Eastern Africa constitutes the eastern part of the continent bordering the Indian Ocean. The region is composed of Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Seychelles, Malawi, Djibouti and Burundi. The region had an exceptional gender response with 93% of the response being gender sensitive. The regional policies were mostly geared towards addressing the the shock to women's economic security caused by the pandemic lockdowns. A major portion of the response also focused on addressing the increased violence against women and girls due to the stay at home orders. The response included stimulus to industries that disproportionately employed women, social protection measures through conditional cash transfers, strengthening of systems and setting up emergency services. There was almost no response to the increased needs for unpaid care by women. Despite the exceptional gender sensitivity of policy, there was a dismal focus on environmentally friendly response with a mere 7% of policies being environmentally friendly. 

Uganda implemented a comprehensive medley of policies aimed mostly at improving women's economic security and addressing violence against women. They did not specifically have any policies that addressed the increasing disproportionate need for unpaid care. A broad focus of the policies included provision of social assistance to vulnerable groups, mostly women, stimulus to the agriculture sector (agriculture sector employs nearly 77% of women workers) and strengthening of services to support increased GBV. Some exceptional policies included:

• The Child-Sensitive Social Protection in Refugee-Hosting Districts of West Nile Region, Uganda provided one-off emergency cash transfers to women and children impacted by COVID-19 in West Nile (both to refugees and citizens). A total of 56,500 women received a one-off cash transfer in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

• A subcommittee on GBV under the National COVID-19 task force was created to coordinate and provide technical support on GBV prevention and response to the National COVID-19 Task Force. The National Taskforce on COVID-19 was established by the Government of Uganda comprising of critical sectors such as Ministry of Health, Security, Police to oversee, guide and mobilise resources for fighting COVID-19. 

While Kenya's response plan was geared mostly towards social protection and violence against women, they implemented components of economic stimulus to sectors that disproportionately employ women. Their violence of women response was remarkable and comprehensive in its implementation and policy designs. Some exceptional policies in the violence against women response included:

• COVID-19 Country Socio-Economic Re-Engineering and Recovery Strategies: 

  1. Designated gender safe spaces to provide accommodation for GBV survivors, and create space in County Referral Hospitals to serve as GBV recovery centers. 

  2. Promoted use of alternative means of GBV safe outreach and awareness raising that limit direct contact. 

  3. Supported gender champions and sign language interpreters to activate and communicate an ‘alert chain’ to reach GBV survivors or those in imminent danger of injury and harm. 

  4. Strengthened inclusive community outreach strategies to ensure GBV messaging is localized and clear, and addresses stigma and discrimination 

• Kenya introduced remote access to courts as a response to the COVID-19 crisis. In July 2020, Kenya's Chief Justice launched an e-filing system to allow litigants to file and track the progress of their cases. Most proceedings were taking place through online platforms such as Microsoft Teams and Zoom.