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More children are fleeing than ever. As a result of conflict and climate change, a record number of people in the world are fleeing. As early as the beginning of the year, UNICEF predicted that more people than ever would need humanitarian aid. Development was in decline in several important areas, and then came the coronavirus.
The immediate consequence was that schools around the world were closed to reduce the spread of the infection. In the spring, a maximum of 1.6 billion children were affected, now there are about 250 million. In a vulnerable country like South Sudan, there is a great risk that girls who have been forced to drop out of school especially will never return.
Charlotte Petri Gornitzka, Deputy Director of the United Nations Children’s Fund, Unicef.
Photo: Magnus Hallgren
Rapporten Humanitarian Action for Children as Unicef presented on Thursday shows that poverty has increased in the wake of coronary heart disease. Children are badly affected by the collapse of medical care in many countries, among other things, vaccination programs have been interrupted because domestic resources have been used for other things. The consequence is that decades of preventive work have been erased. In Yemen’s civil war, the number of acutely malnourished children increased by 10 percent.
– We estimate that infant mortality will increase by two million cases during the next twelve months. Increased poverty has led to more cases of malnutrition. An additional 10,000 children are expected to die of malnutrition each month, Charlotte Petri Gornitzka says by phone from New York.
It is very clear that those who already feel bad are getting worse
Children are softer affected by the coronavirus than adults, but the socio-economic effects dominated young people hard, especially in countries in Africa and South Asia. Charlotte Petri Gornitzka describes a downward spiral in which ongoing conflicts are exacerbated by the corona pandemic, which in turn increases tensions and risks creating new conflicts.
“Social distancing leads to mental illness, especially in adolescents. Since the outbreak of the pandemic, Unicef has expanded its psychosocial support work from 67 countries to 118. Page.
– The gap between needs and resources is increasing. And it is very clear that those who already feel bad are getting worse.
Vaccination programs have been affected by the pandemic.
Photo: Al-Issa / Unicef
Unicef Appeals to the countries of the world for the equivalent of 55,000 million Swedish crowns to help 190 million children. The sum is the highest in history and, for the first time, the appeal is universal. The humanitarian needs are too great to go to individual projects, but the priority countries are Syria, Yemen, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Venezuela. