Publications

Access to pre-primary education has increased significantly in the past two decades and, as of today, boys and girls are participating equally. However, despite this gender parity in access, the pre-primary education system does not always deliver on its potential to tackle gender inequalities and address harmful gender stereotypes and norms. In particular, children begin to gain insight into certain cultural gender stereotypes as early as the ages of two and three. There is, therefore, a need to proactively incorporate gender-responsive and gender-transformative strategies into the design and implementation of pre-primary education systems to address gender inequalities. 

Children begin learning about gender stereotypes as early as age two. The pre-primary education system does not always deliver on its potential to tackle and address harmful gender stereotypes while they are being absorbed by the youngest learners. All components of the pre-primary system have a role to play in breaking down these stereotypes. This includes parents, who are the primary agents of gender socialization for their children. As young children are in the process of forming their own gender identity, their primary caregivers can reinforce their behaviors and act as role models on how to behave and interact with others. This brief highlights key strategies and considerations to ensure family and community members are active agents of change for gender-transformative education and development.

Gender-transformative pre-primary education requires a coherent system that integrates gender considerations across all its core components for a quality service delivery. This brief presents a set of tools to support policymakers and/or practitioners to progress towards gender-transformative pre-primary education policy and programming, organized by the five core components of quality pre-primary primary education systems: planning and budgeting; curriculum; workforce development; family and community engagement; and quality assurance. The tools provide key gender considerations to strengthen each core component and advocate for gender-responsive and gender-transformative policies and practices. 

Mainstreaming gender within pre-primary education is a priority in tackling gender-related inequalities from the early years. Such mainstreaming requires the commitment of a variety of stakeholders within the education system and beyond, including different units within education ministries, pre-service and in-service teacher training providers, teacher unions, other ministries, academia and civil society organizations. This brief presents key advocacy points and enabling conditions to support education ministries to engage these partners in the delivery of gender-transformative pre-primary education. Advocacy points are aligned with the five components of quality systems: planning and budgeting; curriculum development and implementation; workforce development; family and community engagement; and quality assurance.  

Children begin learning about gender stereotypes as early as age two. The pre-primary education system does not always deliver on its potential to tackle and address harmful gender stereotypes while they are being absorbed by the youngest learners. All components of the pre-primary system have a role to play in breaking down these stereotypes. This includes the teaching workforce, who play a crucial role in determining how the education system contributes to gender equality and whose actions can influence children’s learning experiences and their personal gendered views and behaviour. This brief highlights key strategies and considerations to ensure the pre-primary workforce can be prepared to stop gender stereotypes from being perpetuated, and ways they can create a learning environment that is gender-transformative.

There is growing global recognition that violence against women (VAW) and violence against children (VAC) intersect in different ways. The Sexual Violence Research Initiative (SVRI), the UNICEF Office of Research – Innocenti and the UNDP-UNFPA-UNICEF-WHO-World Bank Special Programme of Research, Development and Research Training in Human Reproduction (HRP) hosted by the World Health Organization (WHO) partnered to coordinate a global, participatory process to identify research priorities for the intersections between VAC and VAW. Identifying research priorities helps to advance the field in a more structured way and serves to monitor progress against initial evidence gaps. Whilst priorities are important, the way in which these priorities are set is also important, especially for ownership, contextualisation and use. Inclusive, participatory research setting serves to promote a diversity of voices – especially from low-and middle-income country (LMIC) settings – which historically lack representation, and minimize the risk of biases when establishing research priorities.

This brief undertakes a regional analysis of the impact of the war in Ukraine – and subsequent economic downturn – on the situation of children in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. We specifically examine the impacts on child poverty, school years lost, and infant mortality. 

Based on a demographic snapshot of the region, our models predict that an additional 10 million people – including about 4 million children – will be pushed into poverty compared to pre-war predictions. About 4,500 more children will die before their first birthday, and 117,000 years of schooling will be lost. The brief concludes with implications for the work of UNICEF and government partners in addressing these poverty risks. 

The COVID-19 pandemic transformed internet connectivity from an important asset to an essential piece of infrastructure. Yet two thirds of the world’s school-aged children still have no fixed internet connection at home. This lack of connectivity limits their ability to go online; prevents them from participating and competing in the modern economy; and risks isolating them from the world.

This research brief presents new data on children’s internet access in five countries in Eastern and Southern Africa. It provides estimates of the frequency with which children use the internet and assesses the most common barriers they face. Finally, it explores the potential consequences of leaving these bottlenecks unaddressed.

This brief provides an overview of the data and evidence gaps on violence against children in East Asia and the Pacific. It calls for greater attention to generating, sharing and applying quality data and evidence to protect the safety and rights of children within the region.

Integrated social protection programmes are increasingly being pursued as more effective and efficient ways to improve children’s health and nutrition outcomes. UNICEF Ethiopia is implementing a pilot Integrated Safety Net Programme (ISNP) in the Amhara region of Ethiopia aimed at integrating a cash transfer (through the Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP)), a health insurance (the Community Based Health Insurance (CBHI)), social and behaviour change communication (on nutrition, feeding practices, sexual and reproductive health, gender equality, and child marriage), and case management (for malnourished and out of school children).

The ISNP implementation began in early 2019. Knowing that integration comes with its own challenges in terms of planning, coordination, harmonization of systems and tools, and the alignment of budgets, this qualitative study sought to understand the status of implementation, emerging challenges, and potential remedial actions to ensure the intervention achieves the stated objectives. The study shows that while there is progress, more action is needed in terms of implementing the planned management information system (MIS), ensuring adequate and well trained frontline workers are in place, further improving harmonization of targeting tools, and increasing budgetary allocation.

This research brief is one of a series of six briefs, which provide an overview of available evidence shown in the Campbell-UNICEF Mega-Map of the effectiveness of interventions to improve child well-being in low- and middle-income countries. Five of these briefs summarize evidence as mapped against the five goal areas of UNICEF’s 2018–2021 Strategic Plan. A sixth special brief was added to focus specifically on COVID-19 and other epidemics and major crises. It is anticipated that the briefs will also be useful for others working in the child well-being space.

This research brief is one of a series of six briefs, which provide an overview of available evidence shown in the Campbell-UNICEF Mega-Map of the effectiveness of interventions to improve child well-being in low- and middle-income countries. Five of these briefs summarize evidence as mapped against the five goal areas of UNICEF’s 2018–2021 Strategic Plan. A sixth special brief was added to focus specifically on COVID-19 and other epidemics and major crises. It is anticipated that the briefs will also be useful for others working in the child well-being space.