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Children and COVID-19 Research Library

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

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When schools shut: child marriage start: impact of Covid-19 on education of girl hhild in Bangladesh

AUTHOR(S)
Zobaida Akhter

Published: September 2022

More than 15.5 percent of Bangladeshi girls had been forced into wedlock below the age of 15 whereas the marriage age in Bangladesh during a pandemic. With the recent reopening of Bangladeshi schools, authorities have been alarmed by the number of girls not attending classes. In Khulna district, North of Bangladesh recorded more than 3,000 child marriages in this district. The paper will assess and estimate the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the education of young girls. Some case studies will be conducted in the child marriage-prone district of Khulna. Technology is not the only solution to all problems, it needs infrastructure, access to the internet or mobile, and economic solvency to provide necessary things. Since the majority of schools have moved instruction online because of the pandemic, it is now important to give girls the tools to participate in distance learning techniques. Because thousands of girl brides in southern Bangladesh whose classroom seats have remained empty after reopening of school.

An outline of child marriage during COVID-19 in Karnataka, India

AUTHOR(S)
P. Thangaperumal; R. Mangaleswaran; M. R. Prasad

Published: May 2022   Journal: International Journal of Health Sciences

General Child marriage situation  pre-covid, why increased during  covid,  causes,  reflection  from  selected  communities.  Many socio-economic  evils  deprives  numerous  children  from  their  right  to healthy  and  safe  nurturing  environment.  One  such  evil  is  the  child marriage practised from age old days and yet not eradicated. UNICEF defines  child  marriage  or  early  marriage  as  the  union  of  a  girl  or  boy under  the  age  of  18years  which  encompasses  both  official  weddings and informal cohabitations in which children under the age of 18 live as  if  they  were  married.  According  to  UNICEF,  110  million  child marriages occurred from 2011 to 2021 worldwide and 25 million were avertedduring the same time frame. In spite of being a  pioneer  in  the  battle  against  child  marriage,  India  still  has  15.6 million  women  between  the  ages  of  20  and  24  who  were  married before  they  turned  18.  There  are  223  million  child  brides  in  India, with 102 million of them marrying before the age of 15. In terms of the prevalence  of  child  marriage,  these  data  rank  India  fourth  in  South Asia.ICEF, 2021b). In spite of being a pioneer in the battle against child marriage, India still has 15.6 million women between the ages of 20 and 24 who were married before they turned 18. There are 223 million child brides in India, with 102 million of them marrying before the age of 15. In terms of the prevalence of child marriage, these data rank India fourth in South Asia (UNICEF, 2019).

Intersecting disadvantages for married adolescents: life after marriage pre- and post-COVID-19 in contexts of displacement

AUTHOR(S)
Sarah Baird; Maureen Murphy; Jennifer Seager (et al.)

Published: February 2022   Journal: Journal of Adolescent Health
Although there is a growing evidence base on the drivers of child marriage, comparatively little is known about the experiences of married girls in refugee settings and how their development trajectories diverge from those of their nonmarried peers, particularly in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on cross-national panel data from Bangladesh and Jordan, this article explores diversity in child marriage experiences in contexts affected by forced displacement, highlighting how married girls’ well-being differs from that of their unmarried peers, and how COVID-19 has reinforced these differences.
Projecting the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on child marriage

AUTHOR(S)
Joshua Yukich; Matt Worges; Anastasia J. Gage (et al.)

Published: December 2021   Journal: Journal of Adolescent Health

The study projects the potential impact of COVID-19 on child marriage in the five countries in which the burden of child marriage is the largest: Bangladesh, Brazil, Ethiopia, India, and Nigeria. The projected impact of the pandemic on child marriage is based on a Markov model. A review of empirical and theoretical literature informed construction and parameter estimates of five pathways through which we expect an elevated marriage hazard: death of a parent, interruption of education, pregnancy risk, household income shocks, and reduced access to programs and services. Models are produced for an unmitigated scenario and a mitigated scenario in which effective interventions are applied to reduce the impact.

Joint assessment of adaptations to the UNFPA-UNICEF global programme to end child marriage in light of COVID-19
Institution: *UNICEF, United Nations Population Fund
Published: November 2021

The UNFPA-UNICEF Global Programme to End Child Marriage was designed as a 15-year programme (2016-2030) to contribute to the Sustainable Development Goal 5.3, which aims to eliminate all harmful practices, including child marriage. The COVID-19 pandemic hit at the very beginning of Phase II (2020-2023) of the Global Programme, and we know that it profoundly affected the everyday lives of girls, including their physical and mental health, education, and the economic circumstances of their families and communities. Up to 10 million more girls are estimated to becoming child brides by 2030, as a result of the pandemic. UNFPA and UNICEF Evaluation Offices conducted a joint assessment of the Global Programme adaptations to the COVID-19 crisis in 2021.

