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Children and COVID-19 Research Library

UNDER DEVELOPMENT UNICEF Innocenti's curated library of COVID-19 + Children research

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Working paper

Are we asking the right questions?: choices and challenges in assessing COVID-19 impact on the vulnerable in Bangladesh

AUTHOR(S)
Debapriya Bhattacharya; Sarah Sabin Khan; Towfiqul Islam Khan

Institution: Citizen’s Platform for SDGs
Published: January 2021

The paper puts forward a framework to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on vulnerable population groups in a developing country context. Bangladesh has been used as a case study. The pandemic has not only exacerbated pre-existing vulnerabilities of these groups but has also induced new ones. Policy actions towards recovery and resumption—both immediately and over the medium-term—need to be informed by genuine and disaggregated evidence based on realities on the ground. The paper urges a need to have conceptual, analytical and methodological clarity on the relevant issues. Towards this end, it explores the current state of knowledge on the topic and digs deep into the existing literature to analyse these issues. The paper offers a set of analytical questions to construct the assessment framework. The resultant framework presented can be adopted and replicated across national contexts.

Cite this research | No. of pages: xv, 54 | Language: English | Topics: Social Protection, Well-being and Equity, Child Protection | Tags: child abuse and neglect, child care services, poverty, sustainable development, COVID-19 response, child protection measures | Countries: Bangladesh | Publisher: Citizen’s Platform for SDGs

Journal article

Exploring resource scarcity and contextual influences on wellbeing among young refugees in Bidi Bidi refugee settlement, Uganda: findings from a qualitative study

AUTHOR(S)
Carmen H. Logie; Moses Okumu; Maya Latif (et al.)

Published: January 2021 Journal: Conflict and Health

Contextual factors including poverty and inequitable gender norms harm refugee adolescent and youths’ wellbeing. Our study focused on Bidi Bidi refugee settlement that hosts more than 230,000 of Uganda’s 1.4 million refugees. We explored contextual factors associated with wellbeing among refugee adolescents and youth aged 16–24 in Bidi Bidi refugee settlement.

Working paper

Socioeconomic impacts of COVID-19 in four African countries

AUTHOR(S)
Anna Josephson; Talip Kilic; Jeffrey D. Michler

Institution: The World Bank
Published: November 2020

This paper provides some of the first evidence on the socioeconomic impacts of and responses to the pandemic among households in Sub-Saharan Africa. Econometric methods are applied to longitudinal household survey data from Ethiopia, Malawi, Nigeria, and Uganda. Results show that 256 million individuals are estimated to live in households that have lost income due to the pandemic. Attempts to cope with this loss are exacerbated by the inability to access medicine and staple foods among 20 to 25 percent of the households in each country, and food insecurity is disproportionately borne by households that were already impoverished prior to the pandemic. Finally, student-teacher contact has dropped from a pre-COVID-19 rate of 96 percent to just 17 percent among households with school-age children. These findings can help inform decisions by governments and international organizations on measures to mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and reveal the need for continued monitoring.

Cite this research | Open access | No. of pages: 60 | Language: English | Topics: Child Poverty, Education, Nutrition, Social Protection, Well-being and Equity | Tags: household food security, household surveys, low income families, poverty, school-age population, social policy | Countries: Ethiopia, Malawi, Nigeria, Uganda | Publisher: The World Bank

Datasets

COVID-19 and children: UNICEF data hub

Institution: UNICEF Data & Analytics
Published: October 2020

Children are not the face of this pandemic. But they risk being among its biggest victims, as children’s lives are nonetheless being changed in profound ways. All children, of all ages, and in all countries, are being affected, in particular by the socio-economic impacts and, in some cases, by mitigation measures that may inadvertently do more harm than good. Moreover, the harmful effects of this pandemic will not be distributed equally. They are expected to be most damaging for children in the poorest countries, and in the poorest neighbourhoods, and for those in already disadvantaged or vulnerable situations. The potential losses that may accrue in learning for today’s young generation, and for the development of their human capital, are hard to fathom. 188 countries imposed countrywide school closures during the pandemic, affecting more than 1.6 billion children and youth. Even prior to the pandemic, however, children’s learning was in crisis, and the pandemic has only sharpened these inequities, hitting schoolchildren in poorer countries particularly hard. Globally, many schools lack the resources to invest in digital learning, and many children from poorer households do not have internet access.

