UNICEF calls for averting a lost generation as Covid-19 threatens to cause irreversible harm to children’s education, nutrition and well-being

 UNICEF warned – in a new report today – of significant and growing consequences for children as the Covid-19 pandemic lurches toward a second year.

Released ahead of World Children’s Day, ‘Averting a Lost Covid Generation’ is the first UNICEF report to comprehensively outline the dire and growing consequences for children as the pandemic drags on. It shows that while symptoms among infected children remain mild, infections are rising and the longer-term impact on the education, nutrition and well-being of an entire generation of children and young people can be life-altering.

“Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic there has been a persistent myth that children are barely affected by the disease,” UNICEF executive director Henrietta Fore said, adding that nothing could be further from the truth. “While childrencan get sick and can spread the disease, this is just the tip of the pandemic iceberg. Disruptions to key services and soaring poverty ratespose the biggest threat to children. The longer the crisis persists, the deeper its impact on children’seducation, health, nutrition and well-being. The future of an entire generation is at risk.”

The report finds that – as of November 3 – in 87 countries with age-disaggregated data, children and adolescents under 20 years of age accounted for 1 in 9 of Covid-19 infections, or 11 per cent of the 25.7 million infections reported by these countries. More reliable, age-disaggregated data on infection, deaths and testing is needed to better understand how the crisis impacts the most vulnerable children and guide the response.

While children can transmit the virus to each other and to older age groups, there is strong evidence that, with basic safety measures in place, the net benefits of keeping schools open outweigh the costs of closing them, the report notes. Schools are not a main driver of community transmission, and children are more likely to get the virus outside of school settings, a press note from the UNICEF reads. “Covid-related disruptions to critical health and social services for children pose the most serious threat to children,” the report reads, adding that around one-third of the countries analysed witnessed a drop of at least 10 per cent in coverage for health services such as routine vaccinations, outpatient care for childhood infectious diseases, and maternal health services. Fear of infection is a prominent reason.

Using new data from UNICEF surveys across 140 countries, the press note reads that there is a 40 per cent decline in the coverage of nutrition services for women and children across 135 countries. “As of October 2020, 265 million children were still missing out on school meals globally. More than 250 million children under 5 could miss the life-protecting benefits of vitamin A supplementation programmes.”

Likewise, 65 countries reported a decrease in home visits by social workers in September 2020, compared to the same time last year.

The report also includes that – as of November 2020 – some 572 million students are affected across 30 country-wide school closures – 33 per cent of the enrolled students worldwide, whereas an estimated 2 million additional child deaths and 200,000 additional stillbirths could occur over a 12-month period with severe interruptions to services and rising malnutrition. “An additional 6 million to 7 million children under the age of 5 will suffer from wasting or acute malnutrition in 2020, a 14 per cent rise that will translate into more than 10,000 additional child deaths per month – mostly in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.”

Globally, the number of children living in multidimensional poverty – without access to education, health, housing, nutrition, sanitation or water – is estimated to have soared by 15 per cent, or an additional 150 million children by mid-2020.

Likewis, the UNICEF is calling the governments and partners to ensure all children learn, including by closing the digital divide, guarantee access to nutrition and health services and make vaccines affordable and available to every child, support and protect the mental health of children and young people and bring an end to abuse, gender-based violence and neglect in childhood, increase access to safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene and address environmental degradation and climate change, reverse the rise in child poverty and ensure an inclusive recovery for all, and  redouble efforts to protect and support children and their families living through conflict, disaster and displacement to counter the crisis.

“This World Children’s Day, we are asking governments, partners and the private sector to listen to children and prioritize their needs,” Fore said, “As we all reimagine the future and look ahead toward a post-pandemic world, children must come first.”

In Nepal, to mark World Children’s Day on November 20 and highlight the issues around children’s and young people’s wellbeing, UNICEF Nepal is hosting a virtual children’s parliamentary session and a virtual festival of visions and voices of young people. In addition, UNICEF Nepal is launching a mental health campaign ‘Ma Chhu Ni’ to help to build an allyship among young people.        

Of particular concern during the Covid-19 pandemic and consequent lockdown is the mental health of children and young people. Beyond their immediate experiences, mental health issues and distress can have a lasting impact on children’s long-term development and the current pandemic has exposed the extent and severity of the global mental health crisis.  

In Nepal, anxiety and depression are the most common functional difficulties reported amongst children aged 5-17 years: 1 in 12 children aged 10-14 years and 1 in 10 aged 15-17 years experience anxiety, and 2 per cent of 10-17 yearolds suffer from depression.

