In response to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and the relatively limited data available, the UN Women Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia developed a rapid survey, through the Making Every Woman and Girl Count global programme, to assess the gendered impacts of COVID-19 on women and men. The Rapid Gender Assessment (RGA) survey was rolled out between April and May 2020 in 16 countries/territories across the region.

This report draws on RGA data collected in 10 countries/territories in the region: Albania, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kosovo1 , Kyrgyzstan, North Macedonia, the Republic of Moldova and Turkey.

The sample size varies from 1,000 to 2,000 respondents depending on country population size. A more comprehensive RGA analysis encompassing data from all 16 ECA countries/ territories will follow. The RGA survey findings are intended to be used by countries/territories to inform, guide and support response planning and address the gendered impact of the pandemic. Furthermore, it is intended to serve as a baseline assessment for faster and more gender-sensitive interventions if future outbreaks occur.

Customized for the regional context, the RGA survey identified a minimum set of variables to be collected in the 16 countries/territories, covering demographics, employment and livelihoods, time spent on household activities, access to basic goods and services, and women’s safety, in order to understand the pandemic from a gender perspective. Data collection was done primarily through telephone interviews. In a few countries/ territories, rural households were reached through computer-assisted telephone interviews, and online surveys were used for urban households.