Children and COVID-19 Research Library

This publication presents the voices of nearly 200 children and young people from across the Southern Africa region who shared their experiences on how COVID-19 continues to have an impact on their lives. During these conversations children and young people told us about increased isolation and vulnerability, fighting and physical violence at home, sexual abuse from close relatives, and an increased workload once schools closed. Altogether over 62% of the children and young people consulted mentioned having witnessed or experienced violence during the pandemic.

With COVID-19, many children, especially the girl child, have been affected. In this report, children and young people are telling us about the impact COVID-19 has had on their lives, in their families and on their communities and their recommendations to stay safe, healthy and help to fight the further spread of the virus. Children and young people from around the world shared examples of violence at home, child labour, child marriage, online risks and violence in their communities. They, supported by World Vision, are calling on their governments and the international community to support their advocacy and awareness-raising activities and include them in planning the response and reconstruction.

This consultation explores children and young people’s views and experiences related to COVID-19 and its secondary impacts. Firstly, it looks at children and young people’s perceptions of whether they are facing an increased risk of violence during this period and how they perceive this at home, in their communities and online. Secondly, this consultation investigates the ways in which children and young people are working to help stop the spread of the virus and diminish its secondary impacts.

This report explores children and young people’s views and experiences related to COVID-19 and its indirect impacts. Firstly, it looks at children and young people’s perceptions of how COVID-19 has had an impact on their lives and countries. Secondly, it seeks to highlight the ways in which they are working to help to stop the spread of the virus and lessen its impacts. This research included individual and group interviews with 160 children and young people (80 girls and 80 boys) between the ages of of nine and 18 from eight countries across West Africa: Central African Republic (CAR), Chad, Ghana, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal and Sierra Leone. The interviews took place in-person with physical distancing and over the phone.

The children of Afghanistan, especially those already suffering from poverty and inequity, are among the most vulnerable to the harsh socio-economic impact of COVID-19. Child mortality, malnutrition, forced marriages, sexual abuse, child labour and other forms of violence and exploitation and are all common challenges for the average child. With the addition of COVID-19 and its immediate and secondary impacts, children are now more anxious and worried than ever before and at greater risk of facing physical, sexual and emotional violence, especially as the economic impacts of the crisis set in with poverty rates and hunger in the country rising.

This research explores how the pandemic is impacting the lives of boys and girls. A cross-sectional observation design was developed with the application of convenience sampling at the country level and aggregation of all samples at the regional level (762 girls and boys ages 11–17 from World Vision private or grant funded programmes). The survey took place in June 2020. Quantitative results were complemented with findings from key informant interviews with 130 children ages 13–15.

The problems that place children at greater risk during the pandemic are associated with the scarcity of food, an increase in child labor, child marriage, domestic violence and abandonment. 49 per cent report that child marriages have increased since March in a survey with 420 households.

UNFPA estimates that in addition to the 150 million girls at risk of child marriage pre-pandemic, the socio-economic impacts of COVID-19 will put an additional 13 million more girls at risk over the next 10 years. Out of that number, up to four million girls may be in danger of child marriage in the next two years alone, with most child marriages taking place in the immediate aftermath of a crisis.

While children so far have not faced direct health effects of COVID-19- the crisis is having a profound effect on their wellbeing. During the lockdown, children are more vulnerable to abuse and exploitation while their schooling is seriously disturbed. Therefore, with the objective to collect, analyze and disseminate authentic information on the situation of children in Nepal during the pandemic, Consortium Nepal conducted a research titled ‘Assessment of Child Wellbeing during COVID-19’. This assessment is accompanied by collecting responses of children, parents and local government representatives/officials from selected districts across Nepal. For the purpose, separate questionnaires were developed for all these stakeholders. Being a descriptive study, questions were developed so as to collect qualitative data as per the need and availability.

As families' incomes plummet, millions more children go hungry and are forced to work and beg. Millions of parents and caregivers have lost incomes and jobs due to COVID-19, forcing them to expose their children to harmful and dangerous circumstances, such as begging or child marriage. World Vision has conducted rapid assessments in 24 countries across Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Asia confirming alarming predictions of increased child hunger, violence, and poverty due to the economic impact of COVID-19. These assessment results give further evidence that the most vulnerable families and their children are hardest hit in such crises. Those living in fragile countries already suffering from conflict, climate change, instability or displacement as well as those already receiving humanitarian assistance are suffering even greater injustices because of the pandemic.

COVID-19 poses a grave threat to the world’s children. As it has been showed in a previous report, while the mortality rate for healthy children infected by the virus has been lower than for adults and those with pre-existing conditions, 30 million are still at risk of illness and death. It is the indirect effects and impacts of this disease that pose a clear and present danger to children, particularly the most vulnerable. This report looks at one those impacts of COVID-19 on girls and boys. Violence. It predicts a major spike in the cases of children experiencing physical, emotional and sexual violence, both now and in the months and years to come. Whether they are forced to stay at home, or, in time, are sent to work or pushed into early marriage, boys and girls face a bleak future – unless governments, UN agencies, donors, NGOs, and the private sector do everything thing they can now to protect them.

As many as 30 million children are at risk of disease and death because of the secondary impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. World Vision’s Aftershocks report considers what would happen if the devastating secondary impacts of the 2015-2016 Ebola outbreak on children were replicated in the 24 most fragile countries covered by the UN’s COVID-19 humanitarian appeal. Secondary impacts will threaten many more children’s lives than COVID-19 itself. As many as 30 million children’s lives are in danger from secondary health impacts such as deadly diseases like malaria, a lack of immunisation, or increased malnutrition, as health systems are overwhelmed by COVID-19 patients.