Children and COVID-19 Research Library

Since the first identified case on 2 March 2020 until 13 July 2021, more than 1,200 people have lost their lives, meaning that too many boys and girls suffered the tragic and permanent loss of a grandparent, parent, caregiver or loved one. More than 46,860 persons tested positive, implying that and even greater number of loved ones might have fallen ill, making it hard for them to care for family, keep plans or sustain employment. Meanwhile, almost every household in Senegal was affected by restrictions designed to contain the first wave. While the strict measures were largely successful in limiting the spread of the virus, they also affected key sectors of the economy, disrupted supply chains and markets, and affected both the demand for, and availability of, social services. Essentially, COVID-19 impacted almost every aspect of life, particularly in the first quarter of 2020, which we now recognize as the first “leg” in a multi-year, planet-wide marathon to outpace the pandemic. With the closure of schools and disruption of many basic services, child protection mechanisms also lapsed, triggering a crisis for children with considerable socio-economic costs.

The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have gone far beyond the disease itself. In addition to the increasing number of COVID-19 deaths, the pandemic has deepened social and economic inequalities. These indirect impacts have been compounded by pervasive gender inequalities, with profound consequences, especially for women, girls, and people of diverse gender identities. There has been an escalation in gender-based violence within households, increasing numbers of child marriages and female genital mutilation, and an increased burden of unpaid care work, with impacts on mental health. Communities of people affected by HIV are, again, at the crossroads of injustice and targeted discrimination. Measures to control the pandemic have reduced access to essential health and social welfare services, including sexual and reproductive health services, reduced employment and labour force participation, and decimated many household incomes. Here again, women have borne the brunt of marginalisation, particularly those working in the informal sector. Intersectionality analyses have highlighted the inextricable effects of poverty, racial discrimination, harmful gender norms, and limited agency and opportunities for women, especially already marginalised women, even when they represent most of the front-line health workers. The diversion of funds from other health and development programmes into economic recovery means that the pandemic is further eroding health gains made over decades, stalling progress on tackling gender inequalities.

In April 2020, CARE received a five million dollar grant from MARS to implement a multi-country program, including Cote d’Ivoire, Ecuador, Ghana, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, India, Peru, Thailand, and Venezuela1, with the aim of reducing the negative impacts of COVID-19 on vulnerable populations, especially women and girls, using complementary and multimodal approaches. A key activity of this program was the provision of cash and voucher assistance (CVA) to vulnerable populations to meet their diverse basic needs. Program data indicated that CVA was implemented in Cote d’Ivoire, Ecuador, Ghana, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, and Thailand.

The third round of data collection on monitoring of socio-economic impacts of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic in Djibouti followed urban national households based on two previous waves of data collection as well as a replacement sub-sample. This round also includes a refugee sub-sample, covering urban refugees and those based in refugee villages. Economic recovery in Djibouti continues to follow a positive trend. Breadwinners from Djiboutian households continue to come back to work. Only 4 percent of those working before the pandemic were not working at the time of the survey. Even when counting those who were not working before the pandemic, 83 percent of all national households' breadwinners are now working – continuing strong trends from waves 1 and 2.

Brazil is one of the countries that were most affected by COVID-19. This article aims to present a viewpoint on how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting the lives of people in Brazil, emphasizing the impacts on the lives of the youth, showing how the global crisis emerges with particularities in Brazil and affects the private lives of the population in a heterogeneous way. In this text, we support the idea that Brazilian children did not experience a pandemic quarantine, but only a school quarantine; moreover, the pandemic affects different social groups of the country unequally, mainly affecting the poor, black, and indigenous populations.

This paper highlights how the novel coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) has amplified economic instability and health risks for disconnected youth and young adults (YYA). We offer a brief review of governmental policy responses in four OECD countries and how they may impact the disconnect YYA within those countries. Literature was reviewed utilizing Cochrane Library, ERIC, PsychINFO, PubMed/MEDLINE and Web of Science to outline existing inequities among disconnected YYA and COVID-19 economic and health impacts. Government responses to COVID-19 from four OECD countries were reviewed. Using the social protection model, we highlighted significant policy changes and developments that influence the protection of vulnerable populations and evaluated the potential effect of long-term economic dislocations prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The impact of the global economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic will not affect all children equally: those in poorer households and children who are disadvantaged face the most serious consequences. As parents lose their jobs and incomes, the impact on children living in impoverished households must be measured. In this article, we assess the economic consequences of the pandemic on these children. Given that poorer families have a larger number of children than other families, the analysis first establishes the proportion of children living in monetary poor households, as defined by national standards, across developing countries. Then, using historical changes and trends of income distribution per country, the latest projections about economic decline due to the pandemic, and demographic information about the distribution of children by deciles, this study estimates the expected increase in the number of children in monetary poor households in developing countries as of end of 2020 to be an additional 122–144 million and, at best, a moderate decline in these numbers by end of 2021.