Cite this research | Language: English | Topics: Child Protection, Education, Health, Nutrition | Tags: child abuse and neglect, child care services, child health, child malnutrition, educational policy, poverty, school attendance, social inequality, COVID-19 response, lockdown, social distance | Publisher: *UNICEF

Miscellanea

A Lifeline at Risk: COVID-19, Remittances and Children

AUTHOR(S)
Gilmar Zambrana Cruz; Gwyther Rees

Institution: UNICEF Office of Research - Innocenti
Published: October 2020 UNICEF Innocenti Publication

Millions of children around the world, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, live in households that receive money and other forms of support from a family member who has moved abroad, or to another part of the same country, to work. This form of assistance, or ‘remittances’, can alleviate household poverty and is often a key support for children’s development. In times of global economic uncertainty, however, remittances can be an unstable source of income for families. The COVID-19 pandemic is disproportionately affecting migrant workers’ job security, making it more difficult to send remittances. At the same time, families receiving remittances are facing their own economic and health challenges, meaning that the continuation of remittances is vital to keep them from slipping into poverty. This briefing paper outlines the potential risks of reduction in remittances due to the pandemic for children in households receiving remittances and what can be done to minimize these risks.

Journal article

COVID-19 pandemic: the impact on vulnerable children and young people in Australia

AUTHOR(S)
Benjamin Jones; Susan Woolfenden; Sandra Pengilly (et al.)

Published: September 2020 Journal: Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health

This article aims to present the reasons for vulnerability of children and young people (CYP) during the pandemic, and to focus on actions by health professionals that mitigate additional challenges to their health and well-being. Using a rapid review of the literature and team-based discussions, eight vulnerable groups were identified: CYP with disabilities, mental health conditions and chronic diseases; CYP facing financial hardship; within the child protection system; Aboriginal; migrant and refugee; in residential care; rural; and isolated CYP. Recommendations for action are required at the level of governments, health professionals and researchers and include enhancing access to health and social supports, prioritising vulnerable CYP in resuming health activity and elevating the voice of CYP in designing the response.

This

article aims to present the reasons for vulnerability of CYP during the pandemic, and to focus on actions by health professionals that mitigate

additional challenges to their health and well-being. Using a rapid review of the literature and team-based discussions, eight vulnerable groups

were identied: CYP with disabilities, mental health conditions and chronic diseases; CYP facing nancial hardship; within the child protection sys-

tem; Aboriginal; migrant and refugee; in residential care; rural; and isolated CYP. 

Journal article

Screening for economic hardship for child welfare-involved families during the COVID-19 pandemic: a rapid partnership response

AUTHOR(S)
Barbara Fallon; Rachael Lefebvre; Delphine Collin-Vézina (et al.)

Published: September 2020 Journal: Child Abuse & Neglect

Given the range of negative consequences related to the pandemic and the evolving supports available to families, child protection workers needed a clinical tool to guide and support work with families informed by an understanding of economic hardship. The objective of this paper is to report on the development and implementation strategy of a tool to be used for practice intervention during the pandemic.

Journal article

Parental perceptions of COVID-19 pandemic: adherence to laid down containment measures

AUTHOR(S)
Ezeonwu Bertilla; Joseph Ajanwaenyi; Uwadia Omozele (et al.)

Published: September 2020 Journal: American Journal of Pediatrics

This article aims to ascertain, the perceptions of caregivers of children on covid-19 containment measures, the need for adherence to the measures to understand the reasons for poor compliance. The interviewees expressed their difficulties and frustrations in maintaining the rigors of application of these measures but would that government should expedite action towards the discovery of Protective vaccines because of the effect these measures had on their economic means of livelihoods.

