Innocenti Working Papers Digital Learning for Every Child: Closing the Gaps for an Inclusive and Prosperous Future AUTHOR(S) Mathieu Brossard; Marta Carnelli; Thomas Dreesen; Daniel Kardefelt Winther; Celine Little Published: 2021 Innocenti Working Papers Pre-Covid-19, half of the world’s children were already unable to read a simple text by the age of 10. School closures have deepened pre-existing learning disparities, within and among countries, due to inequities in access to technology. This brief summarises researchfindings and provides actionable recommendations for how to equitably scale up digital learning and provide children and young people with the skills to improve their prospects and safeguard their well-being. It pinpoints solutions for education systems’ use of digitaland blended learning anchored in a sound pedagogical approach and urges the G20 and other countries to overcome the barriers that limit the potential benefits of digital learning. + - Cite this publication | Thematic area: Education | Tags: education, remote learning × COPY BIBLIOGRAPHIC CITATION Mathieu Brossard; Marta Carnelli; Thomas Dreesen; Daniel Kardefelt Winther; Celine Little 2021 Digital Learning for Every Child: Closing the Gaps for an Inclusive and Prosperous Future.
Innocenti Working Papers Family-friendly policies in South Asia AUTHOR(S) Jennifer Waidler; Bindu Sunny; Gwyther Rees Published: 2021 Innocenti Working Papers Bringing up children requires care, time and resources. Yet, too often, all over the world, parents and other primary caregivers are left to struggle with this fundamental task without enough support. The burden of responsibility tends to fall disproportionately on women. Often parents have to make impossible choices between earning enough money for their family and giving children the care that they need. The concept of ‘family-friendly policies’ has emerged as a way of thinking about and addressing these issues. There is no agreed definition of the concept, but it is generally conceived as a set of policies that help parents/caregivers to reconcile various aspects of work and family life. Such policies may differ from one region and location to another depending on, amongst other things: demographics, including the definition of what a family is, and its function; the characteristics of the labour market and the workplace; the social and cultural context, including attitudes, expectations and norms; and the economic context. This paper addresses the issue of what family-friendly policies could look like in the South Asian context, where female labor force participation is very low and more than 90 per cent of workers are in the informal sector or under informal employment. It considers how these policies can be responsive to the particular characteristics and circumstances of countries in the region – including multi-generation families, family units built around adolescent mothers (and sometimes fathers), and migration for work both within and outside countries. It also tackles the question of how family-friendly policies might need to evolve in the face of the COVID-19 crisis. By taking an equity approach to family friendly policies, we provide recommendations on how to reach families in different situations and facing different degrees of vulnerabilities, including those not working or working under very difficult circumstances. + - Cite this publication | Tags: family, policy issues, south asia × COPY BIBLIOGRAPHIC CITATION Jennifer Waidler; Bindu Sunny; Gwyther Rees 2021 Family-friendly policies in South Asia.
Innocenti Working Papers Rapid Review Protocol - Life in Lockdown: Child and adolescent mental health and well-being in the time of COVID-19 Published: 2021 Innocenti Working Papers While there has been a global rush to generate rapid evidence on COVID-19 mental health impacts among adults, limited evidence exists on the potential impacts on children. This is the protocol for our rapid review that seeks to (i) understand the immediate impact of COVID-19’s first wave on the mental health of children and adolescents (0–19 years); and (ii) apply lessons learned from this pandemic to mitigate the impacts of future health crises.The key research questions of this review are: What has been the immediate impact of COVID-19 and associated containment measures on the mental health and psychosocial well-being of children and adolescents?How and which risk and protective factors have affected mental health during COVID-19 and have they varied across subgroups of children and adolescents? + - Cite this publication | No. of pages: 13 | Thematic area: Adolescents, Adolescents well-being, Child well-being, Mental Health | Tags: adolescent well-being, adolescents, child mental health, child well-being, COVID-19, mental health × COPY BIBLIOGRAPHIC CITATION 2021 Rapid Review Protocol - Life in Lockdown: Child and adolescent mental health and well-being in the time of COVID-19. , pp. 13.
