Good Health and Well-Being

The brief highlights emerging trends and implications for women and girls’ safety in cities and public spaces, recognizing the continuum of violence against women and girls in private and public spaces throughout different phases of the pandemic. It provides examples of concrete action taken at the local level in partnership with governments, grassroots women and women’s rights organizations, the private sector and other partners, including from cities participating in the UN Safe Cities and Safe Public Spaces Global Flagship Initiative, and in particular from cities where the disease is widespread. The brief includes recommendations to be considered by governments, international organizations, women’s rights and other civil society organizations. It is a living document that complements other policy briefs prepared by UN Women on COVID-19 (coronavirus) and ending violence against women. It draws upon the knowledge and experience of a wide range of experts who support solutions to end sexual harassment and other forms of violence against women and girls in urban, rural and online settings, attentive to the country context in which the crisis is occurring.

This paper summarizes the recent UNICEF analysis on investing in early childhood education in developing countries. It provides a benefit-cost analysis of investments in pre-primary education in 109 developing low- and middle-income countries and territories, using data from 2008 to 2019. The COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic and related school closures exacerbate the risk of children missing out on both learning and future earnings. Investing in ECE and strengthening pre-primary education systems is needed to achieve progress on the Sustainable Development Goals, decrease inequalities and drive economic growth. It is now more critical than ever that ECE be prioritized by increasing domestic budgets and international aid and improving the efficiency with which ECE programmes are delivered.

Human rights are key in shaping the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic response, both for the public health emergency and the broader impact on people’s lives and livelihoods. Human rights put people centre-stage. Responses that are shaped by and respect human rights result in better outcomes in beating the pandemic, ensuring healthcare for everyone and preserving human dignity. But they also focus our attention on who is suffering most, why, and what can be done about it. They prepare the ground now for emerging from this crisis with more equitable and sustainable societies, development and peace. The e-book for this policy brief has been converted into an accessible format for the visually impaired and people with print reading disabilities. It is fully compatible with leading screen-reader technologies such as JAWS and NVDA.

Este resumen sintetiza las conclusiones de las investigaciones, los análisis y las recomendaciones sobre políticas para lograr unos niveles mínimos de protección social adecuados para las mujeres. La idea de un nivel mínimo de protección social está ya fuertemente arraigada en la agenda mundial para el desarrollo. Definido como un conjunto de garantías mínimas que incluyen la seguridad de los ingresos básicos para las niñas y los niños, las personas adultas en edad de trabajar, las personas mayores y las personas con discapacidad, así como atención básica de la salud para todas y todos, el nivel mínimo de protección social es prometedor para las mujeres, que sufren de forma desproporcionada la exclusión de los regímenes de protección social existentes. Hasta el momento, sin embargo, la integración de las cuestiones de género en la protección social ha sido desigual y ambigua, omitiendo abordar los riesgos y las limitaciones específicos a las mujeres. Con base en las pruebas obtenidas y las experiencias extraídas a escala internacional, este documento pone de relieve algunas vías prometedoras para conseguir unos umbrales mínimos de protección social para las mujeres. Queda mucho por hacer en lo que concierne a la integración del género en el diseño y la ejecución de los programas de fomento de la seguridad de los ingresos a lo largo de todo el ciclo de vida, incluidas las transferencias monetarias, los programas de obras públicas y los sistemas de pensiones. No obstante, para que las soluciones aportadas sean duraderas, estas iniciativas deben formar parte de un paquete más amplio que incluya políticas dirigidas a favorecer el acceso de las mujeres a un trabajo decente, que sigue siendo la principal fuente de ingresos para la mayoría de las personas adultas en edad de trabajar y para sus familias.

This research brief is one of a series exploring the effects of COVID-19 (coronavirus) on education. It focuses on how school closures affect children and the resiliency of education systems to respond to such disruptions and mitigate their effect.

Without aggressive policy action, the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic could turn into a protracted debt crisis for many developing countries. The note puts forward concrete proposals to expand on the G20 bilateral debt moratorium and to facilitate investments in recovery and the SDGs, including for highly-indebted middle-income countries that request a standstill, and by bringing in other creditors. Time gained by the standstill must be used to develop sustainable solutions to the debt challenges of developing countries—to ‘build back better’. Such debt relief should be part of broader financing and recovery strategies that take SDG investment needs into consideration, for example through country-led Integrated national financing frameworks. This is also the the time to also address long-standing gaps in the international financial architecture for sovereign debt.

This policy brief discusses the role of effective governance, and in particular the role of the relationship between the state and people, in building countries’ resiliency and in responding to and managing nation-wide crises such as the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic.