Research Report

The social safety net in the wake of COVID-19

AUTHOR(S)
Marianne Bitler; Hilary W. Hoynes; Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach

Published: September 2020

The COVID-19 crisis has led to spiking unemployment rates with disproportionate impacts on low-incomefamilies. School and child-care center closures have also meant lost free- and reduced-price schoolmeals. Food prices have increased sharply leading to reduced purchasing power for families’ limited income. Real time data show significant distress – notably food insecurity rates have increased almost three times overthe pre-COVID rates and food pantry use has also spiked. In this paper, we explore why there is so much unmet need despite a robust policy response.

Journal article

Coronavirus and rising threat of malnutrition among children in India

AUTHOR(S)
Gupta Surabhi

Published: September 2020 Journal: Asian journal of research in social sciences and humanities

This article focuses on the impact of COVID- 19 on food security and nutrition among children in India. India is already one of the highest ranking countries in the world for the number of children suffering from malnutrition and more than one third of the world's malnourished children live in India. The novel coronavirus risks is undermining the efforts of humanitarian and food security organizations to reduce hunger and scale down the efforts in this direction In this paper, I would largely focus on the impact of COVID- 19 on food security and nutrition among children in India.

Commentaries and Think Pieces

COVID-19 and maternal and child food and nutrition insecurity: a complex syndemic

AUTHOR(S)
Rafael Perez-Escamilla; Kenda Cunningham; Victoria Hall Moran

Published: July 2020 Journal: Maternal & Child Nutrition

Globally, the COVID-19 pandemic has already led to major increases in unemployment and is expected to lead to unprecedented increases in poverty and food and nutrition insecurity, as well as poor health outcomes. Families where young children, youth, pregnant and lactating women live need to be protected against the ongoing protracted pandemic and the aftershocks that are very likely to follow for years to come. The future wellbeing of the vast majority of the world now depends on reconfiguring the current ineffective food, nutrition, health, and social protection systems to ensure food and nutrition security for all. Because food, nutrition, health, and socio-economic outcomes are intimately inter-linked, it is essential that we find out how to effectively address the need to reconfigure and to provide better intersecoral coordination among global and local food, health care, and social protection systems taking equity and sutainability principles into account. Implementation science research informed by complex adaptive sytems frameworks will be needed to fill in the major knowledge gaps. Not doing so will not only put the development of individuals at further risk, but also negatively impact on the development potential of entire nations and ultimately our planet.

Research Report

Fiji gender, disability and inclusion analysis COVID-19 and TC Harold

AUTHOR(S)
Anna Cowley; Sally Baker; Charlie Damon

Institution: CARE, Live & Learn Environmental Education Fiji, Save the Children
Published: June 2020

COVID-19 and TC Harold have severely affected Fijians’ short and long-term resilience as many are resorting to the use of detrimental coping strategies such as reduction in food intake, barter of assets, reduction of expenditure on health or education. Social protection schemes for marginalised groups exist but are limited and access was restricted by COVID-19 preventative measures, particularly for people with disabilities.

Policy brief

Impact of COVID-19 on informal workers

Institution: FAO - Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Published: May 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic is a major economic and labour market shock, presenting significant impacts in terms of unemployment and underemployment for informal workers. In rural areas, the livelihoods of especially the self-employed and wage workers are at risk, because agrifood supply chains and markets are being disrupted due to lockdowns and restrictions of movement. Families might resort to negative coping strategies such as distress sale of assets, taking out loans from informal moneylenders, or child labour. Specific groups of workers, including women, youth, children, indigenous people, and migrant workers, who are over represented in the informal economy, will experience further exacerbation of their vulnerability. Response measures should foster the expansion of social protection coverage to informal workers in agriculture and rural sectors, including timely cash transfers, food or in-kind distributions. Specific measures should be tailored towards women workers with care responsibilities at home, families that may resort to child labour as a coping strategy, as well as other vulnerable subgroups. Efforts should be made to maintain agricultural supply chains and strengthen the market linkages for local producers, while promoting decent work.

Cite this research | Open access | Language: English | Topics: Child Poverty, Child Protection | Tags: poverty, unemployment, social protection programmes, COVID-19 response

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