SADC Gender Protocol Barometer 2020

#VOICEANDCHOICE IN THE TIME OF COVID-19

Foreword by Dr Tlaleng Mofokeng, ‘Dr T’.

Welcome to the twelfth edition of the SADC Gender Barometer, #VoiceandChoice in the Time of COVID-19. For the first time ever the Barometer is being launched virtually in the wings of the Southern African Development Community Heads of State summit as the pandemic forces our region (and the whole world) into various states of lockdown. In 2019, in the wake of the #MeToo, #TimesUp, #TotalShutdown and many other regional and global women’s rights campaigns, the Barometer narrowed its focus to Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR). Fragile gains in areas such as teenage pregnancies, safe abortion, child marriages, HIV and AIDS are now threatened by time, effort and resources being diverted to fight the pandemic. GBV has been christened the shadow pandemic of COVID-19. But there is a glimmer of hope that from all this will emerge a “new normal” of gender equality. New chapters on economic justice, climate justice and women’s political participation shine a light on the broad spectrum of inter-linked rights that must rise from the ashes of a deadly virus!