Launch of the study “Childcare, women’s employment and COVID-19 impact in Moldova”

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The report „Childcare, women’s employment and the impact of COVID-19: The case of Moldova” conducted by UN Women Moldova, in collaboration with UNECE, with financial support from Sweden, was launched in Chisinau, at the beginning of this week. The official launching event took place online, with participation of national authorities, international organisations and diplomatic missions, as well as civil society organisations.

Starting as a public health crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic has a big impact on social protection system, causing important economic discontinuities, as well as alarmingly limiting social interactions. The pandemic had a negative impact on women from the Republic of Moldova who, even before the pandemic, were facing different inequalities limiting their social, economic and political participation opportunities. Those inequalities have been generated by gender stereotypes, which got even more striking during the pandemic. Thus, the report „Childcare, women’s employment and the impact of COVID-19: The case of Moldova” analyzes the impact of the pandemic on women living in Moldova, especially changes occured on the labour market and their effect on employment and women’s wellbeing.

infografic studiu

„The Ministry of Labour and Social Protection is involved in developing a subsidy mechanism for workplaces. It is about offering subsidies to parents who will choose to stay at home with their children in case schools get closed. We have introduced in the Labour Code the right to benefit from days off to stay at home with children in case schools get closed. Only one parent can benefit from this right. We are expecting that the majority of parents benefiting from this right will be women. During this period, we would like the Government to pay subsidies to employers for these days, so that they could allow one of the parents to stay at home with children.” Marcel Spatari, the Minister of Labour and Social Protection of the Republic of Moldova, mentioned.

„The crisis caused by the pandemic affected women and men in different ways. The majority of people who lost their jobs during the pandemic were women. Also, women are those who, in most cases, took unpaid leaves to care of their children because schools and kindergartens got closed. This shows us that we need to implement certain mechanisms supporting employees having children. The UN Moldova country team is commited to further analyzing the COVID-19 effects on people living in the Republic of Moldova, as well as contributeing to a gender-sensitive post-COVID-19 recovery.” Simon Springett, UN Moldova Resident Coordinator, declared.

Adam Amberg: „Gender inequalities have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. To support women living in the Republic of Moldova, we need to develop certain national mechanisms, as well as to end gender-based discrimination on labour market, but also to continue already existing partnerships with civil society organisations. The research launched today contains recommendations for mitigating the impact of the pandemic on women, and we hope that they will be implemented on the practical level as well”.

„This report is an interregional common effort made by UNECE and UN Women. It covers Western Balkan, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, focusing on care economy. The pandemic has dramatically increased unpaid child care work. And this activity is not recognised, is underappreciated, is not redistributed, being predominantly done by women. That is why it is very important for us to discuss this aspect, to see how do we introduce care economy in COVID-19 recovery efforts.”, Dominika Stojanoska, UN Women Moldova Country Representative, said.

The study „Childcare, women’s employment and the impact of COVID-19: The case of Moldova” is available here.