As the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) drives economies into recession, many jobs are at risk. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) estimates that the COVID-19 pandemic could cost the global economy from $5.8 trillion in a 3-month containment scenario to $8.8 trillion in a 6-month scenario, with Asia and the Pacific accounting for about 30% of global economic losses (ADB 2020). These estimates also suggest that the equivalent of 158 million to 242 million full-time jobs (6.0% to 9.2% of total employment) will be lost globally in the two scenarios, with job losses in Asia and the Pacific accounting for about 70%. 1 However, not all jobs are equally affected-some sectors are thriving or even growing faster in the pandemic. Global tech giants, such as Microsoft, Apple, and Amazon, were among the top-10 stocks by market cap in mid-April, pushing their share of the S&P 500's total value up by 25%. Other firms are also performing strongly and hiring. These are firms using innovative technologies such as online retail and food delivery with contactless delivery options, 3D printing companies for personal protective equipment, and video conferencing applications such as Zoom (Mirza 2020). Amid the rapid technological changes and increasing automation, however, job polarization and widening wage inequality among employees have occurred as these trends have put manual and routine jobs at higher risk of being displaced (Goos, Manning, and Salomons 2014; Autor 2015). Indeed, COVID-19 effects are fueling trends that had already been exposing middle-skill workers to displacement and lower working hours and incomes. As digital transformation accelerates, old skills are likely to depreciate and become obsolete faster. Aging workers risk falling into low-skilled, low-paying jobs (Lovász and Rigó 2013; Ilmakunnas and Maliranta 2016). 1 Separately, the International Labour Organization (2020) warned of the loss of 6.7% of working hours worldwide, equivalent to 195 million full-time jobs by the second quarter of 2020. The estimated job losses are sobering, compared with about 22 million full-time equivalent job losses during the Great Recession of 2008-2009 (ILO 2020a).

Given the significant gendered effects of COVID-19, governments need to adopt the following specific actions: • Enhance social services and health protection. • Provide conditional or unconditional cash transfers and food assistance. • Provide targeted support for the most marginalized girls and boys. • Create gender-responsive education. • Address different forms of gender-based violence. • Narrow gender gaps through skills development and job creation. • Pursue gender-responsive labor market policies. The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) crisis threatens to reverse hard-won gains in gender equality, further exposing women's vulnerabilities based on their precrisis social, economic, and political situations. Understanding the gendered impact of the COVID-19 pandemic can guide policy makers as they pursue gender-responsive policy making and budgeting. This can ensure a response mindful of the needs of women and girls that addresses existing and emerging gender inequalities and challenges. In this context, this policy brief provides a set of recommendations for gender-responsive policies and sector-specific strategies in response to the pandemic. ThE UNEVEN ImPaCT Of COVID-19 ON WOmEN'S LIVES aND LIVELIhOODS Cases of COVID-19 are still rising globally, with nearly 46 million cases and 1.2 million deaths as of 1 November 2020. 2 COVID-19 affects men and women differently in several ways. Early data across several countries show that men tend to be more susceptible than women, and older people more susceptible to the disease regardless of gender (Mueller, McNamara, and Sinclair 2020). Figure 1 shows that the number of cases is higher for men than women, except for those aged 85 and up. Interestingly, however, survey data from eight Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries from March and April 2020 showed that men were less likely to view COVID-19 as serious, and consequently less likely to agree with public policy measures such as closing schools and nonessential businesses, and less likely to follow social distancing rules (Galasso et al. 2020). 3 1 The authors would like to thank Tsolmon Begzsuren, Samantha Hung, Keiko Nowacka, and Yasuyuki Sawada for their review and very useful and valuable comments on various technical issues examined in this paper.