Gender inequality and rural women’s health in post-COVID-19 Nigeria: towards inclusive and sustainable rural women’s health in Nigeria

The COVID-19 pandemic and efforts to control it have threatened livelihoods, introduced new workplace risks and made unstable work relationships even more precarious, especially for women. This project will examine the context-specific challenges that impact women’s lives before, during and after the COVID-19 pandemic using traditional data collection techniques, life histories and photovoice sources. This information will be used to generate robust policy-relevant evidence to promote the integration of innovative strategies on gender equality and women’s access to essential health services into gender-transformative policies on COVID-19 response and recovery. The research will be carried out in Nigeria’s Edo and Delta States.

Among the expected results are new knowledge on women/girls’ lives and status in rural communities and the impact on their access to essential health services before, during and after COVID-19; a tested framework of community-led initiatives to promote rural women’s economic and health empowerment that is ready for scaling up; at least 50,000 women with improved access/use of essential health services; and at least 2,000 policymakers and non-state actors empowered on the integration of gender equality in COVID-19 recovery programs.

This project is funded under Women’s health and economic empowerment for a COVID-19 Recovery that is Inclusive, Sustainable and Equitable (Women RISE), an initiative of IDRC, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. Its goal is to support global action-oriented, gender-transformative research by teams of researchers from low- and middle-income countries and Canada.