Poor diets damaging children’s health worldwide, warns UNICEF

An alarmingly high number of children are suffering the consequences of poor diets and a food system that is failing them, UNICEF warned today in a new report on children, food and nutrition.
The ‘State of the World’s Children 2019: Children, food and nutrition’ finds that at least 1 in 3 children under five – or over 200 million – is either undernourished or overweight. Almost 2 in 3 children between six months and two years of age are not fed food that supports their rapidly growing bodies and brains. This puts them at risk of poor brain development, weak learning, low immunity, increased infections and, in many cases, death, it reads.
In Nepal, 43 per cent children under five are either stunted or wasted or overweight. Similarly, only an estimated 45 per cent of children aged between six months and two years are fed at least five out of the eight food groups, which is specified as the minimum diet diversity. Most of the children within this age group eat grains and legumes and only one in three children is being fed egg or fish or meat.
“Despite all the technological, cultural and social advances of the last few decades, we have lost sight of this most basic fact: If children eat poorly, they live poorly,” said UNICEF executive director Henrietta Fore. “Millions of children subsist on an unhealthy diet because they simply do not have a better choice. The way we understand and respond to malnutrition needs to change: It is not just about getting children enough to eat; it is above all about getting themthe right food to eat,” he said, adding that it is our common challenge today.
The report provides the most comprehensive assessment yet of 21st century child malnutrition in all its forms. It describes a triple burden of malnutrition: Undernutrition, hidden hunger caused by a lack of essential nutrients, and overweight among children under the age of five. It references the fact that in Nepal:
• 1.1 million children are stunted, or too short for their age.
• Nearly 290,000 children are wasted, or too thin for their height.
• 1.3 million children – or one in two – suffer from deficiencies in essential vitamins and nutrients such as vitamin A and iron.
• Approximately 36,000 children are overweight or obese.
The report also warns that poor eating and feeding practices start from the earliest days of a child’s life. Though breastfeeding can save lives, for example, only 66 per cent of children under six months of age are exclusively breastfed in Nepal and an increasing number of children are fed infant formula. Sales of milk-based formula grew by 72 per cent between 2008 and 2013 in upper middle-income countries such as Brazil, China and Turkey, largely due to inappropriate marketing and weak policies and programmes to protect, promote and support breastfeeding.
As children begin transitioning to soft or solid foods around the six-month mark, too many are introduced to the wrong kind of diet, according to the report. In Nepal, close to38 per cent of children between six months and two years of age are not fed any fruits or vegetables. Two-thirds of children do not eat any eggs, dairy, fish or meat.
As children grow older, their exposure to unhealthy food becomes alarming, driven largely by inappropriate marketing and advertising, the abundance of ultra-processed foods in cities but also in remote areas, and increasing access to fast food and highly sweetened beverages.
For example, the report shows that 42 per cent of school-going adolescents in low- and middle-income countries consume carbonated sugary soft drinks at least once a day and 46 per cent eat fast food at least once a week. Those rates go up to 62 per cent and 49 per cent, respectively, for adolescents in high-income countries.
As a result, overweight and obesity levels in childhood and adolescence are increasing worldwide. From 2000 to 2016, the proportion of overweight children between 5 and 19 years of age doubled from 1 in 10 to almost 1 in 5. Ten times more girls and 12 times more boys in this age group suffer from obesity today than in 1975.
In Nepal, obesity among children and adolescents – between the age of 5 and 19 – has increased by 29 times in the past four decades. Today, 1 in 13 children and adolescent of this age are obese in Nepal. Overweight and obesity increases with wealth and household food security. This means, children in wealthy and urban families have more prevalence of obesity.
The greatest burden of malnutrition in all its forms is shouldered by children and adolescents from the poorest and most marginalised communities, the report notes. Only 1 in 5 children aged six months to two years from the poorest households eats a sufficiently diverse diet for healthy growth. Even in high-income countries such as the UK, the prevalence of overweight is more than twice as high in the poorest areas as in the richest areas.
The report also notes that climate-related disasters cause severe food crises. Drought, for example, is responsible for 80 per cent of damage and losses in agriculture, dramatically altering what food is available to children and families, as well as the quality and price of that food.
To address this growing malnutrition crisis in all its forms, UNICEF isissuing an urgent appeal to governments, the private sector, donors, parents, families and businesses to help children grow healthy by:
• Empowering families, children and young people to demand nutritious food, including by improving nutrition education and using proven legislation – such as sugar taxes – to reduce demand for unhealthy foods.
• Driving food suppliers to do the right thing for children, by incentivizing the provision of healthy, convenient and affordable foods.
• Building healthy food environments for children and adolescents by using proven approaches, such as accurate and easy-to-understand labelling and stronger controls on the marketing of unhealthy foods.
• Mobilising supportive systems – health, water and sanitation, education and social protection – to scale up nutrition results for all children.
• Collecting, analysing and using good-quality data and evidence to guide action and track progress.
“We are losing ground in the fight for healthy diets,” Fore said, adding that it is not a battle we can win on our own. “We need governments, the private sector and civil society to prioritise child nutrition and work together to address the causes of unhealthy eating in all its forms.”