Innocenti Working Papers Social Benefits and the Feedback Effect of Child Poverty in European Countries AUTHOR(S) Elena Bárcena-Martín; M. Carmen Blanco-Arana; Salvador Pérez-Moreno Published: 2021 Innocenti Working Papers This paper examines how social benefits contributed to reducing the scarring effects of monetary poverty among children in European countries in the years following the Great Recession. Based on the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions database, our findings highlight that social benefit functions differ in their ability to reduce the risk of monetary poverty for children with previous experience in poverty. While family/children’s benefits are crucial in reducing child poverty in general, they are not significant in terms of reducing the scarring effects of child poverty. Old age/ survivors’ benefits meanwhile appear to be a significant support for children with prior experience in poverty. Empirical evidence thus suggests the effectiveness of social transfers to combat occasional child poverty does not always coincide with their effectiveness in preventing children from remaining in poverty year after year. + - Cite this publication | No. of pages: 30 × COPY BIBLIOGRAPHIC CITATION Elena Bárcena-Martín; M. Carmen Blanco-Arana; Salvador Pérez-Moreno 2021 Social Benefits and the Feedback Effect of Child Poverty in European Countries. , pp. 30.
Innocenti Working Papers The Impact of Community Violence on Educational Outcomes: A review of the literature AUTHOR(S) Cirenia Chávez; Marcela Aguilar Published: 2021 Innocenti Working Papers In recent decades, violence in and around schools has become a serious concern in Latin America and the Caribbean. This is not a new or isolated phenomenon, nor is it limited to certain schools or countries. While much of the literature connecting violence and schools has focused on bullying, it has overlooked how violence in other environments, in families and in communities, affects children’s education and their learning outcomes. Latin America and the Caribbean is home to 9 out of the 10 countries with the highest rates of violence in the world. Yet, the prevalence of bullying in schools is one of the lowest in comparison to other regions, suggesting that this is not the most concerning form of violence impacting children’s educational experiences. This literature review summarizes existing evidence on the impacts of community violence on academic achievement as well as on other educational outcomes – including dropping out, absenteeism, truancy, enrolment and attendance – and highlights policy and research implications. + - Cite this publication | Thematic area: Education, Violence Against Children | Tags: communities, drop-outs, education, family environment, learning, violence, violence against children × COPY BIBLIOGRAPHIC CITATION Cirenia Chávez; Marcela Aguilar 2021 The Impact of Community Violence on Educational Outcomes: A review of the literature.
Innocenti Working Papers COVID-19: Missing More Than a Classroom. The impact of school closures on children’s nutrition AUTHOR(S) Artur Borkowski; Javier Santiago Ortiz Correa; Donald A. P. Bundy; Carmen Burbano; Chika Hayashi; Edward Lloyd-Evans; Jutta Neitzel; Nicolas Reuge Published: 2021 Innocenti Working Papers In 2019, 135 million people in 55 countries were in food crises or worse, and 2 billion people did not have regular access to safe, nutritious and sufficient food. COVID-19 has exacerbated these hardships and may result in an additional 121 million people facing acute food insecurity by the end of 2020. Further, since the beginning of the pandemic, an estimated 1.6 billion learners in 199 countries worldwide were affected by school closures, with nearly 370 million children not receiving a school meal in 150 countries. The paper presents the evidence on the potential negative short-term and long-term effects of school meal scheme disruption during Covid-19 globally. It shows how vulnerable the children participating in these schemes are, how coping and mitigation measures are often only short-term solutions, and how prioritizing school re-opening is critical. For instance, it highlights how girls are at greater risk of not being in school or of being taken out of school early, which may lead to poor nutrition and health for themselves and their children. However, well-designed school feeding programmes have been shown to enable catch-up from early growth failure and other negative shocks. As such, once schools re-open, school meal schemes can help address the deprivation that children have experienced during the closures and provide an incentive for parents to send and keep their children, especially girls, in school. + - Cite this publication | No. of pages: 29 | Thematic area: Education, Nutrition | Tags: COVID-19, COVID-19 response, education, education of girls, nutrition programmes, school attendance × COPY BIBLIOGRAPHIC CITATION Artur Borkowski; Javier Santiago Ortiz Correa; Donald A. P. Bundy; Carmen Burbano; Chika Hayashi; Edward Lloyd-Evans; Jutta Neitzel; Nicolas Reuge 2021 COVID-19: Missing More Than a Classroom. The impact of school closures on children’s nutrition. , pp. 29.
