Blog posts
Innocenti blog posts are published on UNICEF connect - Evidence for Action blog
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Can more women in school leadership improve learning outcomes?
The global education community has long focused on girls’ education and finding pathways to increasing girls’ access and retention in school, improving learning, and supporting girls’ holistic wellbeing. While the positive effects of female teachers on girls’ education have been well-researched, one piece often missing from gender discussions in education is school leadership – and the noticeable absence of women school leaders around the world.
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Can social protection simultaneously reduce violence against children and violence against women?
Despite the identification of cash transfers as a promising evidence-informed strategy to address violence against children and violence against women – until recently, there was little evidence from low- and middle-income country settings, that assessed the effects of such interventions on both in the same study. In this blog, we summarize five studies completed in the last two years that examine impacts of cash, cash-for-work and cash plus programmes on both violent discipline of children and male intimate partner violence against women (IPV) from diverse LMICs – Bangladesh, Colombia, Mali, the Philippines and Rwanda.
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4 young researchers reflect on their work at UNICEF Innocenti
Four of us flew from different parts of the world - France, Peru, Philippines, and the United States - to work as interns at the UNICEF Office of Research – Innocenti in Florence, Italy. Living in Florence and having the opportunity to immerse ourselves in a variety of education research projects was something out of a dream. We were different and diverse in our individual backgrounds, and interest and specialty in research, but our internship experiences brought a shared memory of warm collegiality and of both personal and professional aspects of education research. In this blog, we share our reflections from our internship experiences and the different elements that constitute successful research in action from stakeholder partnership to professional and ethical management of research:
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Eight Great Childhood Stories in Eight Decades: A celebration of UNICEF75 in film
UNICEF turns 75 this year. To celebrate its resolute commitment to children – and as we launch the second UNICEF Innocenti Film Festival showcasing new, high-quality cinema narratives of childhood – we look back to some of the greatest film narratives of childhood.
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The power of play in the pandemic
Play is key for child development and the mental health of children and caregivers. Play is an essential part of development in the early years. Play is the way young children from birth to three learn, as they explore and begin to make sense of the world around them. Research shows that play supports many interrelated facets of development including cognitive, physical, social, emotional and language development in young children, setting the foundation on which new learning builds throughout a child’s life.
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Parental Leave Limbo: Childcare Challenges and the Potential for Policy Progress
As I transition back to work after six months of maternity leave, I can’t believe my timing during the launch of a major new UNICEF report Where Do Rich Countries Stand on Childcare? Published by UNICEF’s Office of Research – Innocenti, where I work, the report ranks countries across the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the European Union (EU) based on their national childcare and parental leave policies.
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Reimagining Digital Learning: Lessons from the Learning Passport in Timor-Leste
When the COVID-19 pandemic closed schools worldwide governments rapidly worked to deploy remote learning to continue education. 9 in 10 countries around the world used online learning platforms to support children’s learning in 2020. However, understanding of how students, especially those from marginalized households in remote areas, can access, use, and learn from digital platforms is limited.
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Finland is the happiest country in the world – again. Or is it?
Recently, news outlets across the world announced: Finland ranked happiest country in the world – again. This information is based on the World Happiness Report 2021 which uses data from the Gallup World Survey.
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Can we change the way we think about violence against children and women?
Selina was 8 the first time her father hit her. And while he tearfully apologized afterwards, a few weeks later he did it again. Her mother often suffered the same fate, she knew, behind closed doors.
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Researchers reflect on what inspired them to work on gender
I actually didn’t intentionally set out to work on gender and came to the issue in a roundabout way. I often joke that while I started out by studying what, in my opinion, is arguably humanity at its best (I have a degree in studio art!), I ended up working with humanity at its worse: violence against children and against women.
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How can formative assessment foster learning as schools reopen?
During COVID-19 related school closures, at least 463 million children had no access to remote learning (digital or TV/Radio). This crisis not only affects overall learning levels, but increases gaps, with the learning of children from disadvantaged households more deeply affected.
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Why developing more measures of social and gender norms really matters for gender equality
In August 2020, I joined the Gender-Responsive and Age-Sensitive Social Protection (GRASSP) Team at UNICEF Office of Research – Innocenti as a research intern. Working with my colleagues Elena Camilletti and Zahrah Nesbitt-Ahmed, we mapped and reviewed available measures of gender equality outcomes, including ones on social and gender norms across the life course used or tested in research and evaluations in low- and middle-income countries.