Japanese assistance for Children’s Home

Ambassador of Japan to Nepal Masamichi Saigo today signed a grant contract for the construction of a Children’s Home in Humla District with the chairperson of the Rural Empowerment and Development Initiative, Humla (READI, Humla) Rakesh Shahi.
The Project is funded under the Grant Assistance for Grassroots Human Security Projects (GGP) of the Japanese government and involves a grant assistance of $124,267 (approximately Rs 13.5 million), according to a press note issued by the Japanese Embassy in Kathmandu. “The project will support the construction of a new children’s home to accommodate up to 30 orphans and children in difficult situation within Humla District.”
At the grant signing ceremony, ambassador Saigo said that he hoped the assistance would contribute to provide a safe environment for disadvantaged children of the district, for their study and daily lives.
READI Humla – established in 2008 – has been managing a children’s home at Simikot in Humla, and has been supporting children to give a safe environment for study and live. The demand for accommodation and education is high, however, the organisation could not provide services to all the children in need.
The project is expected to assist children in difficult situations, and aims to contribute to poverty reduction and to improve the quality of life for children in the district, reads the press note.
The Embassy of Japan also expects the project to contribute to providing a safe environment, and enhancing the quality of education for the children of Humla District. The Embassy also expects the project to contribute towards enhancing the friendship between the peoples of Japan and Nepal.

Kanchanrup Municipality declared as the first child-friendly municipality in Province 2

Kanchanrup Municipality has been declared the first child-friendly municipality in Province 2 and the third child-friendly municipality in the country after Nepal entered into federal structure.
Yesterday, minister of Federal Affairs and General Administration Lal Babu Pandit declared the Kanchanrup Municipality as the first child-friendly municipality.
A child-friendly municipality embodies the spirit of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which Nepal was one of the early signatories to in 1990. In the journey to becoming child friendly, the municipality has taken critical steps to ensuring children’s rights are reflected in local policies, laws, programmes and budgets. Accordingly, children become active agents; their voices and opinions are being taken into consideration and they also influence decision-making processes within the community.
“We have declared our municipality child friendly and with this, I have felt increased responsibility for sustaining the rights of children,” mayor of Kanchanrup Municipality Basanta Kumar said, adding that the municipality and the county will not prosper until and unless people continue to invest and improve the indicators related to children. “We have put all our effort to achieve this and will continue to invest for overall growth and development of children in our municipality.”
The process of becoming a child-friendly municipality requires numerous key targets for children. Since 2015, the Kanchanrup Municipality has been allocating 15 per cent budget as part of the block grant for children. This helped to ensure that 100 per cent of children in the municipality go to school; that all schools have separate gender-friendly toilets; that all children are immunized, and that children are registered from birth. Likewise, the municipality has also drastically reduced child labour in hotels, transport sectors and in homes, and helped eliminate child marriage. Kanchanrup Municipality has ensured 100 per cent achievements in 31 out of 41 indicators. They have also achieved more than 90 per cent in the remaining indicators.
“UNICEF congratulates the citizens of Kanchanrup Municipality, including all the children and young people, who made this feat possible,” UNICEF representative for Nepal Elke Wisch said, adding, “Today is a milestone in the nation’s progress towards investing in children for a brighter and more peaceful future. As we celebrate 30 years of the Convention on the Rights of the Child this year, what better example of realization of child rights than this?”
Kanchanrup’s journey towards a child-friendly municipality began in the 90s when UNICEF Nepal, with support of partners like the Norwegian government and others, started working with women and children at the grassroots level, under the principles of decentralized planning. These experiences have informed the Child-Friendly Local Governance (CFLG) framework, which was adopted by the government in 2011. UNICEF will continue to work with stakeholders at all levels of government and communities like Kanchanrup to achieve the vision of child-friendly Nepal.
“The dreams of children in the Kanchanrup Municipality has finally been realised,” President of Child Club at the Kanchanrup Municipality Rahul Ali (16) said. “By declaring our municipality as a child-friendly municipality, we have ensured the rights of each and every child here,” he said, adding that children will feel safe and have the opportunity to study in a child-friendly environment. “Our voices will be heard and we will continue to participate in the planning processes of the municipality for children.”
Rahul also added that being involved in the child clubs under the CFLG framework provided him and other children like him with an opportunity to enhance his capacities and skills. “Today, I am able to speak confidently in front of thousands of people,” he said. “Each and every child in Nepal should have this opportunity.”

