Building back equal: Girls’ back to school guide

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This guide provides targeted inputs to ensure continuity of learning during school closures, and comprehensive, timely and evidence-based plans for reopening schools in a way that is safe, gender-responsive and child-friendly, and meets the needs of the most marginalised girls.   Download

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Democracy after Coronavirus: Five challenges for the 2020s

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2020 will forever be the year of coronavirus, a cataclysmic event in slow motion that has disrupted people’s lives and disseminated a sense of uncertainty and vulnerability comparable only to times of war. Pressed by the fast pace of infections while fearing massively disruptive economic impact, political leaders around the world faced the challenge of acting quickly in a fog of scientific uncertainty, leading them to impose (or not impose) lockdown measures limiting personal freedom…

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How should policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic differ in the developing world?

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This paper quantitatively analyzes how policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic should differ in developing countries. To do so we build an incomplete-markets macroeconomic model with heterogeneous agents and epidemiological dynamics that features several of the key distinctions between advanced and developing economies germane to the pandemic. We focus in particular on differences in: agestructure, fiscal capacity, healthcare capacity, informality, and the frequency of contacts between individuals at home, work, school and other locations. The…

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Protecting Children from Violence in the Time of COVID-19: Disruptions in prevention and response services

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During the current crisis, identifying children at risk is inherently more challenging, given that many adults who would typically recognize signs of abuse, such as teachers, childcare workers, coaches, extended family and community members, and child and family welfare workers, are no longer in regular contact with children. Indeed, a growing body of evidence supports the notion that school closures as well as the interruption of child protection services have inhibited child maltreatment reporting during…

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COVID-19 and Climate Change

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The COVID-19 pandemic has been a siren call for stronger action in the face of global threats. What has been described as the collision of this pandemic with a series of recent extreme weather events has amplified this call, providing a frightening glimpse into the scope of the grim challenges lying in store as the effects of climate change become more prevalent and pronounced. Read more.

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COVID-19 Aftershocks: Access denied: Teenage pregnancy threatens to block a million girls across sub-Saharan Africa from returning to school

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The COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked unprecedented havoc on children, families and communities around the globe, disrupting vital services and putting millions of lives at risk. Since March, attempts to avert the global health crisis have seen nationwide school closures in 194 countries, affecting nearly 1.6 billion learners – over 90 per cent of the world’s school-going population. For the most vulnerable children, especially girls, accessing education and staying in school is hard enough. The pandemic…

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Africa trade and Covid‑19: The supply chain dimension

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Key messages: Fall in trade volume – especially cross-border trade – investment and commodity prices have negatively impacted the forecast for Africa’s economic growth. For the first time in 25 years, gross domestic product (GDP) for the continent is projected to contract. Comparative value chain analyses show some similarities: adaptation includes shifting manufacturing towards the production of personal protective equipment (PPE). The shutdown of pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities in India and China, increased prices of raw…

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Intimate Partner Violence during the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Impending Public Health Crisis in Africa

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With COVID-19 officially declared a global pandemic and changing the social, economic, and political dynam-ics worldwide, countries are taking different measures to tackle its spread to save lives, which now comes as the number one priority. Different countries are in lockdown with travel restricted and quarantine, self-isolation, and social distancing measures in place. Other than key workers who are allowed to travel for work, people are stuck at home for extended periods of time with…

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Out of Time: COVID-19 Aftershocks

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Millions of parents and caregivers have lost incomes and jobs due to COVID-19, forcing them to expose their children to harmful and dangerous circumstances such as begging or child marriage. World Vision has conducted rapid assessments in 24 countries across Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Asia confirming alarming predictions of increased child hunger, violence, and poverty due to the economic impact of COVID-19.These assessment results give further evidence that the most vulnerable families and their…

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Responding to the Shadow Pandemic: Taking stock of gender-based violence risks and responses during COVID-19

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Gender-based violence is a problem of human rights, public health and development. It is also a problem that has had devastating effects for women and girls during the COVID-19 pandemic. This real-time emergent learning brief has been prepared for UNICEF country offices and practitioners as they respond to gender-based violence during the pandemic. Drawing on evidence from current country experiences, the brief identifies emerging risks related to gender-based violence; highlights programme responses and adaptations; and…

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