Blog posts
Innocenti blog posts are published on UNICEF connect - Evidence for Action blog
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Reducing poverty while achieving gender equality: the potential of social protection
The UNICEF Office of Research—Innocenti has launched a new four-year research programme called Gender-Responsive and Age-Sensitive Social Protection (GRASSP), funded by the United Kingdom’s Department of International Development (DFID), and other partners. The research programme will examine how gender-responsive and age-sensitive social protection can reduce poverty and achieve gender equality sustainably. It will also examine how social protection can better address and prevent stubborn vulnerabilities and inequalities experienced by people simply because of their sex or age.
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Are cash transfers in Latin America gender-sensitive?
Even in countries where gender equality is a main driver in policy design, the division of childcare among parents is unequal. We need to ask some important questions: Are we doing enough to promote gender equality? How can social policies be better designed to close the gender gap and empower all women and girls? How can social policies include women’s specific needs?
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Can social protection be a driver of gender equality?
Social protection programmes have proven to be effective in fighting poverty in various dimensions, but the question remains as to how these same instruments can address other drivers of vulnerability, like gender inequality. Girls and women living in poverty face additional barriers which men and boys do not, driven by conservative social and gender norms and limited access to education and the workforce.
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The time is now! Preventing violence against women and children requires quality evidence.
Reflections from the world’s premier conference on ending violence against women and violence against children from the Sexual Violence Research Initiative Forum 2019
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Research on humanitarian social protection is not only possible, but desperately needed
Rigorous research in humanitarian emergencies is not only feasible but also necessary to determine what constitutes effective assistance in these settings. This column introduces a Special Issue of the Journal of Development Studies which demonstrates that research establishing causal effects is vital for the design of efficient and effective social protection in settings of fragility and displacement.
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Moving the needle on mental health for young people
In the last 50-60 years UNICEF, WHO & member states have worked tirelessly in reducing infant mortality rates and succeeding at it. In fact, one could go so far as to say that this is one of the major development-success stories of our time.
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Inclusive learning: How WASH in schools empowers girls’ education
Ensuring no child is excluded on the basis of gender is a priority identified in UNICEF’s new Education Strategy. To reach this goal, a commitment to strong intersectoral work is paramount. To understand what this means in practice, this blog outlines how Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) plays a significant role in girls’ access to education and could help unlock the future for millions of girls around the world.
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Time to ramp up psychosocial support for adolescents in crisis settings
Globally, the increase in humanitarian crises, protracted conflicts, displacement, violence, terrorism, disease outbreaks, natural disasters and climate change is putting children and adolescents at significant risk of mental and emotional ill-health.
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Child mental health emerging from the shadows
With suicide and self-harm now leading causes of death and injury among young people between 15 to 19 years, UNICEF and WHO are coming together for the first time at the Leading Minds for children conference to tackle the growing scale of mental health disorders among children and young people.
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Turning the tide together on mental ill health for children
In some way, mental ill health has touched everyone. The statistics are alarming, and by some accounts constitute a public health emergency. Today, around 10-20 per cent of all children and adolescents suffer from some type of mental health disorder and mental health conditions account for around 16 per cent of
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The forgotten minority: A personal story sheds light on the added dangers facing migrant girls and women
Maryama* is just 17 years old, but already she has attempted to migrate from Hargeisa in the Horn of Africa to Europe twice. While most migrants face harrowing journeys, her story can help us understand some of the additional challenges facing young women and girls on the move in the Horn of Africa. She was interviewed as part of a broader study on the situation of children on the move in the Horn of Africa carried out by the Innocenti Office of Research.
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Partnering with youth to research the challenges facing young people in the Horn of Africa
Hargeisa city is a fast-growing urban environment that remains safe, unlike many parts of the region. Yet young people living in the city face a myriad of challenges. Unemployment is high amongst youth, and poverty is widespread. In this context, it is not surprising that young people think of a life abroad. “I couldn’t afford a university education, and I couldn’t find a job,” said a young Somali who tried to get to Europe. “I have multimedia skills, but I still couldn’t find a job. I wrote a dozen CVs, but organisations would just throw them away.”