There are significant ethical implications in the adoption of technologies and the production and use of the resulting data for evidence generation. The potential benefits and opportunities need to be understood in conjunction with the potential risks and challenges. When using social media to directly engage children and their communities, or when establishing partnerships with these organizations for data collection and analysis, adoption of these technologies and their resultant data should not be exclusively driven by short-term necessity but also by the long-term needs of our younger partners. When engaging with social media and indeed most technology, thoughtfulness, reflection and ongoing interrogation is required. This paper examines the benefits, risks and ethical considerations when undertaking evidence generation: (a) using social media platforms and (b) using third-party data collected and analysed by social media services. It is supplemented by practical tools to support reflection on the ethical use of social media platforms and social media data.

This research brief is one of a series of five briefs which provide an overview of available evidence shown in the Campbell Collaboration-UNICEF Mega-Map on the effectiveness of interventions to improve child welfare in low- and middle-income countries. These briefs summarize evidence as mapped against the five goal areas of UNICEF’s 2018–2021 Strategic Plan, although it is anticipated that they will also be useful for others working in the child well-being space. This brief provides an overview of the available evidence related to interventions to ensure that every child has an equitable chance in life.

COVID-19 (coronavirus) leaves few lives and places untouched. But its impact is harshest for those groups who were already in vulnerable situations before the crisis. This is particularly true for many people on the move, such as migrants in irregular situations, migrant workers with precarious livelihoods, or working in the informal economy, victims of trafficking in persons as well as people fleeing their homes because of persecution, war, violence, human rights violations or disaster, whether within their own countries — internally displaced persons (IDPs) — or across international borders — refugees and asylum-seekers. The e-book for this policy brief has been converted into an accessible format for the visually impaired and people with print reading disabilities. It is fully compatible with leading screen-reader technologies such as JAWS and NVDA.

Experience with urban social assistance programmes is still limited. Many of the existing urban programmes are extensions or duplicates of rural programmes, but urban-sensitive social protection needs to reflect the distinct vulnerabilities of the urban poor. Furthermore, applying a child lens requires identifying and addressing the specific risks and multiple deprivations that are experienced by half of urban children in developing countries. As a result, designing social assistance for urban contexts faces challenges such as accurately targeting the poor (given the spatial geography of urban poverty) and setting appropriate payment levels (given the high and variable costs of urban living). Geographic targeting (e.g. informal settlements), proxy means testing (if urban-sensitive) and categorical targeting (e.g. street children) are popular mechanisms in urban areas, but community-based targeting is often inappropriate (because of urban social fragmentation) while self-targeting can be unethical (e.g. where wages below market rates are paid in public works projects) and might contradict rights-based approaches. These are relevant challenges to address when designing urban social protection programmes. We apply these reflections to Ghana. The country is a relevant case study because it is growing and urbanizing rapidly. But as the result of urbanization, urban poverty and deprivations are rising even though national poverty rates have halved. Anti-poverty policies and social protection interventions remain biased towards the rural poor. The ‘urbanization of poverty’ in Ghana has created problems such as overcrowded housing, limited access to sanitation, and outbreaks of communicable diseases. This paper provides guidance on the critical questions to ask to design in Ghana a successful urban social protection programme with a child lens.

Many commodity-dependent economies will likely face an economic crisis before they are hit by the coronavirus pandemic. Unlike most developed economies, commodity exporters saddled with large budget deficits and high levels of government debt will find it extremely difficult to roll out large fiscal stimulus. These economies are in a significantly tighter fiscal position now than they were during the global financial crisis, making it harder for them to borrow externally. Multilateral and concessional debt are increasingly critical financing options for many of these economies. The United Nations system entities can steer, facilitate and coordinate access to multilateral financing to help these economies scale up pandemic preparedness, minimize the risk of an economic crisis, and accelerate their sustainable development.

We examine the effect of the Zambia Child Grant Programme – an unconditional cash transfer (CT) targeted to rural families with children under age five – on height-for-age four years after programme initiation. The CT scheme had large positive effects on several nutritional inputs including food expenditure and meal frequency. However, there was no effect on height-for-age. Production function estimates indicate that food carries little weight in the production of child height. Health knowledge of mothers and health infrastructure in the study sites are also very poor. These factors plus the harsh disease environment are too onerous to be overcome by the increases in food intake generated by the CT. In such settings, a stand-alone CT, even when it has large positive effects on food security, is unlikely to have an impact on long-term chronic malnutrition unless accompanied by complementary interventions.

