The research will study the relationship between government-sponsored economic schemes to the COVID-19 pandemic and the unequal health and economic shock on female workers in the ready-made garment industry of Sri Lanka at the national level. Professor Yazbeck and her research partners aim to understand the magnitude of the disproportionate pandemic shock, identify the existing best practices to mitigate the adverse effect and suggest a fiscally feasible and gender-responsive response mechanism.
The “Women RISE” initiative supports action-oriented and gender-transformative research on how women's health and their work intersect and interact in the context of preparedness, response and recovery from COVID-19. To achieve the objectives of Women RISE, the initiative is funding 23 international research teams. The project proposed by Pr. Yazbeck is important in the current context of the COVID-19 recovery as it focuses on gender equity and mitigation paths to the unequal impact of COVID-19 that weigh heavier on women in Sri Lanka.