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for every child, answers

RC16 Austria classroom
Press Release Press Release

World's richest countries grappling with children’s well-being

FLORENCE/NEW YORK, 3 September 2020 – Suicide, unhappiness, obesity and poor social and academic skills have become far-too-common features of childhood in high-income countries, according to the latest Report Card issued today by the UNICEF Office of Research – Innocenti. UNICEF’s Report Card Series – now running for 20 years – uses comparable national data to rank EU and OECD countries on childhood. Worlds of Influence: Understanding what shapes child well-being in rich countries uses pre-COVID-19 data and features a league table according to children’s mental and physical health and academic and social skill-set. Based on these indicators the Netherlands, Denmark and Norway rank as the top three places to be a child among wealthy countries.
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RC16 Austria classroom
Press Release Press Release

World's richest countries grappling with children’s well-being

FLORENCE/NEW YORK, 3 September 2020 – Suicide, unhappiness, obesity and poor social and academic skills have become far-too-common features of childhood in high-income countries, according to the latest Report Card issued today by the UNICEF Office of Research – Innocenti. UNICEF’s Report Card Series – now running for 20 years – uses comparable national data to rank EU and OECD countries on childhood. Worlds of Influence: Understanding what shapes child well-being in rich countries uses pre-COVID-19 data and features a league table according to children’s mental and physical health and academic and social skill-set. Based on these indicators the Netherlands, Denmark and Norway rank as the top three places to be a child among wealthy countries.
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Launch Event - RC16
Event Event

Report Card 16 Policy panel discussion on child well-being in rich countries

September 3 at 15:00 CET UNICEF Innocenti will host a high-level policy panel discussion, timed with the global launch of Report Card 16. Premiering at a moment when policy makers are asking deep questions about how to ensure child well-being in the light of one of the worst global pandemics in many decades, our aim is to delve deeply into the findings of Report Card 16 to better understand how its findings may shape the increasingly uncertain world children are living in. We will also have an opportunity to examine how important the comparative data in this and previous editions of Report Card will be for child well-being policy makers, looking at previous outcome-based indicators as well as newer context and conditions indicators which are presented in the latest edition of Report Card.
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COVID 1
Campaign Campaign

COVID-19 & Children: Rapid Research Response

UNICEF Innocenti is mobilizing a rapid research response in line with UNICEF’s global response to the COVID-19 crisis. The initiatives we’ve begun will provide the broad range of evidence needed to inform our work to scale up rapid assessment, develop urgent mitigating strategies in programming and advocacy, and preparation of interventions to respond to the medium and longer-term consequences of the COVID-19 crisis. The research projects cover a rapid review of evidence, education analysis, and social and economic policies.
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COVID mitigating learning loss
Article Article

How are countries preparing to mitigate learning loss as schools reopen?

Some countries are starting to reopen schools as others develop plans to do so following widespread and extended closures due to COVID-19. Using data from two surveys and 164 countries, this research brief describes the educational strategies countries are putting into place, or plan to, in order to mitigate learning impacts of extended school closures, particularly for the most vulnerable children. In addition, it highlights emerging good practices.
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COVID missing childcare India
Article Article

COVID-19: How prepared are global education systems for future crises?

This research brief is one of a series exploring the effects of COVID-19 on education. It focuses on how school closures affect children and the resiliency of education systems to respond to such disruptions and mitigate their effects. ¬Unexpected school closures are shown to negatively influence children’s learning outcomes. Hundreds of millions of children rely on schools for free or low-price meals throughout the year. At the same time, school closures can expose children to violence (including sexual violence and forced marriage) at home and in their communities. Children’s need for psychosocial support also increases.
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Innocenti Video Thumb 2
Video Video

UNICEF Innocenti: What we do and why it matters

Research is absolutely critical today, more so than ever before. For us to do things differently we need research to set new pathways for success. Learn about what UNICEF Innocenti does and how we turn evidence into action for children around the world.
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education

Featured publications

Ukraine COVID remote learning
Article Article

Social protection after COVID-19 in Eastern Europe and Central Asia

Discussions around the effects of the COVID-19 crisis and its impacts and costs are moving swiftly from health concerns to economic and social concerns. The ways in which countries are dealing with COVID-19 itself, through social lockdowns and school closures, are expected to have wide-ranging social and economic costs and governments have responded with rapid implementation of fiscal stimulus and social protection reforms. COVID-19 is a global health crisis, with severe economic consequences, impacting countries and continents in waves, and therefore is – with the exception of the Spanish Flu in 1918 – without a recent comparator. Necessarily this means that experience with, and evidence for, dealing with such a crisis is limited.
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COVID Paraguay health workers vaccinate children and elderly
Research Brief Research Brief

COVID-19 may pose greater risk to children than originally thought

(21 July 2020) It is commonly accepted, at least for now, that children and young people under 20 years of age have largely been spared the direct epidemiological effects on their own health and survival of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), responsible for COVID-19 disease. This narrative is based predominantly on early data from the countries first affected by the virus, notably China (Wuhan province) and Italy in early 2020, and also from other high-income countries (HICs) including the United States and some European nations. This narrative has conditioned the subsequent screening and testing for SARS-CoV-2 virus in children and young people under 20, which have been notably lower than for other age cohorts in many, but not all, countries.
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COVID evidence review - child protection
Working Paper Working Paper

Impacts of Pandemics and Epidemics on Child Protection

(21 July 2020) There are various pathways through which infectious disease outbreaks can exacerbate vulnerabilities, generate new risks and result in negative outcomes for children. This rapid review collates and synthesizes evidence on the child protection impacts of COVID-19 and previous pandemics, epidemics and infectious disease outbreaks. It provides lessons for global and national responses to COVID19 and recommendations for future research priorities.
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Digital Brief COVID-19
Research Brief Research Brief

Digital Connectivity during COVID-19: Access to vital information for every child

Children’s digital access – or lack thereof – during the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly determined whether children can continue their education, seek information, stay in touch with friends and family, and enjoy digital entertainment. With over 1.5 billion children across 190 countries confined to their homes, active video games or dance videos may also be their best chance to exercise. The rationale for closing digital divides has never been starker or more urgent.
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