Tech-savvy women could beat Covid-19 job blues in the Arab world

As Covid-19 swells the ranks of unemployed girls within the Arab world, surging demand for digital expertise might assist lots of them discover work in a area the place just one in 4 girls has a job. The pandemic has taken an particularly heavy toll on retail, tourism and hospitality jobs historically held by girls, however consultants say these capable of retrain might faucet into progress areas like digital advertising, e-commerce and on-line buyer assist.

“This is a tremendous opportunity. These are areas where you can reskill someone relatively quickly,” mentioned Jasmine di Florio, senior vice chairman at Education for Employment (EFE), a job coaching non-profit for younger individuals within the Middle East and North Africa.

“We need to teach young women all kinds of digital skills but we also need to continue to teach them human skills – things like empathy, teamwork, leadership… (that) are in even greater demand now because so much is going digital.”

The fourth industrial revolution – a time period referring to the brand new period of digital advances that’s altering the way in which individuals reside and work – is predicted to double job alternatives for ladies within the area by 2030, in keeping with a 2020 McKinsey research.

Many girls are already discovering new alternatives – typically by placing their new-found tech expertise to work in jobs the place they’ve an innate edge over males.

One of EFE’s trainees, Walaa Shahahdeh, who has her personal enterprise repairing smartphones, mentioned her providers had been in excessive demand amongst girls in her conservative Jordanian group who didn’t need males seeing private images on their units.

“Technology is constantly evolving. You have to keep up to date… because new devices keep coming out and repairs will never stop,” mentioned Shahahdeh, 30, who comes from the Tafileh governorate in south-central Jordan.

“Because of high usage during coronavirus due to remote learning and work from home, devices are breaking down more often and I’m getting more calls.”

‘TWO DIVIDES’

The pandemic is predicted to push 700,000 Middle Eastern girls out of labor in 2020 – about 40% of the 1.7 million complete jobs anticipated to be misplaced, in keeping with assist organisation Oxfam.

That is regardless of girls within the Middle East and North Africa solely accounting for 1 / 4 of the workforce – the world’s lowest charge of feminine participation within the labour market.

In hard-hit international locations like Lebanon, the place an Aug. four explosion compounded the influence of a monetary disaster and Covid-19, the variety of unemployed girls in June 2020 was up 63% in contrast with figures from 2018 and 2019, in keeping with UN Women.

New job prospects might present some aid, although the extra burden of unpaid work – equivalent to childcare and supervising distant education, is prone to widen the digital hole between women and men in Arab states.

That might imply retraining is much more of a problem for ladies, mentioned Manuel Langendorf, a researcher on digital transformation within the area.

“People may have access to the internet but still you will find a lot of families across the region that don’t have multiple laptops or desktop computers,” mentioned Langendorf, including that males usually have precedence when utilizing household units.

“That also affects the way women will be able, and are at the moment able, to upskill or reskill.”

The digital hole between women and men in Arab international locations had already elevated from 19% to 24% between 2013 and 2019, in keeping with the International Telecommunication Union.

Gender variations in web entry range broadly throughout the area, and inside international locations too.

Women in rural areas face “two divides at the same time” and danger lacking out on lots of the promising job prospects of the evolving digital financial system, Langendorf mentioned.

“Most of the digital economy across the region is based in urban areas… so the talent is drawn to that but people who don’t live there have (fewer) opportunities to participate and learn from that knowledge exchange,” he added.

‘A BLESSING’

The change to distance studying in the course of the pandemic has made it simpler for many individuals to entry coaching and research programmes, nonetheless.

When lockdowns got here into power in March, EFE throughout the area rapidly shifted its coaching on-line, including new elements centered on digital and social media expertise.

Following the change, girls’s enrollment rose to 65% on some programs, up from the standard 50-50 cut up between women and men.

Menna Fathy, 23, who lives within the Egyptian port metropolis of Suez, some 130 km (80 miles) from the capital, mentioned with the ability to entry the coaching remotely had been an surprising boon.

“If I had to travel to Cairo every day for a month it would have been draining. The online option was a blessing,” mentioned Fathy, who discovered an insurance coverage job at a financial institution quickly after.

Even although private-sector employers have been badly affected by the pandemic and alternatives are scarce, there’s nonetheless worth in serving to girls achieve expertise in the present day, di Florio mentioned.

“We found a surge of youth and women who want to keep learning even if they know they’re not going to get a job tomorrow,” she mentioned.

About 44% of ladies within the area cited restricted insurance policies on work-life stability as the principle impediment for holding a job and mentioned insurance policies that permit them work remotely and obtain digital coaching had been priorities, the McKinsey report discovered.

EFE’s trainees have been studying to market their expertise on-line and use freelance platforms to search out part-time work, serving to join girls in search of versatile jobs with employers.

“The gig economy can really work for them,” di Florio mentioned.

“But we need to make sure that they’re getting paid a living wage and that they have access to all potential opportunities and customers on those platforms.”

(This story has been printed from a wire company feed with out modifications to the textual content. Only the headline has been modified.)

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