Children and COVID-19 Research Library

The Care, Coping and Connection under COVID-19 report presents findings from a phone survey with 500 couples in Rwanda, examining the impact of the pandemic on stress, caregiving, and family relationships. The study builds on a randomized controlled trial of the Bandebereho intervention to examine the longer-term (five-year) impact of the intervention on participating families. The data suggest that while the pandemic has been hard on many families, Bandebereho participants have tended to fare better than those in the control group, suggesting long-lasting impacts of the intervention on key outcomes related to men’s engagement in care work and on couple and family relations.

This report provides six new insights on the unfolding crisis of care, along with PL+US highlighting the need for paid leave, policy changes that are intersectional and that account for and remedy existing inequalities, and better inclusion in decision-making of those individuals with a clear view of inequalities. This report is the first in a series of similar polls in the #HowICare Project which will be published by Oxfam International in four other countries: UK, Canada, Philippines, and Kenya.