While the full effects of COVID-19 remain unknown, the pandemic continues to profoundly impact regional migration and mobility dynamics, with deep health, social and economic consequences for the most vulnerable, including migrants, displaced populations and their host communities, and returnees.
The Venezuelan refugee and migrant crisis is one of the biggest external displacement crises in the world today. The COVID-19 pandemic has compounded an already desperate situation for many refugees and migrants, as well as their hosts, sorely testing health and social welfare systems and the abilit...y of countries to assist the vulnerable population.
more
In March 2020 the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak of a novel coronavirus disease, COVID-19, to be a pandemic, due to the speed and scale of transmission.
WHO and public health authorities around the world are taking action to contain the COVID-19 outbreak. Certain populations,... such as those with disability, may be impacted more significantly by COVID-19. This impact can be mitigated if simple actions and protective measures are taken by key stakeholders.
more
1 June 2020
Countries around the world are facing the challenge of increased demand for care of people with COVID-19, compounded by fear, misinformation and limitations on movement that disrupt the delivery of health care for all conditions. Maintaining essential health services: operational guidan...ce for the COVID-19 context recommends practical actions that countries can take at national, subregional and local levels to reorganize and safely maintain access to high-quality, essential health services in the pandemic context. It also outlines sample indicators for monitoring essential health services, and describes considerations on when to stop and restart services as COVID-19 transmission recedes and surges. This document expands on the content of pillar 9 of the COVID-19 strategic preparedness and response plan, supersedes the earlier Operational guidance for maintaining essential health services during an outbreak, and complements the recently-released Community-based health care, including outreach and campaigns, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is intended for decision-makers and managers at the national and subnational levels.
This is an update to COVID-19: Operational guidance for maintaining essential health services during an outbreak: Interim guidance, 25 March 2020
more
This is the first version of the INEE technical guideline to support education during the Covid-19 pandemic. It is a living document that will be regularly updated to meet the learning and well-being needs of children, adolescents, youth, teachers, caregivers and other education personnel affected b...y Covid-19.
more
Ceci est la première version de la directive technique de l’INEE pour accompagner l’éducation pendant la pandémie de Covid-19. Ceci est un document évolutif qui sera régulièrement mis à jour pour répondre aux besoins d’apprentissage et de bien-être des enfants, des adolescents, des je...unes, des enseignants, des aidants et d’autres membres du personnel de l’éducation, affectés par le Covid-19.
more
The arrival of COVID-19 in Afghanistan has brought heartache to millions of people who are now battling a deadly pandemic while simultaneously fighting for their survival amid poverty, disaster and war. Over my three years as Humanitarian Coordinator, I have marvelled at the resilience of the people... of this country to cope with the hardships of life in the world’s deadliest conflict – but even this remarkable strength is now being tested by the health, social and economic consequences of COVID-19. The virus is spreading across the country with frightening speed. Every province is now impacted, and people are understandably frightened.
more
This guide is designed to assist UNICEF staff and partners, in establishing and
operating Child Friendly Spaces (CFS) in an emergency. It attempts to provide
readers with the main principles of a CFS and the processes on how to establish
one.
The overall aim is to improve the standards and capac...ity of field staff, by providing
the required knowledge to support the design and operations of child friendly
spaces.
It will facilitate an understanding of how to develop a CFS in contexts in which
children’s well-being are threatened or damaged as a result of conflict or natural
disasters. More specifically, this guide attempts to broaden and strengthen the
knowledge, skills and attitudes of protection officers/field staff so that they are able
to respond to the multi-faceted needs of children.
more
Today, more children than ever before are displaced within their own countries. Their harrowing stories of displacement are unfolding every day, and with increasing frequency. At the end of 2019, approximately 45.7 million people were internally displaced by conflict and violence (Fig. 1.1). Nearly ...half – 19 million – were estimated to be children. And millions more are displaced every year by natural disasters.
more
Psychological first aid (PFA) is a method of helping people in distress so they feel calm and supported to cope better with their challenges. It is a way of assisting someone to manage their situation and make informed decisions. The basis of psychological first aid is caring about the person in dis...tress and showing empathy. It involves paying attention to reactions, active listening and, if needed, practical assistance, such as problem solving, help to access basic needs or referring to further options for assistance. PFA helps normalize worry and other emotions, PFA also promotes healthy coping and provides feelings of safety, calming, and hope.
more
he central Sahel region—Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger—is facing a severe humanitarian and protection crisis.
