How can African countries build the economic resilience of women and girls during the pandemic? The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has led to disruptions of both social and economic activities across the globe. While the early narrative described COVID-19 as the "great equalizer," asserting that the virus is capable of infecting anyone, it is critical for policymakers to understand that the impacts of COVID-19 will not be the same for everyone. As experience from previous epidemics 1 suggests, COVID-19 will impact groups who are most vulnerable and amplify any existing inequalities across countries, communities, households and individuals. This note focuses on the existing gender inequalities in the economic sphere in Sub-Saharan Africa and summarizes how the COVID-19 pandemic could affect women and girls disproportionately. We draw on impact evaluation research to showcase policy options to help build women's economic resilience and minimize any potential negative impacts during the pandemic and recovery. Figure 1: Business Closure Rate by Gender Facebook COVID-19 Future of Business Survey June 2020 Data: Facebook Future of Business COVID-19 high frequency survey wave 1 concluding on 2nd June 2020. Sample is among Facebook enterprise owners and managers that use the Pages feature on Facebook for their business. Total global sample of 26,948 businesses (19,354 male and 7,594 female businesses) from ~50 countries. The sampling was designed to be representative of the Facebook business page administrator population and not of any country's business population. Only African countries with a large sample size are shown (t-test *** significant difference at 1% level; ** significant difference at 5% level).

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