Drawing on an assessment of the needs of rural women in Senegal, Mali, Liberia, Malawi and Haiti, and on an ecosystem mapping and market dialogue process, these infographics illustrate the challenges that rural women face to access resilience-building services that are tailored to their needs, and provide insights into gender-responsive policy measures and innovative solutions to respond to the women’s needs and build their resilience to climate change and disasters.

The current drought response in Ethiopia is being scaled up across sectors, including food security, nutrition assistance, provision of safe water and sanitation, and livelihood protection. In addition, other urgent humanitarian assistance to drought- stricken areas such as agriculture and livestock support for pastoralist communities are also being increased. Nonetheless, the needs of women and girls may not be met due to a number of compounding factors such as the breakdown of key services which are critical to the health, protection, and recovery of women and girls; weakened informal and formal protection and accountability mechanisms; disrupted livelihoods, increased displacement, power imbalances, and limited access to resources.

This study builds on UN Women’s achievements and experience in supporting women and girls during the COVID pandemic within the East and Southern Africa Region and other parts of the world.