Education during COVID-19 and beyond

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The COVID-19 crisis and the unparalleled education disruption is far from over. As many as 100 countries have yet to announce a date for schools to reopen and across the world, governments, unions, parents and children are grappling with when and how to approach the next phase. Countries have started planning to reopen schools nationwide, either based on grade level and by prioritizing exam classes, or through localized openings in regions with fewer cases of…

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Guidance: Assessing and Monitoring Learning During the COVID-19 Crisis

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This guidance note aims to help UNICEF Education staff, Ministry officials and partners reflect on how to take account of learning through meaningful formative and summative assessment practices during the COVID-19 pandemic. It highlights general considerations and key actions that teachers, schools and Ministries of Education can undertake in the area of assessment to ensure the continuity of quality learning throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.   Download    

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Migrant workers and remittances in the context of COVID-19 in sub-Saharan Africa

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Main Messages African migrants stimulate economic growth and development in areas of destination,transit and origin through their labour, skills transfer, consumption and investments. Their remittances also make significant contributions to food security, human capital, rural development and overall Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in areas of origin. The impact of COVID-19 affects migrant workers disproportionally. Often precarious working conditions and overcrowded living and transport arrangements increase their vulnerability to contagion and loss of employment, threatening their…

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Prevention, Early Detection and Treatment of Wasting in Children 0-59 Through National Health Systems in the Context of COVID-19

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This document serves as a tool for implementing the recommendations reflected in existing WHO and UNICEF guidance on the delivery of services through national health systems for the prevention, early detection and treatment of child wasting in the context of COVID-19. This note reflects broad guidance for all levels of the health system, including community health services that offer prevention, early detection and treatment services for child wasting. WHO and UNICEF recognize that context-specific adaptations…

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Checklist for a Human Rights-Based Approach to Socio-Economic Country Responses to COVID-19

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To help countries tackle the devastating social and economic dimensions of the pandemic, with a focus on at-risk groups, the UN issued the UN framework for the immediate socio- economic response to COVID-19 (SERF) in April 2020. The SERF sets out the strategy and blueprint for the UN’s urgent socio-economic response to countries and societies in the face of COVID-19. Organized by the five streams of work that constitute the SERF (Health First; Protecting People;…

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Make or Break: The implications of COVID-19 for crisis financing

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Covid-19 is the first global pandemic in a hundred years. It has tested the international crisis response and financing system in novel ways, aggravating well-known challenges and casting light on other unanticipated shortcomings. It has exposed fundamental weaknesses in global preparedness, including substantial under-investment, a tendency to adopt narrow thematic approaches and a widespread failure to prepare for secondary socioeconomic impacts. It has exposed critical dependencies in crisis response systems, including the risks that major…

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How to Integrate Gender into Socio-Economic Assessments

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The COVID‑19 crisis is affecting everyone, but women and girls are being differently impacted and could face disproportionate economic, health and social risks. These gender-differentiated socio-economic risks must be recognized for an effective COVID-19 response and recovery. This in-depth checklist can be used to guide UNDP Country Offices, UN sister agencies, countries and other partners to ensure that key gender equality considerations are taken into account when conducting a Social and Economic Impact Assessment and…

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Gambling with COVID-19 Makes More Sense: Ethicaland Practical Challenges in COVID-19 Responsesin Communalistic Resource-Limited Africa

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Informed by evidence from past studies andexperiences with epidemics, an intervention combiningquarantine, lockdowns, curfews, social distancing, andwashing of hands has been adopted as“internationalbest practice”in COVID-19 response. With massivetotal lockdowns complemented by electronic surveil-lance, China successfully controlled the pandemic incountry within a few months. But would this work forAfrica and other communalistic resource-poor settingswhere social togetherness translates to effective sharingof basic needs? What ethical and practical challengeswould this pose? How would communalism be translat-ed in special…

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Building back with Justice: Dismantling inequalities after COVID-19

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In this report, Christian Aid is calling for a global response package to deal with the immediate impacts of the crisis to build social and economic resilience to future crises, tackles poverty and inequality, and set the world on a trajectory to meet the Paris climate commitments.   Download

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Journalism: The essential non-essential

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As a consequence of the pandemic’s financial effects, news organizations have been forced to adapt to the changing times. Many—in Kenya, South Africa, the US and beyond—are closing down or letting staff go. Can journalism survive? Is it our essential non-essential?This post is from the partnership between the Kenyan website The Elephant and Africa Is a Country. We will be publishing a post from their site every week, curated by Africa Is a Country Contributing…

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