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Children and COVID-19 Research Library

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

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16 - 30 of 169
COVID-19 pandemic impacts on Asia and the Pacific

AUTHOR(S)
A. Elbehri; T. Temel; F. Burcu Ceylan (et al.)

The COVID-19 health crisis has turned into a global economic crisis, putting at risk the health, jobs and incomes of millions of people across the world. The pandemic is becoming persistent and seemingly slow to eradicate, with medium and long-term consequences affecting the trajectories of the SDG (Sustainable Development Goal) targets across the countries. Better understanding of the implications of COVID-19 containment these measures for food systems, food insecurity and malnutrition is vital to prevent this global health crisis from becoming a food crisis and to rebuilt resilient food systems. The regional review presented in this report is broad-based but provisional since we are still dealing with an active pandemic having just moved past the fourth wave (dominated by Delta variant) and now facing a new variant, Omicron (whose real impact is still under review). As we approach 2022, the world is learning to live with COVID-19 and its variants for longer than initially believed. So the numbers related to COVID-19 infections and vaccination rates are only provisional and reflect the situation as of the time of writing.
A global review of COVID-19 policy and programmatic responses to child labour in agrifood systems

This review aims to look into the consequences of (1) the COVID-19 pandemic and the measures put in place to mitigate the spread of the pandemic and (2) the policies and programmatic responses to mitigate socio-economic consequences of the pandemic and how they have potentially interacted with child labour drivers, especially in agrifood systems. Thus, this review aims to document and spell out how policy and programmatic responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, in particular social protection measures, have the potential to prevent or contain an increase of child labour in agriculture at large.

Social protection and response to COVID-19 in Latin America and the Caribbean

AUTHOR(S)
Nurth Palomo; Luis Vargas Faulbaum; Anna Carolina Machado (et al.)

Institution: *UNICEF
Published: October 2022

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has hit the foundations of the economy and provoked devastating social effects in all the countries in the world, being Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) one of the most affected regions. The region is also experiencing a significant deterioration in the levels of poverty and extreme poverty, which affects children and adolescents more significantly. This Research Report analyzes digital payment systems for social protection interventions in the region.

Impact of COVID-19 on child labor in the Province of Chimborazo

AUTHOR(S)
Cristian Alexander Mejía Ortiz; Gissela Estefania Mera Rojas; Vivian Lizbeth Ruiz Sudario (et al.)

Published: October 2022   Journal: ESPOCH Congresses: The Ecuadorian Journal of S.T.E.A.M.
Child labor violates the children’s fundamental rights and interrupts their intellectual growth and potential. The prevalence of child labor in Ecuador has increased significantly in recent years, and the COVID-19 health crisis has only aided it. The province of Chimborazo over time has taken the lead amongst the other Ecuadorian provinces, showing a significant increase in the rate of child labor which has now become too complex to solve. Although, as a result of COVID-19, the rate of child labor has increased worldwide, the national and provincial rate of child labor in Ecuador significantly reduced due to the social distancing policies. However, once the infections were controlled, it resumed the pre-pandemic situation as many children from low-income families were forced to seek alternative income to survive during the pandemic; likewise, all commercial, production, and service activities were affected.
Breastfeeding knowledge, attitude, and practices and its association with food insecurity during COVID-19

AUTHOR(S)
Syahrul Bariah Abdul Hamid; Syasya Nurazmiena Haris; Hui Jun Chih

Published: September 2022   Journal: Environment-Behaviour Proceedings Journal

Child hunger commonly occurs in families with household food insecurity when mothers fail to continue breastfeeding due to stress and inability to produce sufficient breastmilk. This study aimed to investigate the association of breastfeeding KAP with food insecurity during the pandemic of COVID-19. An online self-administered questionnaire related to the study was used to obtain data from 444 Malaysian 

Afghanistan: a children's crisis
Institution: World Vision
Published: August 2022

Afghanistan is a country defined by the resilience and tenacity of its citizens – of its communities, its families, its children. Despite years of conflict, political changes, economic instability, and natural disasters, hard won development gains were realised, beginning to open doors for new opportunities and brighter futures for Afghanistan’s girls and boys. Today, those gains are at risk and the situation for children is more precarious than ever, in the face of what some class as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Political change, and the impact of this on the policies, decisions, and investments of the international aid community, coupled with the compounded effects of displacement, climate shocks, and lingering impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, are pushing food insecurity to levels not seen before. This is challenging the ability of families to survive daily life, contributing to the rapid deterioration of the public health system, and ultimately, placing the rights and protection of Afghanistan’s children at risk. This report highlights how children and their families have been impacted by recent changes to the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan. It provides an analysis of new primary research from four provinces, secondary data, and the testimonies of children and their families, who describe, in their own words, how the worsening situation in Afghanistan is impacting them.

