Social Work Practice: Accounting for Double Injustices Experienced by Women Under the Confluence of Covid-19 Pandemic and Climate Change Impacts in Nyanga, Zimbabwe.

ABSTRACT

In this paper, the researchers argue that the repercussions of the Coronavirus Disease 19 (COVID-19) pandemic are taking a toll on rural women, not as a new phenomenon, but as an amplifier for their historical calamities dovetailed by climate change. The declaration of COVID-19 as a global pandemic by the World Health Organisation ignited widespread pronouncements of national state of disasters in various countries around the globe including Zimbabwe. Subsequently, like other countries, Zimbabwe followed the precautionary measures outlined by the WHO and pronounced its national lockdown to curtail the transmission of the virus. This paper intends to demonstrate how convergence of the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change impacts serves as a double injustice for rural women in Nyanga communities, Zimbabwe. The study was qualitative in nature guided by the descriptive research design. Twenty participants comprising rural women and social workers were selected using purposive and convenience sampling techniques. Data were collected using focus group discussions and key informant interviews. The Thematic Content Analysis was followed to analyse the data from which the findings were derived. This study established that the COVID-19 pandemic is enhancing the catastrophic implications created by climate change on rural women whose food security systems are shattered, livelihood strategies maimed, caregiving roles burgeoning, and access to healthcare systems compromised. This daunting double impact is aggravated by gender inequalities, social exclusion and patriarchal dominance. The centrality of social justice to social work connotes that the profession has a tendentious responsibility to stand in the gap and liberate women from the jaws of these double catastrophes (climate change and COVID-19).