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by UNICEF OVER 1 HOUR
The main goal of this study was to determine the impact of the crisis on households without and with (few or many) children, with a focus on both the initial impact in 2020 and the subsequent evolution of that impact. Only 35 countries are included in the analysis, with the majority of them located in Sub-Saharan Africa. The findings show that, across all of these indicators, households with many children fared worse during the pandemic's initial onslaught (April to September 2020). Households with many children were significantly more likely than households without children to report a drop in total income and an adult who did not eat for a full day at the start of the crisis. Both of these findings hold up when residence and respondent education are taken into account. After controlling for region of residence and education, trends for households with many and few children appear to be broadly similar after the initial impact. On the plus side, the study found that families with multiple children were more likely to receive some form of social assistance. These government assistance programs undoubtedly lessened the impact of the crisis on families with a large number of children. This reaffirms UNICEF and the World Bank's commitment to sustaining these government programs in order to achieve a more equitable and long-term recovery. The findings bolster UNICEF's and other partners' calls to action to ensure that schools are reopened. Since school closure due to COVID-19, both households with few and many children have had low participation in any educational activities, with only 11 per cent of households with few children and 4% of households with many children having access to mobile learning applications. Future research using the HFPS data can shed light on how these indicators (income/job loss, food security, education, and social protection) have evolved over time, and can be used to ensure that children and their families are prioritized in the recovery, including in the scaling up of social protection programs.
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