The nexus between COVID-19 and gender, peace, and security: opportunities and risks for gender planning responses

This article presents a textual analysis of areas of convergence and divergence between the United Nations (UN) Framework for the Immediate Socio-Economic Response to COVID-19 and the six National Action Plans (NAPs) on Women, Peace and Security (WPS) of the Arab States region. The article contributes to debates on the centering or sidelining of gender analysis and planning in crisis response to the nexus between COVID-19 and gender, peace, and security. Gender and gender planning inform the textual analysis, which shows that there are significant areas of overlap between the UN COVID-19 Framework and the NAPs. Divergences, such as the greater emphasis on economic recovery in the UN COVID-19 Framework, expose the gaps in engagement with the socio-economic and subsistence harms in the WPS agenda. Given the impact of the COVID-19 crisis, and the expectation of future novel outbreaks, the article provides evidence that rather than sidelining gender in times of crisis, existing tools such as NAPs should be centered in planning responses.