COVID’s Educational Time Bomb: Out of school children global snapshot
Published: November 2021
A snapshot survey carried out by Save the Children in 6 countries where schools have reopened, shows that 18 months into the COVID-19 pandemic, up to 1 in 5 of the most vulnerable children have not returned. This is not typically because of fear of the virus itself, but a direct result of child labour, child marriage, financial hardship, relocation and other consequences of the pandemic – and girls are particularly at risk. 1 in 5 children at schools we surveyed have not returned to school and are at risk of dropping out for good – with potentially devastating consequences for their lives and their country’s future. Eighteen months into this crisis, the clock is ticking to get millions of children back to school. We must act now and invest in getting the world’s children safely back to school, to ensure that generations of the most vulnerable children are not left behind.
Analysis of the health, economic and environmental impacts of COVID-19: The Bangladesh perspective

AUTHOR(S)
Sneh Gautama; Shamsunnahar Setu; Mohd Golam Quader Khan (et al.)

Published: November 2021   Journal: Geosystems and Geoenvironment
Although COVID-19 has given an opportunity to the earth to restore her ecosystem, its role in bringing changes in every sector including social, economic, agricultural, industrial, education and health is enormous. The study was conducted to assess the socio-economic impacts of COVID-19 in Bangladesh by collecting data from different sources. The result depicted that during the first wave of COVID-19, the detection rate was less than 5%, exceeding almost 30% after detecting the deadlier Indian variant where 65% of the death is noticed by the people older than 50 years. Among all the frontline service providers during Covid, the highest rate of death was observed for doctors in Bangladesh. This study also discussed the impact of COVID-19 on mental health and found that women faced more depression and anxiety than men as well as 43% of children had subthreshold mental disturbances. Three-fourths of the adolescents have been distressed with household stress during the pandemic. Women and girls have encountered increased domestic violence whereas early marriages dropped out many rural girls from education. Decreasing remittance from non-residents and shutting down of RMG industry resulted loss of job and have badly affected economic section. Almost 20 million workers lost their jobs in Bangladesh from the informal sector. Moreover, the healthcare workers who have treated the corona virus patients have been socially stigmatized due to the fear of infection. Corona Virus has jeopardized the agriculture sector and 66 % farmers (53% crop and vegetables, 99% fish farmers) got lower price than they used to get in a normal situation.
COVID-19 and Child Marriage: How COVID-19’s impact on hunger and education is forcing children into marriage

AUTHOR(S)
Kate Shaw; Tendai Chigavazira; Tamara Tutnjevic

Institution: World Vision
Published: October 2021

How COVID-19's impact on hunger and education is forcing children into marriage. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, most experts estimated child marriage would continue for many more decades. Because the pandemic has increased poverty levels and hunger, and decreased access to education, the risk of girls becoming child brides is also increasing. This report pairs data from World Vision’s Youth Healthy Behaviour Survey with global literature to better understand the conditions which enable child marriage and how these conditions may be changing because of the global pandemic. The report analyzes 14,964 observations from children and youth aged 12 to 18 from World Vision programming sites in Ethiopia, Ghana, India, and Zimbabwe. Case studies also provide insights into the lives of girls within these communities.

"Evidence matters – now more than ever: results from a review of UNICEF’s evidence on COVID-19 and child protection"

AUTHOR(S)
Manahil Siddiqi; Ramya Subrahmanian

Institution: *UNICEF
Published: September 2021

This paper presents a review of select evidence generated by UNICEF on the impact of COVID-19 on child protection. It takes stock of UNICEF’s contributions to the global COVID-19 child protection knowledge base and presents what has been learned so far from this evidence base on the impacts of COVID-19 on child protection and the response measures put in place since the pandemic. This review offers a starting point for UNICEF to further build its evidence base with external partners for continued evidence generation – so that it can be used to address child protection issues and lessons in the context of COVID-19.