Elke Wisch is the new UNICEF Representative for Nepal

UNICEF has welcomed Elke Wisch as the new UNICEF representative for Nepal, succeeding Tomoo Hozumi.
Wisch is a German national with a long record of realising the rights of children and women. She brings a wealth of experience and insight to UNICEF’s work in Nepal, according to a press note issued by the UNICEF office in Kathmandu.
“I have wanted to come to Nepal for a very long time,” Wisch, said, adding that she felt very privileged to be in this beautiful country and to have the opportunity to serve the children and women of Nepal.
For over 23 years, Wisch has been working to improve the lives of children and women and their communities in a range of development, transition and emergency contexts. Wisch joined UNICEF in 1996 as Child Protection Officer in Rwanda, and subsequently served as Child Protection Chief in Liberia. Between 1999 and 2001, she worked in the Balkans region as Programme Coordinator during the Kosovo Emergency and as acting FYR Macedonia Representative. From 2001 to 2003, Wisch held senior positions in Emergency Coordination and Child Protection during the Afghanistan Emergency Operation prior to serving as the UNICEF deputy representative in Myanmar from 2003-2007.
In 2008, Wisch took on the role of Senior Peace building and Recovery Coordinator for Northern Uganda within the UN Country Team, and then held the position of UNICEF deputy regional director for the Eastern and Southern Africa region from 2009-2014.
She was appointed as the UNICEF representative in Madagascar in 2014, a position she held for four years. In August 2018, Wisch joined the UNICEF Regional Office for South Asia, serving as the Deputy regional director ad interim, until taking up the representative posting Nepal.
Wisch holds a Master of Arts in Social and Political Sciences from Munich University and a Master of Public Administration from the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Prior to joining UNICEF, Wisch worked for various conflict resolution organisations and academic institutions in Germany and the United States.

UN launches first campaign to eliminate violence against children and adolescents

Countries in Asia-Pacific have committed to accelerate efforts to promote the rights of, and eliminate violence against, children and adolescents with disabilities.
The pledge came as part of the regional launch of the Global Campaign for the ‘Good Treatment of Girls, Boys and Adolescents with Disabilities in the World’ held in Bangkok today.
Jointly organised by the Special Envoy to the UN Secretary General on Disability and Accessibility María Soledad Cisternas Reyes, and the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), the launch brought together policymakers, advocates and persons with disabilities to introduce 10 principles for protection, well-being and development for children and adolescents with disabilities, who are at greater risk of experiencing violence.
Children with disabilities are up to four times more at risk of experiencing violence than their peers without disabilities, and in Asia-Pacific, around half of all children with disabilities do not transition from primary to secondary education. As a result, persons with disabilities are up to six times less likely to be employed.
In his opening remarks, deputy executive secretary of ESCAP Kaveh Zahedi highlighted that the launch provided a timely opportunity to advance regional efforts to enhance the rights for all persons with disabilities.
“This Campaign is a critical part of our efforts to implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and to do so in a way that is leaving no one behind,” he said, adding that in Asia and the Pacific an estimated 690 million persons live with one or more forms of disability. "Children and adolescents with disabilities are more vulnerable to degrading treatment and more at risk of experiencing violence. Leaving no one behind means addressing their vulnerabilities. And we must act now.”
Special Envoy to the UN Secretary General on Disability and Accessibility María Soledad Cisternas Reyes, on the occasion, added that girls, boys and adolescents with disabilities should always be well treated, like other children and adolescents, protecting them from all forms of violence and abuse. "Good treatment will produce positive effects on their physical, mental and social development," he added.
Policymakers gathered at the launch discussed the challenges faced by children and adolescents with disabilities, and shared national experiences and good practices on advancing their rights in the region.
The event was held with the support of the Thai Government, the Embassy of the Republic of Chile to the Kingdom of Thailand, the UN Special Representative of the Secretary General on Violence Against Children, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), UNICEF, UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and UN Women.