By Jim Olson
Throughout her career, Dr. Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka has been advocating for human rights and gender equity across Africa and around the world. Over the past four decades, her distinguished professional journey has taken her from the front lines of the continent’s most impoverished villages to the global arena of policy and politics.
Along the way, she has served as the first president of the Natal Organisation of Women (NOW), Deputy President of South Africa, culminating with her current role as Under Secretary General of the United Nations (UN) as Executive Director of the UN Women. At every turn, Dr. Mlambo-Ngcuka has taken on bigger and more challenging roles in her fight for social justice.
Last Thursday, we invited Dr. Mlambo-Ngcuka to The Room for an exclusive virtual conversation about the acute impact that the COVID-19 pandemic is having on the women of Africa and the world. In a sobering interview moderated by former CNN anchor and Africa advocate Zain Verjee, Room members were given a window seat to the devastating impact that COVID-19 is having on African women and the public policy response necessary to mitigate the pandemic’s adverse effects.
The Window is Closing
Across the world, nations have stumbled in a rush to respond to the rapid spread of COVID-19. However, the response in Africa has been worrying Dr. Mlambo-Ngcuka. “The first thing I would hope we could be doing now is testing, testing and testing, so that we stay ahead of the pandemic. I would like us in Africa to avoid a situation where we have to hospitalize many people. Our first priority has to be prevention.”
She added, “What worries me is that we don’t have the adequate resources for all our countries to be ahead of the curve. The window is closing on us.”
She contends that the virus itself is not the biggest threat to women, it’s the inadequate handling of the crisis by local and national governments that should be most alarming. We need to make sure women aren’t unintended casualties due to the handling of this crisis, she warns.
How can we ensure this? Dr. Mlambo-Ngcuka points to a number of vulnerabilities and opportunities in the response to COVID-19.
An unequal burden of care
There is unfair and unacceptable pressure placed on professional women. Compared to their male spouses who enjoy a culturally acceptable sense of entitlement to focus solely on their jobs, working females in contrast are expected to simultaneously play the role of wife, mother, teacher, cook and housekeeper. “We need men to share in the tasks at home.” She adds that men who take care of their families are also less likely to be abusive.
Flatten the curve of violence against women
Dr. Mlambo-Ngcuka worries that women in many African countries are now confined with abusive husbands — “when women are in lockdown they are locked in with their abuser.”
These pre-existing abusive conditions are even more dangerous under lockdown and quarantine conditions since many African nations don’t have the essential services to protect women residing in violent households. She is concerned that governments with limited resources will prioritize subsidizing job-creating businesses over essential protective services for women.
“It’s a false choice,” she argues. “Women are on the short end of the stick.”
Governments need to provide shelters and hotlines for women, and remove violent men from households, says Dr. Mlambo-Ngcuka. She also urges the private sector to step up — suggesting that hotel operators should offer their vacant rooms as safe houses and shelters for abused women. “We can turn the private sector and hotel owners into good samaritans.”
The reality is violence against women is a “shadow pandemic” that was here before COVID-19, it’s here now and will be with us long after this pandemic is over. Dr. Mlambo-Ngcuka believes this is an opportunity for leaders to initiate polices that will have a long-term impact that can help “flatten the curve” of violence against women.
In addition to bolstering public policy, Dr. Mlambo-Ngcuka believes this is also the time when men need to step up. She describes this as a “men’s problem” rather than a women’s problem — urging men’s organizations and male business leaders to add their voices to this issue. Good men need to stop being “bystanders,” she insists.
She reminded listeners of what Nelson Mandela asked of fellow men: “when good men do nothing, that becomes a conspiracy against women.”
The invisible workforce shouldering the world
When hospitals are over utilized by COVID-19 victims and can’t admit new patients, it’s women — young and old — who end up taking care of their ill relatives. Young girls, according to Dr. Mlambo-Ngcuka, are forced to care for an ill parent or grandparent instead of doing homework or attending school.
In fact, 70% of the world’s healthcare workers are female. “Women are shouldering the response of this pandemic.”
Ultimately, we need more female decision makers. Given that women represent the majority of healthcare workers across Africa and around the world, “it’s really shocking” she says that we don’t see more women involved in healthcare decision making.
One country that she points to that understands the unique challenges facing female healthcare workers is Kenya. In that country, the government is providing healthcare workers with a supplemental allowance to assist them with childcare support and private transportation between home and work given the heightened COVID-19 transmissions risks they would be exposed to riding crowded busses.
Dr. Mlambo-Ngcuka explained that there is a good reason that women are at the helm of the countries doing the best job of containing the COVID-19 pandemic. “Women have a way of perceiving the impact of a crisis from everyone’s perspective — as mothers, parents, employees and employers. Combine that with some authority and power and that’s a beautiful combination.”
The fact is, she explains, these female leaders decided to “do first things first.” They focused on testing. They accepted that this was a crisis at an early stage — “They saw danger as many women and mothers would. They would rather be safe than sorry and so they took the most practical approach. Women will hold a knife at both sharp ends when there is a crisis in order for them to do what’s right.”
Dr. Mlambo-Ngcuka is also concerned about many Africans going hungry — particularly women. Most Africans don’t have a secure job or savings. “Governments and the UN are trying to deal with this but more people need food than governments can support.” And in the rare instances where African governments are providing financial aid, she worries stimulus funds are not reaching women due to informality of their jobs or the lack of direct distribution of emergency funds to women.
“Long after the crisis many women will still be in crisis,” she fears.
ICT access is a human rights failure
Dr. Mlambo-Ngcuka has been a longtime advocate for ubiquitous access to information and communications technology (ICT). Young women without access to school or technology will be particularly negatively impacted. Governments’ failure to provide universal Internet access is a “human rights failure” she contends. Countries are not only denying opportunities to their citizens, but ICT also allows women to shout out for help. ICT has to become more accessible and affordable, she argues.
“Women must do everything they can to seek help. They can’t be alone…We need to become ICT evangelists,” Dr. Mlambo-Ngcuka says.
Humanity’s responsibility to be humane
She wrapped up her discussion by reminding listeners that a virus anywhere is a virus everywhere. “Each one of us is a savior of humanity. There has never been a time when each one of us has so much responsibility in our hands.”
Dr. Mlambo-Ngcuka added “I’m humbled by this crisis. We are always thinking we are needed everywhere and we spend our life dashing from one place to another. This has brought home how much wastage of money and time I’ve been perpetuating and not using resources at my disposal.”
She concluded, “hopefully we’ve discovered some of our hidden potential. It’s humbling to know that humanity has an equal opportunity to be humane. This is one time we have to be our brother’s and sister’s keeper — we have to be in this together.”
You can listen to the full recap of the interview here.
Jim Olson is a member of The Room and is an Executive in Residence and Chief Communications Officer for The African Leadership Group. He previously served as the head of global corporate communications at United Airlines, Starbucks and US Airways.