Innocenti Working Papers School-Related Violence in Latin America and the Caribbean: Building an evidence base for stronger schools AUTHOR(S) Cirenia Chávez; Victor Cebotari; Maria José Benítez; Dominic Richardson; Chii Fen Hiu; Juliana Zapata Published: 2021 Innocenti Working Papers The prevalence of school-related violence and, in particular, bullying is not a new or isolated phenomenon, nor is it limited to certain schools or countries. Abundant evidence indicates that bullying is widespread and has a negative impact on educational outcomes. Children who are victims of bullying can also be affected emotionally and physically in both the short and long terms. Evidence from low- and middle-income countries on bullying is less extensive when compared to the evidence available on predictors and effects of bullying from high-income countries. However, some findings for the Latin American and Caribbean region seem to suggest a similar picture, with a high prevalence of bullying victimization and association to lower reading scores in different subjects tested. This working paper first uses data from UNESCO’s Third Regional Comparative and Explanatory Study for nationally representative samples of sixth grade students to determine the prevalence of bullying and its association to learning outcomes in 15 countries of the LAC region. It then looks at interventions to mitigate the impacts of violence. + - Cite this publication | No. of pages: 68 | Thematic area: Education | Tags: education, latin america × COPY BIBLIOGRAPHIC CITATION Cirenia Chávez; Victor Cebotari; Maria José Benítez; Dominic Richardson; Chii Fen Hiu; Juliana Zapata 2021 School-Related Violence in Latin America and the Caribbean: Building an evidence base for stronger schools. , pp. 68.
Innocenti Working Papers The Evolving Epidemiologic and Clinical Picture of SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 Disease in Children and Young People AUTHOR(S) Priscilla Idele; David Anthony; Lynne M Mofenson; Jennifer Requejo; Danzhen You; Chewe Luo; Stefan Peterson Published: 2020 Innocenti Working Papers The initial impression that paediatric SARS-CoV-2 infection is uncommon and generally mild has been replaced by a more nuanced understanding of infectious manifestations in children and adolescents across low-, middle-, and high-income countries, with recognition of a widening disease spectrum. Critical knowledge gaps, especially in low- and middle-income countries, remain that have significant public policy and programme implications. Insufficient data disaggregated by age, geography and race/ethnicity continue to hinder efforts to fully assess prevalence of infection and disease manifestations in children and adolescents and their role in transmission. Potential biologic differences in susceptibility to infection and transmissibility between children, adolescents and adults need to be assessed. Determination of mother-to-child SARS-CoV-2 transmission during pregnancy, the peripartum period, or through breastfeeding requires appropriate samples obtained with proper timing, lacking in most studies. Finally, predictors of disease progression, morbidity and mortality in children need to be determined and whether these predictors vary by geographic location and in settings where poor nutritional and health conditions and other vulnerabilities are more frequent. Countries, UN agencies, public health communities, donors and academia need to coordinate the efforts and work collectively to close the data and knowledge gaps in all countries (high-, middle- and low-income) for better evidence to guide policy and programme decision-making for children and COVID-19 disease. + - Cite this publication | No. of pages: 62 | Thematic area: Health × COPY BIBLIOGRAPHIC CITATION Priscilla Idele; David Anthony; Lynne M Mofenson; Jennifer Requejo; Danzhen You; Chewe Luo; Stefan Peterson 2020 The Evolving Epidemiologic and Clinical Picture of SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 Disease in Children and Young People. , pp. 62.
