The brief explores how gender and intersectionality were taken into account in the Takaful program that gave access to National Aid Fund during the pandemic. It builds on the local communities’ understanding of vulnerability and aims to improve access to available assistance. The brief focuses on developing an overview of coordinated strategies that CBOs can take to improve gender-sensitive responses to vulnerabilities facing women as a result of COVID-19. The brief provides policy recommendations guided by insights from 11 CSOs members of the JONAF coalition, interviewed by ARDD on existing vulnerability assessment tools.

This brief comes as part of the action research within the framework of the project “Strengthening the Capacities of Women-led CSOs in Evidence-Based Advocacy and Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) Agenda”, supported by UN Women with the generous funding of the governments of Canada, Finland, Norway, Spain, Cyprus, and the United Kingdom. ARDD would like to thank the civil society partners and individuals that supported the development of this study, which was carried out by the research team of the Al Nahda Thought Center.