“We will die in poverty before dying by COVID”: Young adults and multilayered crises in Afghanistan

AUTHOR(S)
Orzala Nemat; Vidya Diwakar; Ihsanullah Ghafoori (et al.)

Institution: Save the Children
Published: August 2022
Afghanistan experienced an extraordinary situation in 2021 that presents a complex example of how an intensified level of conflict and the global COVID-19 pandemic of added to an increasing prevalence of drought due to climate change has been affecting people’s livelihoods from different angles. In pre-August 2021, the country experienced record-level violence across the provinces. This was followed by the gradual fall of districts, provinces and finally the capital Kabul into the hands of the current de facto authorities, the Taliban. Meanwhile, like any other part of the world, Afghanistan also experienced the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, which hindered people’s access to jobs, health care and different sources of revenue. Alongside this, the second-worst drought in 4 years (IFRC, 2021) has widely affected the livelihoods of the majority of people who rely on agriculture and livestock as the sole source of income. There has been limited research into how these situations have combined to affect livelihoods and wellbeing in Afghanistan. This article by the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit attempts to advance understanding of this issue and promote research that investigates overlapped crises.
Nowcasting impact of COVID-19 on multidimensional child poverty

AUTHOR(S)
Olivera Fiala; Aristide Kielem; Enrique Delamónica (et al.)

Published: July 2022   Journal: Statistical Journal of the IAOS
From the onset, it was clear that the impact of the global economic and social crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic was unlikely to affect all children equally. Thus, it was necessary to ascertain the impact of COVID-19 on child poverty as the events unfolded. Many of the indirect effects of the pandemic – disruptions to health services, delayed vaccination programmes, widespread school closures, and increases in food insecurity – have significant impacts on the realisation of children’s rights and, consequently, were expected to increase material deprivations across different dimensions. The question was by how much? In this article we explain the modelling and methodological approach to project or nowcast the answer to that question. The method is dynamic as it was revised as additional information emerged during 2020 and 2021.
Implications of COVID-19 labour market shock for child and household hungers in South Africa: do social protection programs protect?

AUTHOR(S)
Dambala Gelo; Johane Dikgang

Published: July 2022   Journal: Plos One

Recent studies have confirmed that the COVID-19 lockdown has caused massive job losses. However, the impact of this loss on food security is not well-understood. Moreover, a paucity of evidence exists regarding social protection grants’ countervailing effects against such shocks. This study examined the effects of job loss (labour income loss) on child and household hungers (our two measures food insecurity) during COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa. It also ascertained whether these effect were offset by alternative social grant programs to document the protective role of the latter.It used South Africa’s National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS) and the Coronavirus Rapid Mobile Survey (CRAM) data. These data cover a nationally representative sample of 7073 individuals. We employed a probit model to estimate the effect of job loss and receipts of various social grants on child and households’ hungers. It also estimated the double-selection logit model to account for the model’s uncertainty surrounding the variable selection and treatment-effects estimation using lasso (Telasso) for causal inference of our analysis.

Inclusive learning for children in Northeast Nigeria: radio school response during a global pandemic

AUTHOR(S)
Margaret Ebubedike; Michael Boampong; Kiki James

Published: May 2022   Journal: Social Inclusion
With a burgeoning out‐of‐school population and illiteracy rate, the situation of protracted conflict and crises fuelled by the Boko‐Haram insurgency further exacerbates educational inequality for children in northern Nigeria. The Covid‐19 pandemic further deepened the “educational poverty” experienced there. This article focuses on data generated around ACE radio school, an initiative to mitigate the impact of Covid‐19‐related school closures in northern Nigeria. The initiative targeted young learners using radio as a medium to support their continued learning remotely in numeracy, literacy, sciences, and civics education. Daily learning activities were broadcasted in the local Hausa language, supported through “listening groups” that engaged local learning facilitators in the communities. Despite the known existing barriers that have been identified to hinder access to quality education in the region, including poverty, religion, socio‐cultural factors, and protracted conflict situations, our interviews revealed that parents were committed to supporting their children’s attendance at listening groups, due to the use of their mother tongue as a mode of instruction.
Remaining hopeful during the COVID-19 pandemic: the role of NGOs in filling the social support gap for vulnerable children

