Study on improving the pandemic policy responses to reduce adverse health effects on women workers in the export sector of Sri Lanka

The COVID-19 pandemic and efforts to control it have threatened livelihoods, introduced new workplace risks and made unstable work relationships even more precarious, especially for women. This project will study the relationship between government-sponsored economic schemes related to the COVID-19 pandemic for mitigating female job losses, success in retention and facilitating re-entry into the job market, and the unequal health and economic shock on female workers in the ready-made garment industry of Sri Lanka at the national level.

The project will provide a broad picture of the economic performance of the industry and the pandemic’s impact on employment and wages. It will analyze whether female workers were disproportionately affected by the pandemic and evaluate the effectiveness of the pandemic responses by the state and industry. It will identify the existing best practices to mitigate the adverse effects and suggest a fiscally feasible and gender-sensitive response mechanism for the future.

This project is funded under Women’s health and economic empowerment for a COVID-19 Recovery that is Inclusive, Sustainable and Equitable (Women RISE), an initiative of IDRC, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. Its aim is to support global action-oriented, gender-transformative research by teams of researchers from low- and middle-income countries and Canada.