Tracking the situation of children: A summary of UNICEF's COVID-19 socio-economic impact surveys
October 26, 2021
The COVID-19 pandemic is significantly impacting the provision of vital health, nutrition, education, child protection, and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services to women and children. UNICEF is conducting quarterly surveys to better understand the level of disruption to essential services for women and children, the reasons for these disruptions, and government response measures. This brochure provides an overview of the findings from the past three survey rounds and reveals that all countries – not only those with ongoing humanitarian response – continue to face some severe service disruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic and response.
Key messages:
- Although severe service disruptions across the sectors of health, child protection, nutrition, education and WASH appear to have gradually decreased over time in reporting countries, these disruptions still represent pressing and immediate need.
- ‘Reduction in demand due to fear of infection’ and ‘Lockdown restricting users’ mobility/transportation’ are the top reasons for service disruption across sectors.
- WASH and parenting support services have been, in general, less impacted by the pandemic than services in the other key sectors.
- Severe disruption in one sector is frequently accompanied by that in others.
- Nearly half of all countries experienced severe disruptions to at least one gender-specific service, with multiple service disruptions more prevalent among countries in which women and girls were living through humanitarian conflict and crisis, pre-pandemic.
