Women disproportionately carry the weight of global economic crises. Austerity measures put in place during the economic crises of the 1980s, 1990s, and in 2008 especially affected poor women. The gendered effects of these crises primarily relate to women’s roles as unpaid domestic and community care workers, the labor sectors where they work, and their higher labor precarity. It is predicted that the economic crisis triggered by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic will be worse than previous crises, impacting women even more. This study aims to shed light on the extent of the impact of the pandemic, highlighting initiatives and emerging results from policy and public investments, particularly Asian Development Bank (ADB) projects in 9 of the 10 countries in Central and West Asia (CWA): Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Pakistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.1 Gendered data on COVID-19 cases and deaths are neither widely available nor updated in all countries across the region. Available data show that in most countries, men were at a higher risk of dying from COVID-19 infection. Some challenges women faced because of the pandemic are negative employment and livelihood impacts in specific sectors, bankrupted women-owned micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises, scarcity of income-generating opportunities, increased burden of unpaid work, overall increase in violence against women and girls (VAWG), and declining mental health. Indirect health effects of the pandemic have been harder to assess given the large data gaps, globally and in CWA. There have certainly been gender-related differences in exposure, as most of the health workforce in the region is female; access to health care, including maternal health, was also disrupted, especially at the beginning of the pandemic.