WEEK 3: RECIFE'S THE IMPACT OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC ON FEMALE LABOR OUTCOMES IN RECIFE

The COVID-19 pandemic exposed Brazil to health, social, and economic challenges. The poor and vulnerable in Brazil have been disproportionately affected – more specially, women's participation in the workforce has been adverse. According to Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) More than half of the working age female population were out of the labor market by the third quarter of 2020. Only 46% of women were economically active versus 66% of male – a 20 percentage points difference! In the second quarter of 2021, the unemployment rate for women rose to 17.1% – 5.4 percentage points higher than men. Black women had the highest unemployment rate.

Among the Brazilian Federation Units, Pernambuco has the highest unemployment rate (18.8% compared to the national average of 14.6%) as well as being the most affected in terms of mean labor earnings. In 2020, 99.5% of the formal job vacancies in Pernambuco that were eliminated were for women (CAGED, 2020). The situation is aggravated by the fall in household income, with a loss of consumption power by -5.5% in 2020 (IBGE/2020). But according to Marcelo Neri of FGV Social, Pernambuco presents a paradox where it has also had the second best poverty performance among the Brazilian States during the pandemic. This has been credited primarily to emergency social transfers.

In Recife, the capital of Pernambuco state, almost 60,000 women lost their jobs during the pandemic. Many were unable to not look for new jobs due the increased burden of care responsibility increased by the pandemic. The historical gender inequality in Recife has been aggravated by the unique economic recession caused by the pandemic making it more difficult for women to return to the formal labor market.

In the same year of the pandemic, Recife elected its youngest Mayor, João Campos, at age 27 during the pandemic. Mayor Campos has made empowerment of women a core component of his term. The Mayor fulfilled one of his main campaign proposals by historically appointing 50% women in leadership positions in the City Hall of Recife.

Additionally, Mayor Campos has also initiated two programs targeted women entrepreneurship: (1) CredPOP - microcredit program for women and vulnerable groups, and (2) Tá com Elas - Recife's entry to Bloomberg Global Mayor's Challenge focusing on credit and several layers of professional qualification and empowerment services for women entrepreneurs.

The City Hall of Recife views entrepreneurship as an alternative livelihood strategy for women to be able to survive and guarantee a minimum income while enabling them to address some of the constraints they face. The Tá com Elas program links the existing CredPop program with women-focused services that will offer professional, empowerment, and financial autonomy training to 15,000 women by 2024. The program design also includes a business incubator, virtual qualification courses, and an accounting service.

Recife’s initiative is unique because, although many countries have been using microcredit to stimulate women's independence, it has rarely been applied outside of a rural setting, presenting an opportunity to create and package this best practice in a more modern and scalable way.

This summer, I am interning with the Women's Secretariat at the City Hall of Recife providing support on the creation of M&E and impact evaluation frameworks.