nce October 28, 2020, IRIM, in partnership with TAF and the National Committee on Gender Equality, launched the COVID-19 Gender Impact Research Assessment as part of the Women's Economic Empowerment (WEE) project.

The aim of this research is to explore the impact of COVID-19 on women entrepreneurs who own micro and small-scale businesses in the following sectors: retail trade, manufacturing (including handicrafts, textiles, etc.), services sector, and agriculture (in rural areas). The research explored both the nature of women’s businesses, and different aspects of their lives/lived realities, as well as included comparisons with male entrepreneurs, to better understand how structural constraints affect women and men differently and explored the differential impact of the pandemic on male and female entrepreneurs.

This research is designed utilizing the 5Cs conceptual framework developed by Kore Global and TAF. This framework explores the impact of COVID-19 on the contextual factors that influence people’s access to different types of capital, and their resulting capabilities.  

Through discussions between TAF Mongolia WEE Project Leads, TAF consultants, and IRIM, a decision has been made to focus down on certain elements of the framework that have the most relevance for the WEE Project. These are:

1. Context
   1. Household
   2. Market
2. Capabilities
   1. Knowledgeable
   2. Secure
   3. Engaged
3. Capital
   1. Economic
   2. Social

Report is available on: Covid-19 Impact Assessment on Micro and Small-scale Women Business Enterprises in Mongolia - The Asia Foundation