A report, prepared by the gender agency UN Women and the Global Crisis Response Group of the General secretarydescribes how the war in Ukraine has widened gender gaps in hunger, education and poverty, and has also increased gender-based violence.
For example, school-age girls are now at greater risk of being forced to drop out of school and marry, as a way for desperate families to simply make ends meet.
Women have also reduced their own food intake, so other family members can have more, amid rising prices and food shortages.
Meanwhile, rising energy prices have left families with no choice but to continue using low-tech fossil fuels, exposing women and girls to household air pollution that kills 3.2 million people. every year.
UN Women also estimates that some 265,000 Ukrainian women were pregnant when the war broke out and have had to endure physical and health problems in recent months.
rural food insecurity
The document states that Ukrainian female-headed households were already more food insecure before the waras 37.5% of them experienced moderate or severe levels of food deprivation, compared to 20.5% of male-headed households.
Currently, rural women in the Russian-occupied territories are unable to do agricultural work due to high insecurity and lack of resources. However, they have to host IDPs, which multiplies their responsibilities in providing care and carrying out unpaid domestic work.
Increases sexual violence
The report warns of an “alarming” rise in gender-based violenceof transactional sex to feed and survive, of sexual exploitation and human trafficking, not only in Ukraine, but throughout the world, amid worsening living conditions.
“Systemic gender crises require systemic gender solutions. That means ensuring that women and girls, including those from marginalized groups, are part of all decision-making processes. That is simply the only way to be sure that that their rights and needs are fully taken into account in responding to the clear facts before us,” said Sima Bahous, Executive Director of UN Women.
recommendations
The analysis highlights that, as women continue to bear different and additional burdens of war, should be represented on all decision-making platforms on de-escalation, conflict prevention, mitigation of the impacts of war and other processes in search of peace and security for the people of Ukraine and beyond.
The report calls on the international community to advance the right to food by focusing on the specific nutritional needs of women and girls and accelerate the transformation towards more equitable, sustainable and gender-responsive food systems.
UN Women and the UN Global Crisis Response Group also recommend that world leaders ensure equal access to affordable and sustainable energy, as well as push for gender statistics and sex-disaggregated data.
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