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for every child, answers

15-year-old girl inside her family's shelter-room at Pa La Na IDP camp, on the outskirts of Myitkyina, Kachin State, Myanmar.
Publication

Mind the Gap. Child and Adolescent Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Interventions

Mental disorders affect about 1 in 7 children and adolescents worldwide, with 50% arising before the age of 14. Despite the high burden and early onset, most conditions remain unrecognized and untreated. We mapped evidence on the effectiveness of child and adolescent (ages 0-19) mental health and psychosocial support interventions in low- and middle-income countries within the last 12 years and identified 697 records from 78 countries.
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15-year-old girl inside her family's shelter-room at Pa La Na IDP camp, on the outskirts of Myitkyina, Kachin State, Myanmar.
Publication

Mind the Gap. Child and Adolescent Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Interventions

Mental disorders affect about 1 in 7 children and adolescents worldwide, with 50% arising before the age of 14. Despite the high burden and early onset, most conditions remain unrecognized and untreated. We mapped evidence on the effectiveness of child and adolescent (ages 0-19) mental health and psychosocial support interventions in low- and middle-income countries within the last 12 years and identified 697 records from 78 countries.
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A Child is smiling and wearing a backpack
Publication

Data Must Speak: Comprendre les facteurs de performance des écoles togolaises

Le gouvernement togolais, à travers le plan sectoriel de l'éducation (PSE) 2014-2025, vise à atteindre une éducation primaire universelle de qualité. A travers cet objectif, le gouvernement reconnaît les défis actuels en liaison avec l'accès et la participation à l’éducation primaire, ainsi que dans la rétention de tous les écoliers Togolais. Mieux comprendre les performances des écoles fait partie des actions nécessaires pour relever ces défis. Quelles ressources et quels facteurs contextuels sont associés à de bonnes performances scolaires au Togo ? En fusionnant et en analysant les bases de données administratives déjà existantes au Togo, ce rapport aide à identifier les écoles modèles positives - celles qui obtiennent de meilleurs résultats que les autres écoles, bien qu'elles opèrent dans des contextes et avec des ressources similaires. Data Must Speak - une initiative mondiale mise en œuvre depuis 2014 - vise à combler le manque d’évidence afin d’atténuer la crise de l'apprentissage en utilisant les données existantes. La recherche DMS sur les modèles positives est cocréée et mise en œuvre conjointement avec les ministères de l'Éducation et des partenaires clés. Elle s'appuie sur des méthodes mixtes et des approches innovantes (telles que l'approche modèle positive, les sciences du comportement, la recherche sur la mise en œuvre et la science de la mise à l'échelle) pour produire des connaissances et des enseignements pratiques sur "ce qui fonctionne", "pourquoi", et "comment" mettre à l'échelle ces solutions locales. La recherche DMS est actuellement mise en œuvre dans 14 pays : Brésil, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Éthiopie, Ghana, République démocratique populaire de lao, Madagascar, Mali, Népal, Niger, République-Unie de Tanzanie, Tchad, Togo et Zambie.
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On Call: Using Mobile Technologies to Measure Learning in Emergencies
Article

On Call: Using Mobile Technologies to Measure Learning in Emergencies

How can we harness the power of mobile technologies to track learning in emergencies? Identifying ways to improve assessments in emergencies is incredibly important as there remains large gaps in understanding how children are learning in crisis settings. This report aims to provide practitioners with practical guidance and resources on using mobile technology to conduct learning assessments in emergency settings. It is the second of a two-part series on uses of mobile phones for education in emergency programmes and draws from a review of the existing literature as well as feedback from education in emergencies practitioners.
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Behavioral Insights Research and Design Laboratory
Campaign

Behavioral Insights Research and Design Laboratory

The BIRD Lab is a virtual space for experimentation and innovation in the application of evidence and methods from the behavioural sciences to achieve UNICEF programme results.
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A girl in a wheelchair throws a basketball towards a net
Microsite

Research and Evidence on Children with Disabilities

UNICEF has a long track record of research and evidence on children with disabilities. Our innovative research at the Office of Research, Innocenti, the Centre of Excellence on Data for Children with Disabilities, and from Region and Country Offices around the world, demonstrate an accomplishment of research and evidence generation spanning decades. This microsite curates research and evidence from the past five years that focus on children with disabilities.
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Social Spending Monitor
Article

Social Spending Monitor

Realizing all children’s rights does not come for free. To achieve this indispensable goal, careful planning and budgeting are needed. Experience from past crises shows that social spending works to protect children. UNICEF Innocenti’s new series monitors, advocates for, and supports better social spending.
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Featured publications

Accessible Digital Textbooks: Universal Design for Learning in Paraguay
Publication

Accessible Digital Textbooks: Universal Design for Learning in Paraguay

The Accessible Digital Textbooks for All (ADT) initiative, implements accessible digital tools and content to make learning accessible to all students - with and without disabilities - in the same classroom.
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Monitoring the Social Costs of Climate Change for Low- and Middle-income Countries
Publication

Monitoring the Social Costs of Climate Change for Low- and Middle-income Countries

This policy brief is the third in a series that assesses key issues affecting social spending as part of UNICEF’s work on Public Finance for Children.
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Disrupting Harm in Namibia: Evidence on online child sexual exploitation and abuse
Publication

Disrupting Harm in Namibia: Evidence on online child sexual exploitation and abuse

Funded by the Global Partnership to End Violence against Children, through its Safe Online initiative, ECPAT, INTERPOL, and UNICEF Office of Research – Innocenti worked in partnership to design and implement Disrupting Harm – a research project on online child sexual exploitation and abuse (OCSEA). This unique partnership brings a multidisciplinary approach to a complex issue in order to see all sides of the problem. OCSEA refers to situations that involve digital or communication technologies at some point during the continuum of abuse or exploitation; it can occur fully online or through a mix of online and in-person interactions between offenders and children. The Disrupting Harm research was conducted in six Southeast Asian countries and seven Eastern and Southern African countries, including Namibia. Data were synthesised from nine different research activities to generate each national report which tells the story of the threat, and presents clear recommendations for action.
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Data Must Speak: Unpacking Factors Influencing School Performance in Nepal
Publication

Data Must Speak: Unpacking Factors Influencing School Performance in Nepal

Joint efforts by the Government of Nepal, development partners and key stakeholders to achieve SDG 4 by 2030 have improved education access, participation and retention. However, learning outcomes in Nepal remain stagnant. What resources and contextual factors are associated with good school performance in Nepal? By merging and analyzing existing administrative datasets in Nepal, this report helps to identify positive deviant schools – those that outperform other schools despite sharing similar contexts and resources. Data Must Speak – a global initiative implemented since 2014 – aims to address the evidence gaps to mitigate the learning crisis using existing data. The DMS Positive Deviance Research is co-created and co-implemented with Ministries of Education and key partners. DMS research relies on mixed methods and innovative approaches (i.e., positive deviance approach, behavioural sciences, implementation research and scaling science) to generate knowledge and practical lessons about ‘what works’, ‘why’ and ‘how’ to scale grassroots solutions for national policymakers and the broader international community of education stakeholders. DMS research is currently being implemented in 14 countries: Brazil, Burkina Faso, Chad, Cote d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Madagascar, Mali, Nepal, Niger, the United Republic of Tanzania, Togo and Zambia.
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