In an effort to understand the social and economic impacts of COVID-19 on women, families with children, vulnerable groups, and people with disabilities, the largest household survey recorded in Indonesia was launched between October and December 2020. Through qualitative interviews, over 12,000 families — across 34 provinces and 247 districts — were surveyed. The results revealed information about the impact of COVID-19 on employment, micro-businesses, food security, access to health, educational services and access to social protection programmes. On a deeper level, it provided insight into the impact of the pandemic on children’s development and wellbeing.

The experience of Covid-19 in Aotearoa New Zealand in 2020 has been strongly shaped by a narrative emanating from a robust partnership between politicians and public health experts. This narrative treads a careful line between hard and soft responses. To elaborate, enacting policy such as closing borders and requiring ‘lockdown’ was swift and firm but was accompanied by an attempt to develop a disposition of care and empathy towards the public. While there has been hardship for some families, the soft messaging has, we argue, led to aspects of the response that have been decidedly child-friendly. At the regional scale, border closures have impacted heavily on Pacific Island families, separating families as parents have been unable to return to their home islands and through the loss of economic opportunities associated with seasonal work and in local - often tourism dominated economies. In a COVID-era the future looks uncertain for children both within New Zealand and in the wider Pacific realm.

In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic and its resulting economic crisis, UNICEF in the Republic of Moldova commissioned research to assess the impact of the reduced flow of remittances on families with children in the areas of health, education, nutrition and other child related social services, and to drive the development of an equity-focused and gender-sensitive midterm mitigation plan. The report revealed that worryingly, 15 per cent of households with children have even had to cut down on meals, especially expensive categories of food such as meat, fish, fruit and vegetables.

The United Nations Leave No One Behind, A Call-to-Action pledges and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals are the formulating structure of this article. The commitments are documents to offer structure on how to eliminate poverty for all global citizens. The article aims to highlight where our urban areas and cities across the globe need improvement by eradicating discriminatory practices that affect women and trickle down to childcare and education of their children to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) the year 2030, amidst COVID-19.

The economic impacts of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) have drastically increased food insecurity in the United States. Initial data, collected a few months into the pandemic, showed that families, particularly those experiencing food insecurity, reported detrimental changes to their home food environment and parent feeding practices, compared to before COVID‐19. This follow‐up study obtained longitudinal data from a sample of parents in the United States to quantify changes in food security status, the home food environment, and parent feeding practices, from before to across COVID‐19 as the pandemic continued to persist.

The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 and attempts to limit its spread have resulted in a contraction of the global economy. This study documents the socioeconomic impacts of the pandemic among households, adults and children in low-income countries. To do so, it relies on longitudinal household survey data from Ethiopia, Malawi, Nigeria and Uganda, originating from pre-COVID-19 face-to-face household surveys plus phone surveys implemented during the pandemic. 256 million individuals—77% of the population—are estimated to live in households that have lost income during the pandemic. Attempts to cope with this loss are exacerbated by food insecurity and an inability to access medicine and staple foods. Finally, this study finds that student– teacher contact has dropped from a pre-COVID-19 rate of 96% to just 17% among households with school-aged children. These findings can inform decisions by governments and international organizations on measures to mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The increase in malnutrition arising due to the coronavirus pandemic is expected to cause nearly 170,000 additional child deaths in the next two years. Please, read that again, and understand that we are in the middle of a crisis within a crisis. This pandemic has created a fatal cycle: malnourished people are at a higher risk of death or hospitalisation from COVID-19, and the lockdown measures necessary to tackle the virus make it more difficult for people to access healthcare facilities and proper food, thus pushing them closer to malnutrition. Since nutrition underpins all of human flourishing, people in these regions are also under great economic, social, environmental and health strains, and may sink deeper into poverty as a result . Both COVID-19 and malnutrition have intense, long-term impacts, and challenge our ability to reach the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). They are emergencies in the short and long term. To avoid this food crisis spiralling out of control, actions to prevent malnutrition must be adopted as an essential part of any COVID-19 response.