Women, Peace, and Security and Increasing Gendered Risk in the Era of COVID-19: Insights from Nepal and Sri Lanka

Abstract

This article analyzes the effects of COVID-19 on women and girls. It examines policy responses to the pandemic crisis and its implications on the women, peace, and security (WPS) agenda in postwar Nepal and Sri Lanka. Building on our previous work in Nepal and Sri Lanka, we rely on secondary studies, news sources, and governmental and nongovernmental organization reports and social media from March 2020 through March 2022 to demonstrate our argument that policymakers should place women and girls at the center of COVID-19 recovery plans. We further stress the need for an intersectional approach to understand the contextual relationships among gender, race, class, caste, ability, religion, sexual orientation, and additional markers that situate women's and girls’ experiences. The WPS agenda promotes women and girls’ participation in peace and security governance and has seen significant rollbacks given the impacts of the pandemic. We conclude by sketching new policy frontiers for the WPS agenda and urge WPS implementers to rethink their approach to WPS policies to promote women's diverse needs and interests in postwar Nepal and Sri Lanka in pandemic recovery policies.