Innocenti Working Papers Social Protection and Its Effects on Gender Equality: A literature review AUTHOR(S) Elena Camilletti Published: 2020 Innocenti Working Papers Globally, progress has been made in the fight against both poverty and gender inequality, including through the expansion of social protection programmes. Yet significant gaps remain. Many women and girls remain in poverty and often face different structural constraints and risks across their life course, related to their biological sex as well as entrenched gender norms that discriminate against them in many aspects of their lives. As poverty, risks and vulnerabilities – which social protection aims to minimize, reduce or tackle – are gendered, if the root causes of gender inequality are not investigated in evidence generation and addressed in policy and practice, poverty will not be sustainably eradicated, nor gender equality achieved.This paper provides an overview of the latest evidence on the effects of social protection on gender equality. It starts by considering how risks and vulnerabilities are gendered, and the implications of their gendered nature for boys’ and girls’, and men’s and women’s well-being throughout the life course. It then reviews and discusses the evidence on the design features of four types of social protection programmes – non-contributory programmes, contributory programmes, labour market programmes, and social care services – and their effects on gender equality, unpacking which design features matter the most to achieve gender equality. Finally, the paper concludes with implications for a future research agenda on gender and social protection. + - Cite this publication | No. of pages: 58 | Thematic area: Gender Issues, Social protection | Tags: gender issues, life course, social protection × COPY BIBLIOGRAPHIC CITATION Elena Camilletti 2020 Social Protection and Its Effects on Gender Equality: A literature review. , pp. 58.
Innocenti Working Papers COVID-19: Trends, Promising Practices and Gaps in Remote Learning for Pre-Primary Education AUTHOR(S) Dita Nugroho; Hsiao-Chen Lin; Ivelina Borisova; Ana Nieto; Maniza Ntekim Published: 2020 Innocenti Working Papers This paper examines the remote learning options that countries around the world have made available for pre-primary students and their families while schools are closed during the COVID-19 pandemic. It highlights trends, gaps and emerging good practices that are supported by existing evidence. + - Cite this publication | Thematic area: Education | Tags: COVID-19, early childhood education, parental guidance, preschool education, primary education, remote learning × COPY BIBLIOGRAPHIC CITATION Dita Nugroho; Hsiao-Chen Lin; Ivelina Borisova; Ana Nieto; Maniza Ntekim 2020 COVID-19: Trends, Promising Practices and Gaps in Remote Learning for Pre-Primary Education.
Innocenti Working Papers Encryption, Privacy and Children’s Right to Protection from Harm AUTHOR(S) Daniel Kardefelt Winther; Emma Day; Gabrielle Berman; Sabine K. Witting; Anjan Bose Published: 2020 Innocenti Working Papers This working paper provides a short overview of the challenges and opportunities related to child protection and the use of encryption technology. While it does not constitute the UNICEF organizational position on the topic, it is meant to inform UNICEF on the issue and to reach and engage professionals, including nonexperts, within and between the child rights and privacy rights sectors. This paper will provide an overview of the debate around encryption and its possible impact on children’s right to protection from harm. It also reflects on the pros and cons of some proposed solutions. + - Cite this publication | No. of pages: 13 | Thematic area: Child Protection | Tags: child protection, internet, law enforcement, privacy, right to privacy × COPY BIBLIOGRAPHIC CITATION Daniel Kardefelt Winther; Emma Day; Gabrielle Berman; Sabine K. Witting; Anjan Bose 2020 Encryption, Privacy and Children’s Right to Protection from Harm. , pp. 13.
Innocenti Working Papers How Effective are Cash Transfers in Mitigating Shocks for Vulnerable Children? Evidence on the impact of the Lesotho Child Grant Programme on multidimensional deprivation AUTHOR(S) Alessandro Carraro; Lucia Ferrone Published: 2020 Innocenti Working Papers Shocks can pressure families into negative coping strategies with significant drawbacks for children’s lives and development, particularly for children living in disadvantaged households who are at greater risk of falling into a poverty trap. This paper investigates if unconditional cash transfers can be effective in protecting children against unexpected negative life events. Using two waves of data, we found that the Lesotho Child Grant Programme reduced the incidence and intensity of multidimensional deprivation for children living in labour-constrained female-headed households that experienced negative economic or demographic shocks. Programme design in shock-prone contexts should seek to reinforce and widen the protective effect of the cash transfer for the most vulnerable. + - Cite this publication | No. of pages: 50 | Thematic area: Child Poverty | Tags: cash transfers, multiple deprivation, poverty mitigation, vulnerable children × COPY BIBLIOGRAPHIC CITATION Alessandro Carraro; Lucia Ferrone 2020 How Effective are Cash Transfers in Mitigating Shocks for Vulnerable Children? Evidence on the impact of the Lesotho Child Grant Programme on multidimensional deprivation. , pp. 50.