Perturbed nuptiality, delayed fertility: childbirth effects of Covid19

AUTHOR(S)
Mazhar Mughal; Rashid Javed

Published: August 2021   Journal: Journal of Population Research
An aspect of the Covid-19 pandemic that merits attention is its effects on marriage and childbirth. Although the direct fertility effects of people getting the virus may be minor, the impact of delayed marriages due to the first preventive lockdown, such as that imposed in Pakistan from March 14 to May 8 2020, and the closure of marriage halls that lasted till September 14 may be non-negligible. These demographic consequences are of particular import to developing countries such as Pakistan where birth rates remain high, marriage is nearly universal, and almost all child-bearing takes place within marriage. Based on historic marriage patterns, this study estimates that the delay in nuptiality during the first wave of the coronavirus outbreak may affect about half of the marriages that were to take place during the year. In Pakistan, childbearing begins soon after marriage, and about 37% of Pakistani married women give birth to their first child within twelve months of marriage. A sizeable number out of these, around 400,000 annual births that occur within twelve months of the marriage, may consequently be delayed. Postponement of marriages due to the accompanying difficult economic situation and employment precariousness will accentuate this fertility effect. The net fertility impact of the Covid-19 outbreak will ultimately depend not only on the delay in marriages but also on the reproductive behavior of existing couples.
Youth relationships in the era of COVID-19: a mixed-methods study among adolescent girls and young women in Kenya

AUTHOR(S)
Celia Karp; Caroline Moreau; Grace Sheehy (et al.)

Published: August 2021   Journal: Journal of Adolescent Health

Measures to mitigate COVID-19's impact may inhibit development of healthy youth relationships, affecting partnership quality and sexual and reproductive health (SRH) outcomes. This is a mixed-methods study aiming to understand how COVID-19 affected girls' and young women's relationships in Kenya. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression examined factors associated with relationship quality dynamics and SRH outcomes among 756 partnered adolescents aged 15–24 years. Qualitative data from in-depth interviews were analyzed using inductive thematic analysis to explore youth perceptions of how intimate relationships changed during COVID-19.

Covid-19 and female learners in South Sudan: the impact of school closures in Juba, Rumbek, Kapoeta, Torit and Pibor
Institution: Institute of Social Policy and Research
Published: August 2021
The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting closure of South Sudan’s schools in March 2020 exacerbated many of the challenges female learners face in pursuing an education. Research found that increased poverty, domestic care work, early and forced marriage, and teenage pregnancy would make it difficult for female learners to return to schools when they reopened in May 2021. Greater financial and material support to female learners and their schools; more inclusive school environments for mothers, married or pregnant learners; and improved availability of services for learners experiencing gender-based violence, early and forced marriage or pregnancy are necessary to adequately support female learners to continue their education.
COVID-19 and children’s school resilience : evidence from Nigeria

AUTHOR(S)
Sylvain Dessy; Horace Gninafon; Luca Tiberti (et al.)

Institution: The World Bank
Published: July 2021
This paper analyzes the impact of COVID-19 lockdown measures on children's school resilience. Using an individual fixed-effect linear probability model on Nigeria data, it exploits the quasi-randomness of these measures to estimate their effect on school attendance after the lockdown was lifted. The results show that COVID-19 lockdown measures reduced children's probability of attending school after the school system reopened. This negative impact increased with children's age, reaching a peak among those whose education was no longer compulsory. For schoolchildren in that age group, the negative effect of COVID-19 lockdown measures is likely to be permanent, which, if not reversed, will undermine the quality of the economy-wide future labor force. The paper also finds evidence that in the child marriage-prone North-West part of Nigeria that these measures increased gender inequality in education among children aged 12 to 18. This result suggests that COVID-19 lockdown measures may exacerbate harmful traditional practices such as child marriage.
COVID-19: the turning point for gender equality

AUTHOR(S)
Senait Fisseha; Gita Sen; Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus; Henrietta H. Fore (et al.)

Published: July 2021   Journal: The Lancet
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.
COVID-19 and the surge of child marriages: a phenomenon in Nusa Tenggara Barat, Indonesia

AUTHOR(S)
Maila D. H. Rahiem

Published: July 2021   Journal: Child Abuse & Neglect

Worldwide, there has been a massive increase in child marriages following the COVID-19 crisis. In Indonesia, too, this figure has risen with Indonesia ranked amongst ten countries with the highest rates of child marriage in the world. One of the Indonesian provinces with a high incidence of child marriage cases is in Nusa Tenggara Barat (NTB). This study aims to examine what is causing the rate of child marriages to increase since the outbreak of COVID-19 in NTB.

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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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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.