Asia Pacific

GENDER AND COVID-19 VACCINES Listening to women-focused organizations in Asia and the Pacific

More than a year into the coronavirus pandemic, COVID-19 vaccines are being distributed across at least 176 countries, with over 1.7 billion doses administered worldwide. Combating the pandemic requires equitable distribution of safe and effective vaccines, however, women and girls are impacted by gaps both in the supply side and the demand side that hamper equitable distribution of the vaccine. Evidence reveals that 75 per cent of all vaccines have gone to just 10 countries, and only 0.3 per cent of doses have been administered in low-income countries. Very few of COVID-19 vaccines are going to those most vulnerable. The vaccine rollout in Asia and the Pacific has been relatively slow and staggered amid secondary waves of the virus. India, despite being the largest vaccine developer, has only vaccinated 3 per cent of the population and continues to battle a variant outbreak that, at its peak, was responsible for more than half of the world’s daily COVID-19 cases and set a record-breaking pace of about 400,000 cases per day.5However, the small Pacific nation of Nauru, reported a world record administering the first dose to 7,392 people, 108 per cent of the adult population within four weeks. Bhutan also set an example by vaccinating 93 per cent of its eligible population in less than two weeks. That success could be at risk, given the situation in India and the suspended export of vaccines. Read More...

Real-Time Evaluation Asia-Pacific Regional COVID-19 Task Force

The Asia-Pacific Regional COVID-19 task force (RTF) was set-up in April 2020 as part of CARE’s global corporate emergency protocols. The intention of the RTF was to coordinate support across the CARE membership to contribute to effective pandemic response actions at the country level, as well as appropriate support and guidance for staff at all levels.
The official remit of the RTF that was agreed upon by the membership was to support: 1) COVID-19 humanitarian response; 2) clear, consolidated and contextualized programming guidance for COs, CMPs, affiliates and candidates; 3) communications for brand coherence & higher influence; d) information management; 4) COVID-19 specific regional advocacy; 5) consolidating program and response learning; 6) making resources on COVID programming available for external partners; 7) coordinating technical support; 8) linking to the global task team.
Now, six months into the response, the RTF has established a real-time evaluation to draw out learnings and understand how effective a role it has played in reaching its stated objectives. This RTE is intended to be a light, “good enough” review of the AP COVID-19 Task Force’s (henceforth referred to as RTF) performance since its inception.
The expectation is that learning from this evaluation will inform decision-making around possible continuation of the RTF, and also shed light on any adaptations to the remit, configuration or ways of working of the grouping that are required. Read More...

The COVID-19 Outbreak and Gender: Regional Analysis and Recommendations from Asia and the Pacific

In March 2020, emerging gender impacts and trends were highlighted in an Advocacy Brief developed by GiHA resulting in key recommendations. Good practices from across the Asia Pacific Region have seen these recommendations being put into action and six weeks on, due to the scale and rapidly changing nature of the pandemic, it was seen as crucial to continue to document evidence of gender impacts across Asia Pacific and to update analysis and recommendations. Read More...

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