I am currently serving as a national UN Volunteer in Liberia for the Spotlight Initiative. My role is to develop an outreach strategy and distribute awareness-raising materials for the Coronavirus pandemic, in cooperation with the Ministry of Health. We engage with community members and religious leaders to promote preventive measures for vulnerable community members, including women, girls and persons with disabilities.

UN Community Volunteers Blessing Iyala and Aisha Abdel-Latif are working to empower internally-displaced women from Borno State in Nigeria. They facilitate informative and sensitization sessions in local languages for the women and girls and manage one-on-one cases for survivors of gender-based violence survivors. So far, over 200 women and girls have benefitted from their support in learning various livelihood skills.

In Yemen, an estimated 24.1 million  out of the country's total population of 29 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance. With 19.7 million people requiring health assistance, COVID-19 has only exacerbated the situation. As in many other parts of the world, women are disproportionately affected by the pandemic.

Ekram Fator is a Sudanese woman serving as a national UN Volunteer Warehouse Assistant with the UN-African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID). She works in the transport warehouse where she supports the overall management of stock. By choosing to serve in such a role, traditionally seen to be more fit for men, Ekram is breaking social barriers and challenging gender stereotypes.

Communicating for gender equality Shukria Syed (UN Women, South Sudan) – contributing to SDGs 3, 4, 5 & 17) In South Sudan, Shukria Syed is applying her communications skills, as a UN Volunteer,  to help tackle the pressing needs for gender equality in the country. Her assignment with UN Women South Sudan has involved leveraging local means of communication to spread critical information. With her team, she has participated in messaging gender concerns via media platforms such as radio.

Eda Senel, Kivilcim Kardelen Yok, and Pelin Kocer were always interested in gender issues. Now, as UN Volunteers, they apply their knowledge gained throughout their academic studies and previous internships, to contribute to the improvement of coordination and operations.  

What do the hidden figures tell us? Looking beyond averages will tell a slightly different story about how we fare with achieving gender balance in volunteering - at UNV and at the global level.  For example, if we disaggregate data on UNV gender averages, we will see that in some regions such as in Western and Central Africa, the average drops to 40-60 in favour of male volunteers, whereas in Latin America, the number of women volunteers tend to be higher. 

Joanna Gbotoe is a Liberian nurse serving at The United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) in the medical section. Since the beginning of the COVID-10 outbreak, she has played a key role in the Mission regarding prevention activities. Her work involves detecting suspected cases, providing essential treatment, helping in decontamination, and coordinating patient's evacuation.

As I reflect on this year’s International Women’s Day’s theme “Women in leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 world”, I cannot help but be tempted to reconsider women’s triple roles of productive, reproductive, and community work in society, often referred to as their triple “burden”. What if this triple burden, which predisposes women to be the hardest hit by this pandemic, was the stepping-stone that will make women the backbone of recovery in communities?

The COVID-19 pandemic has made clear the importance of food security like never before. UN Volunteers are playing an important role in fighting hunger during the global crisis. Currently, there are 51 UN Volunteers serving with FAO globally, including 12 UN Volunteers in Europe and Central Asia region.