Beyond Masks
Societal impacts of COVID-19 and accelerated solutions for children and adolescents
Abstract
All children are being affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, often in multiple ways.
The COVID-19 pandemic is a universal crisis that has been devastating for children, families and communities, and shows no signs of abating as 2021 approaches. Examining the available evidence to understand the potential and actual societal effects on children and identifying viable evidence-based solutions are critical pathways to inform timely policy and programmatic responses. This Executive Summary of the UNICEF Innocenti report Beyond Masks: Societal impacts of COVID-19 and accelerated solutions for children and adolescents provides a review of literature on the societal impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as past health and economic shocks, and possible solutions for mitigating impact at individual, household and societal levels.
The evidence base on the societal impacts of the pandemic is still nascent. For children, it is weaker still, largely due to the paucity of age-disaggregated data and the relatively low number of paediatric studies, particularly in low- and middle-income countries and especially beyond the biomedical sphere. Consequently, in order to best inform child-sensitive responses, we also examined evidence from prior epidemics and shocks to find insights to inform the current COVID-19 crisis. We looked at the prior societal impacts of previous infectious disease epidemics, including Ebola, Zika, SARS, MERS and tuberculosis, and particularly HIV/AIDS where there is a very robust evidence base.
While there are promising signs of potential breakthroughs for vaccines, rapid non-invasive tests and treatment options – all of which will help to slow and address the impacts of the pandemic – it is likely to be a long time before these interventions are available to all children and families, and particularly the poorest and most disadvantaged. As a result, there is an urgent need to find scalable and cost-effective solutions to the continued and deepening impact of the COVID-19 crisis on them.
Available in:
English
More in this series: Innocenti Research Report
Publication
Data Must Speak: Unpacking Factors Influencing School Performance in Zambia
Recognizing that children’s learning outcomes generally remain low, in its recent 2017–2021 Education and Skills Sector Plan (ESSP) the Government of Zambia prioritized improving learning outcomes through strategies that addressed gaps in education system quality, access, equity and efficiency.
What resources and contextual factors are associated with school performance in Zambia? By merging and analyzing existing administrative datasets in Zambia, this report helps to identify positive deviant schools – those that outperform other schools despite sharing similar contexts and resources.
Data Must Speak – a global initiative implemented since 2014 – aims to address the evidence gaps to mitigate the learning crisis using existing data. The DMS Positive Deviance research is co-created and co-implemented with Ministries of Education and key partners. DMS research relies on mixed methods and innovative approaches (i.e., positive deviance approach, behavioural sciences, implementation research and scaling science) to generate knowledge and practical lessons about ‘what works’, ‘why’ and ‘how’ to scale grassroots solutions for national policymakers and the broader international community of education stakeholders.
DMS research is currently implemented in 14 countries: Brazil, Burkina Faso, Chad, Cote d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Madagascar, Mali, Nepal, Niger, the United Republic of Tanzania, Togo and Zambia.
Publication
Data Must Speak: Comprendre les facteurs de performance des écoles malgaches
L’amélioration de l’accès de tous les enfants en âge d’être scolarisés à une éducation de qualité est l’une des priorités du Gouvernement de Madagascar. Le Plan sectoriel de l’éducation 2018-2022 définit des objectifs ambitieux dans ce sens, mais d’importants défis restent à relever pour améliorer l’apprentissage et la rétention scolaires.
Quelles ressources et quels facteurs contextuels sont associés à de bonnes performances scolaires au Madagascar ? En fusionnant et en analysant les ensembles de données administratives existants au Madagascar, ce rapport permet d'identifier les écoles déviantes positives - celles qui obtiennent de meilleurs résultats que les autres écoles bien qu'elles partagent des contextes et des ressources similaires.
Data Must Speak - une initiative mondiale mise en œuvre depuis 2014 - vise à combler les lacunes en matière de preuves pour atténuer la crise de l'apprentissage en utilisant les données existantes. La recherche DMS sur la déviance positive est cocréée et mise en œuvre conjointement avec les ministères de l'Éducation et des partenaires clés. La recherche DMS s'appuie sur des méthodes mixtes et des approches innovantes (c'est-à-dire l'approche de la déviance positive, les sciences du comportement, la recherche sur la mise en œuvre et la science de la mise à l'échelle) pour générer des connaissances et des enseignements pratiques sur " ce qui fonctionne ", " pourquoi " et " comment " mettre à l'échelle des solutions de base pour les décideurs politiques nationaux et la communauté internationale plus large des parties prenantes de l'éducation.
La recherche DMS est actuellement mise en œuvre dans 14 pays : Brésil, Burkina Faso, Tchad, Côte d'Ivoire, Éthiopie, Ghana, République démocratique populaire lao, Madagascar, Mali, Népal, Niger, République-Unie de Tanzanie, Togo et Zambie.
Publication
Teachers for All (T4A) Madagascar: Améliorer l´équité dans l’allocation des enseignants
Ce rapport décrit le paysage enseignant à Madagascar, et propose des pistes de réflexion pour améliorer le maillage enseignant dans le pays, afin de favoriser l’accès de tous les enfants à une éducation de qualité.
Publication
Integrating Education Technology into Teaching and Learning: Lessons from EDUINO in North Macedonia
How can countries engage teachers, parents, and learners in the successful of scale-up digital learning solutions?
EDUINO, North Macedonia's platform for digital learning, fostered a community of practice and successfully crowdsourced a large amount of educational content from teachers and educators around the country within weeks of the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. This research presents factors that enabled the rapid development and scale-up of EDUINO at a systems, school, and classroom level.
Research findings in the brief are organized around four key implementation strategies:
1. Developing and crowdsourcing curriculum-aligned learning content
2. Fostering user engagement through a community of practice
3. Furthering teacher capacity for digital learning, and
4. Reaching students with disabilities and other learning barriers.