At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, cases and deaths were concentrated in large urban centers. However, with time, rural communities also began to bear a higher burden from the virus’ impact.
As part of efforts to find possible solutions to these burdens, researchers from IITA and Cellule d’Analyses des Indicateurs de Développement (CAID) conducted an in-depth study in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), to assess COVID-19’s impact on gender equality, youth, and social inclusion within households, during the early days of the pandemic. The researchers chose Kwilu, Kwango, Kongo Central, and Kinshasa in western DRC, areas that were more exposed to the virus and accounted for 68% of the total 54,193 cases by 2 August 2021.
In 82.1% of households across the four communities, the household head and their spouse were interviewed, and where possible, two people within households were separately interviewed. In the remaining households, different household members were interviewed, such as the household head and their brother/sister or the spouse and her/his child.
Key findings from the study suggested that fewer job and business opportunities were available for women and youth during the early stages of the pandemic. Changes in payments received for work and people’s group participation were relatively minor. Also, the ability of people to move outside of their communities was heavily constrained during the reference period, resulting in increased participation in household chores for some people while it decreased for others. There was also a decline in sexual and reproductive health care services during this period.
From the interview, almost one-third of the respondents indicated a reduced amount of food allocated to household members during the reference period primarily due to COVID-19. Also, more women than men felt they had no voice in addressing COVID-19 issues in their communities.
Generally, the responses to most of the survey questions did not differ significantly between husbands and wives. The similar responses are partly due to the restricted movement outside the community by both respondents during the reference period, as they were more often together to observe the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic at the household level.
One of the researchers, Steven Cole, IITA Senior Scientist and Gender Specialist, explained that the result from the study is the first of its kind and creates a point of reference for future studies to compare if conditions from the COVID-19 pandemic changed or remained similar in rural areas.
Contributed by Favour Eleta
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