This brief highlights emerging evidence of the impact of the recent global pandemic of COVID-19 (coronavirus) on violence against women and girls. It makes recommendations to be considered by all sectors of society, from governments to international organizations and to civil society organizations in order to prevent and respond to violence against women and girls, at the onset, during, and after the public health crisis with examples of actions already taken. It also considers the economic impact of the pandemic and its implications for violence against women and girls in the long-term. It is a living document that draws upon the knowledge and experience of a wide range of experts who support solutions to end violence against women and girls, attentive to the country context in which the crisis is occurring

This paper identifies key ethical considerations when undertaking evidence generation involving children during the mitigation stage of the pandemic (emergency phase), on subject matter relating to COVID-19 (Coronavirus) once the pandemic has been contained, and once containment policy measures, including lockdowns, have been lifted (post-emergency phase). While the COVID-19 pandemic is undoubtedly a global crisis, with evidence generation activities raising critical ethical issues that have been captured in the literature and relevant guidelines, there are specificities relating to this emergency that must be considered when unpacking potential ethical issues. Hence while ethical issues pertaining to evidence generation involving children in emergencies and humanitarian contexts are relevant and should be considered, there are factors that define this ‘special case’ that must be considered from the outset. These will inform the core ethical considerations that need to be addressed.

This research brief is one of a series of five briefs which provide an overview of available evidence shown in the Campbell Collaboration-UNICEF Mega-Map on the effectiveness of interventions to improve child welfare in low- and middle-income countries. These briefs summarize evidence as mapped against the five goal areas of UNICEF’s 2018–2021 Strategic Plan, although it is anticipated that they will also be useful for others working in the child well-being space. This brief provides an overview of the available evidence related to interventions to ensure every child learns.

The Covid-19 (coronavirus) pandemic is increasing the risks of a balance of payments crisis, a food crisis and a debt crisis in landlocked developing countries (LLDC). A few LLDCs—with extremely high levels of external debt owed to private creditors—are particularly vulnerable. The unfolding multiple crisis may trigger instability, violence and conflict in many LLDCs, particularly in countries that have been mired in conflicts and civil wars in recent years. » High levels of income inequality in LLDCs may undermine their ability to implement effective stimulus measures to support the most vulnerable segments of their population. Timely international support is helping LLDCs avoid an immediate crisis but a long-term rescue and recovery plan is needed to steer their economies towards meaningful structural changes.

This research brief is one of a series of briefs, which provide an overview of available evidence shown in the Campbell-UNICEF Mega-Map of the effectiveness of interventions to improve child welfare in low and middle-income countries (LMICs). These briefs summarize evidence as mapped against the five goal areas of UNICEF’s 2018–2021 Strategic Plan, although it is anticipated that they will also be useful for others working in the child well-being space. This brief provides an overview of the available evidence related to interventions to ensure every child has an equitable chance in life.

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) play a vital role in promoting the health and safety of people and in keeping economies and societies working during the ongoing COVID-19 (coronavirus) crisis. Digital government technologies either through information sharing or online services have kept governments and people connected during the outbreak. Digital technologies have also enabled governments to make rapid policy decisions based on real-time data and analytics, to enhance the capacities of local authorities for better coordination and to deploy evidence-based services to those who need them most. The efforts in developing digital government strategies after the COVID-19 crisis should focus on improving data protection and digital inclusion policies as well as on strengthening the policy and technical capabilities of public institutions. Even though public-private partnerships are essential for implementing innovative technologies, government leadership, strong institutions and effective public policies are crucial to tailor digital solutions to countries’ needs as well as prioritize security, equity and the protection of people’s rights. The COVID-19 pandemic has emphasized the importance of technology, but also the pivotal role of an effective, inclusive and accountable government. This policy brief addresses how digital government has played a central role as a key tool of communication and collaboration between policymakers and society during the COVID-19 pandemic. Policymakers need to further embrace the future of digital government, even when the crisis is over.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is widespread globally, with an estimated one-third of women aged 15 years and over experiencing physical and/or sexual violence at the hands of an intimate partner during their lifetimes. Economic empowerment, or the financial standing of women, is often thought to protect against IPV, signalling sufficient economic autonomy to leave abusive situations or to prevent abuse. Asset ownership is one measure of economic empowerment, and can convey substantial agency as a wealth store, especially for large productive assets, such as agricultural land or home ownership. Despite the important implications of IPV reduction for policy and programming, evidence of this relationship is scarce.We hope this research will advance our global understanding of this potential.

Geospatial technologies have transformed the way we visualize and understand situations. They are used to acquire, manipulate, store and visualize geographical information, including information on where individuals, groups and infrastructure are located in time and space. For development and humanitarian based organizations like UNICEF, the value of these technologies includes the ability to collect and process real-time information from places that are hard to reach or navigate such as dense forest, conflict zones, or where environmental disasters are occurring or have occurred. This brief provides an overview of the critical considerations when undertaking evidence generation using geospatial technologies. It is supplemented by a checklist that may be used to support reflection on the ethical use of geospatial technologies.