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Children and COVID-19 Research Library

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

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Water, sanitation, hygiene practices, health and nutritional status among children before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: longitudinal evidence from remote areas of Dailekh and Achham districts in Nepal

AUTHOR(S)
Akina Shrestha; Bal Mukunda Kunwar; Regula Meierhofer

Published: November 2022   Journal: BMC Public Health

The COVID-19 pandemic drew hygiene to the center of disease prevention. The provision of adequate water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) services is crucial to protect public health during a pandemic. Yet, access to levels of water supply that support adequate hygiene measures are deficient in many areas in Nepal. We examined WASH practices and their impact on child health and nutritional status in two districts before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. A longitudinal and mixed method study was conducted in March–May 2018 and November–December 2021. In total, 715 children aged 0–10 years were surveyed at baseline. Of these, 490 children were assessed at endline. Data collection methods included observations, a questionnaire, stool analysis, anthropometric measurements, water quality analysis, and an assessment of clinical signs of nutritional deficiencies. We conducted 10 in-depth interviews to understand major problems related to COVID-19.

Best of UNICEF Research and Evaluation 2020

Evidence and objective assessment are needed more than ever to help enhance the rights and well-being of the world’s children. Researching the changing world around us and evaluating progress are two sides of the same coin, both critical to reimagining a better future for children. In recognition of this, UNICEF celebrates and showcases innovative and influential research and evaluations from our offices around the world every year. For 2020, Innocenti and the Evaluation Office joined forces to find the most rigorous UNICEF studies with greatest influence on policies and programmes that benefit children.

Beyond handwashing: Water insecurity undermines COVID-19 response in developing areas

AUTHOR(S)
Justin Stoler; Wendy Jepson; Amber Wutich

Published: May 2020   Journal: Journal of Global Health
Water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) inequities are long-recognized as important contributors to the global burden of disease that inhibit sustainable development. Inadequate water quantity poses additional challenges for maintaining clean environments and sanitizing physical surfaces where COVID-19 can survive. But the problems associated with water insecurity extend well beyond issues of quantity and hygiene.
Social distancing can cause significant disruptions in people’s access to their most basic necessity. One of the most underappreciated coping strategies for dealing with water insecurity is water sharing between households. The ubiquitous, but often invisible, practice of household water sharing occurs in a variety of socio-cultural settings, and may serve as a transmission pathway for many communicable diseases. 
Water insecurity also complicates people’s ability to participate in social distancing if they have to fetch their own water. About a billion people globally collect their own water from sources outside of their home such as public standpipes, wells, or surface water bodies, and often at great distances. Water fetching in groups contributes to building social capital among women and children, while offering a mechanism of protection from physical dangers like injuries, accidents, harassment, and assaults. Thus, when social distancing measures are in place, vulnerable groups (especially women and girls) experience greater risks by having to fetch water alone. 
Under-resourced regions that already suffer economic losses from lack of adequate water supplies are on the verge of an enormous additional burden from COVID-19. 
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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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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.