in the context of preparing for, responding to and recovering from COVID-19. It is a CAD24-million initiative supported by IDRC in partnership with CIHR and SSHRC.