AUTHOR(S)
Sijeong Lim; Chungshik Moon; Youngwan Kim

Published: May 2022   Journal: Youth & Society
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a negative effect on children’s mental health worldwide. Existing studies suggest that children with greater levels of hope are more likely to be resilient in the face of disaster. While social support at the family and community level is proposed as an important factor in sustaining and fostering hope, the children of underprivileged households in developing countries tend to lack this support. This study investigates whether development projects run by international NGOs are able to fill this gap and help children to remain hopeful during the pandemic. Using original survey data from 834 children in adolescence (aged between 10 and 18) in Kenya and Zambia, it shows that children participating in Good Neighbors’ child sponsorship programs and community development projects exhibit higher scores on the Children’s Hope Scale than do non-participating children. These projects appear to foster hope by providing emotional and informational support.
Impact of lockdown due to COVID-19 on nutrition and food security of the selected low-income households in Bangladesh

AUTHOR(S)
Kazi Muhammad Rezaul Karim; Tasmia Tasnimb

Published: May 2022   Journal: Heliyon
This study aims to explore the impact of COVID-19 pandemic lockdown on household food security and the nutritional status of the children and identify the risk factors associated with it. A cross-sectional study was conducted in 220 households having at least one under 5 children of Narayanganj district in Bangladesh. Household food insecurity, coping strategies and nutritional status of children were the main outcome variables. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to investigate the significant determinants
Effects of early-life poverty on health and human capital in children and adolescents: analyses of national surveys and birth cohort studies in LMICs
Published: April 2022   Journal: The Lancet
The survival and nutrition of children and, to a lesser extent, adolescents have improved substantially in the past two decades. Improvements have been linked to the delivery of effective biomedical, behavioural, and environmental interventions; however, large disparities exist between and within countries. Using data from 95 national surveys in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs), this study analyses how strongly the health, nutrition, and cognitive development of children and adolescents are related to early-life poverty. Additionally, using data from six large, long-running birth cohorts in LMICs, it shows how early-life poverty can have a lasting effect on health and human capital throughout the life course. The study emphasises the importance of implementing multisectoral anti-poverty policies and programmes to complement specific health and nutrition interventions delivered at an individual level, particularly at a time when COVID-19 continues to disrupt economic, health, and educational gains achieved in the recent past.
Subjective well-being and material deprivation during COVID-19 pandemic: a study in children and adolescents in Indonesia

AUTHOR(S)
Ihsana Sabriani Borualogo; Sulisworo Kusdiyati; Hedi Wahyudi

Published: April 2022   Journal: Jurnal Psikologi

This study aimed to investigate the contribution of material deprivation on the subjective well-being (SWB) of children and adolescents aged 10-18 years old during COVID-19 in Indonesia. Participants (N= 3,094; 54.3% girls; 53.2% high school students) were children and adolescents from 33 provinces in Indonesia with mean age = 15.39.  Convenience sampling was used in this study, of which data were collected using internet-based questionnaires.  SWB was measured using three SWB scales:  Children’s Worlds Subjective Well-Being Scale (CW-SWBS), Overall Life Satisfaction (OLS), and one item measures subjective material well-being.   Material deprivation was measured by  participants’  reports  on  their  accessibility  to  necessities  they  need  in  life.   Participants  were further asked whether they were worried about their family’s money and access to have food to eat each day. Data were analyzed using linear regression, and descriptive statistics using crosstabs, Chi  Square  and  ANOV

After-school programmes response to the COVID-19 pandemic: lessons learned from Barcelona, Spain

AUTHOR(S)
Txus Morata; Paco López; Eva Palasí (et al.)

Published: April 2022   Journal: Child & Family Social Work
This article explores the role of after-school programmes (ASPs) in serving underserved families in Barcelona, Spain, during the lockdown phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a mixed-method approach, this exploratory study surveyed 31 directors of ASPs administered by the Pere Tarrés Foundation. These ASPs serve almost 2000 children living under the federal poverty level in Catalonia, Spain.
16 - 30 of 169

UNICEF Innocenti's Children and COVID-19 Library is a database collecting research from around the world on COVID-19 and its impacts on children and adolescents.

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Each quarterly thematic digest features the latest evidence drawn from the Children and COVID-19 Research Library on a particular topic of interest.
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COVID-19 & Children: Rapid Research Response

UNICEF Innocenti is mobilizing a rapid research response in line with UNICEF’s global response to the COVID-19 crisis. The initiatives we’ve begun will provide the broad range of evidence needed to inform our work to scale up rapid assessment, develop urgent mitigating strategies in programming and advocacy, and preparation of interventions to respond to the medium and longer-term consequences of the COVID-19 crisis. The research projects cover a rapid review of evidence, education analysis, and social and economic policies.