Coping with Water and Food Insecurity during COVID-19 Lockdown: Implications for Gender Relations in Urban Uganda.

Despite considerable literature on the worldwide socio-economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, our knowledge of household coping mechanisms for water and food insecurity during the COVID-19 lockdown in developing countries is still limited. As a contribution towards this knowledge gap, this paper provides context-speci!c information on household water and food insecurity coping mechanisms in an urban setting in Uganda. The results indicate that over 90% of the respondents experienced water and food shortages and varying mechanisms were employed to cope with water and food insecurity at the household level. The results further indicate that water and food insecurity during COVID-19 had a devastating impact on women and girls as they bear a disproportionate brunt of water collection, hygiene, and family care. These burdens manifested in confrontations with security personnel, defying lockdown restrictions, increased domestic violence, early marriages, and high school drop-out rates. Accordingly, due to a lack of systematic efforts to ensure sustainable access to water and food among the urban poor, COVID-19 restrictions aimed at curbing the spread of the pandemic disadvantaged the most vulnerable sections of the population even more and reinforced existing socio-economic inequalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]