{"id":3656,"date":"2020-05-21T21:13:15","date_gmt":"2020-05-21T21:13:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gracamacheltrust.org\/?p=3656"},"modified":"2020-05-21T21:13:15","modified_gmt":"2020-05-21T21:13:15","slug":"building-resilience-womens-leadership-in-times-of-covid19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.gbstudio.co.za\/gmt\/featured\/building-resilience-womens-leadership-in-times-of-covid19\/","title":{"rendered":"Building Resilience: Women\u2019s Leadership in times of COVID19"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

The rapid spread of COVID-19<\/strong> and the subsequent lockdown in many countries has highlighted the often undervalued but critical leadership role that women play in managing both their professional lives and home care work, particularly in times of crisis. While various conversations unfold and measures are put in place to contain the pandemic, the Gra\u00e7a Machel Trust, through its\u00a0Women Economic and Social Advancement \u00a0(WESA)<\/strong> programme\u00a0<\/strong>convened a webinar on 20 May 2020 which brought onboard voices of women that are experiencing the impacts of\u00a0 COVID19 first-hand.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The speakers shared their experiences, coping mechanisms and sources of inspiration to keep going as they juggle work and home care. More importantly to demonstrate that it is not all doom and gloom, women, in various ways, continue to take charge to sustain their professional lives and businesses while also maintaining homes and taking care of families.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The speakers shared below tips for business women to cope in times COVID 19 and recommendations for states and private sector to note while shaping their response initiatives.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Tips:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Be conscious<\/em><\/strong>: Be aware, read, watch the news and participate in information sharing platforms, know what is happening around you<\/li>\n
  2. Invest<\/em><\/strong>:<\/strong>In yourself,\u00a0acquire new knowledge,\u00a0learn the\u00a0technology, \u00a0sharpen your skills to broaden your expertise<\/li>\n
  3. Catch Up<\/em><\/strong>:<\/strong>Review the backlog of work and relationships you have been too busy to work on<\/li>\n
  4. Think<\/em><\/strong>:<\/strong>Keep your eyes open for new business ideas presented by COVID 19<\/li>\n
  5. Collaborate<\/em><\/strong>:\u00a0 Develop strategic partnerships to leverage on each other\u2019s expertise<\/li>\n
  6. Innovate<\/em><\/strong>:\u00a0Challenge yourself to innovate, think outside the box, test new ideas and do not give up.<\/li>\n
  7. Diversify<\/em><\/strong>:\u00a0 Your business, don\u2019t put your eggs in one basket, have at least 2 or more sources of income<\/li>\n
  8. Belong<\/em><\/strong>: Make sure you belong to an association so you can easily benefit from the governments\u2019 economic recovery initiatives<\/li>\n
  9. Be ready<\/em><\/strong>: Keep your make-up on so you don\u2019t get caught off guard while working from home\u00a0\ud83d\ude0a<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Recommendations: <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Government must involve grassroots women<\/em><\/strong> in conversations and decision about Corona right from planning to implementation<\/li>\n
    2. Government do not pay lip service, boost small businesses<\/em><\/strong> by ensuring that they have access to government opportunities<\/li>\n
    3. Financial institutions should bring innovative products that accommodate women<\/em><\/strong> and have leniency on women during and post Covid19<\/li>\n
    4. Business development services must be stronger to provide new ideas, strategies and support for businesses<\/em><\/strong> because this is the time when skills are required by women to revamp their businesses<\/li>\n
    5. Support local manufacturers<\/em><\/strong> so the country does not rely on foreign manufacturers<\/li>\n
    6. Do not ignore businesses and livelihoods of people<\/em><\/strong>, South Africa should not have all the leadership focusing on COVID19<\/li>\n
    7. Apply strategies that are relevant to the country\u2019s context<\/em><\/strong>, for example why did all countries go on lockdown as strategy to contain the spread of corona virus?<\/li>\n
    8. Food for thought<\/em><\/strong>: Will we die from the Corona Virus, or the lockdown?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

       <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      The rapid spread of COVID-19 and the subsequent lockdown in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3658,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_rtcl_gb_attr":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-womens-economic-and-social-advancement-highlight"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.gbstudio.co.za\/gmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.gbstudio.co.za\/gmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.gbstudio.co.za\/gmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.gbstudio.co.za\/gmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.gbstudio.co.za\/gmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3656"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.gbstudio.co.za\/gmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3656\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.gbstudio.co.za\/gmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.gbstudio.co.za\/gmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.gbstudio.co.za\/gmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.gbstudio.co.za\/gmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}