Massive displacement, most of it driven by intense and largely indiscriminate violence perpetrated by a range of armed actors against civilian populations, is taking place across the regi...on. While internal displacement is on the rise substantial numbers of refugees have fled to neighboring countries, and the situation risks spilling over into the coastal countries of Benin, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, and Togo.
This context is exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which is already affecting areas hosting refugees and IDPs
more
Children expressed the need for organisations to
support in the delivery of services such as health and
sanitation. The children also emphasized that schools
and the child-friendly spaces (CFSs) were effective
and important spaces to provide them with what they
need.
This evaluation report of UNICEF’s Psychosocial Support Response for Syrian Children in Jordan was conducted by
Antares Foundation team (Albertien van der Veen, Reem AbuKishk, Shadi Bushnaq, Orso Muneghina, Reem Rawdha
and Tineke van Pietersom) under the supervision of guidance Farhod Kamidov, M...onitoring and Evaluation Officer
and Muhammad Rafiq Khan, Child Protection Specialist (CPiE).This is achieved through community-supported child and
adolescent friendly spaces (CFSs)1 and community-based
child protection mechanisms and processes. Currently,
in its fourth year of operation as part of the Syria crisis,
UNICEF considers it an opportune moment to take stock
of the programme’s overall effectiveness to date and in so
doing to inform its future.
more
Child Friendly Spaces (CFSs) are used by humanitarian agencies as a means to promote protection and psychosocial wellbeing for children in emergency settings. World Vision International together with Columbia University is conducting a series of studies to investigate the effectiveness of CFSs in va...rious humanitarian contexts in order to document evidence of the positive effects they have in relation to child wellbeing and protection, to identify good practice in their design and implementation and to develop improved monitoring and evaluation approaches for CFSs. The case studies have so far all been focused on refugee settings and while internally displaced populations (IDPs) share many of the circumstances and challenges of refugees it was decided that CFSs operating in IDP settings warrant a particular investigation in order to assess their relevance and effectiveness in promoting child protection and psychosocial wellbeing. This report thus presents the findings from an IDP focused study on CFS effectiveness in three camps near Goma, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
more
The creaNon of ‘friendly spaces’ for women and girls has been a key
strategy in the protecNon and empowerment of women 1 and girls in South
Sudan since conflict re-erupted in the country in December 2013. This
document provides guidance on the aims of these spaces, and how they
can best be e...stablished and managed in the South Sudan context.
more
While many of the countries hit by the COVID-19 in the first few months of the year are now beginning to relax lockdown measures as infection and death rates fall, in the regions most affected by HIV, TB and malaria, such as Africa, South Asia and Latin America, the pandemic continues to accelerate.... In lower resource settings, lockdowns are less effective and hard to sustain, and clinical care facilities are extremely limited. In such environments, the response to COVID-19 must focus on containing the pandemic’s spread as far as possible through testing, contact tracing and isolation, protecting the health workforce through training and the provision of personal protective equipment (PPE) and minimizing the knock-on impact on other diseases through shoring up fragile health systems, and adapting existing disease programs.
more
This technical guidance outlines current evidence, knowledge and best practice relating to incidences of violence and injuries among refugees and migrants in the WHO European Region. It highlights key principles, summarizes priority actions and challenges, maps existing international commitments and... frameworks and provides practical policy considerations for preventing and responding to such challenges. Specific areas for intervention include ensuring safe passage for migration; addressing causes of violence and injuries in transit and destination countries, including changing norms and values; identifying victims and providing care and protection; investigating and prosecuting perpetrators; and strengthening the knowledge base. While the main intended audience of this technical guidance series are policy-makers across sectors at local, national and regional levels, the contents of this publication will also be of value for health-care practitioners and law enforcement and border protection officials.
more
Guidelines for the development and implementation of institution-specific protection concepts
Recognizing the extent to which the COVID-19 outbreaks affects women and men differently is hugely important. Some preliminary data suggested that more men than women are dying, potentially due to sex-based immunological differences, higher rates of cardiovascular disease for men and lifestyle choic...es, such as smoking. However, the experiences and lessons learned from the Zika and Ebola outbreaks and the HIV pandemic demonstrate that robust gender analysis and informed, gender-integrated response are vital to strengthen the access and acceptability of the humanitarian services needed to meet the distinct needs of women and girls, as well as men and boy and LGBTI people.
more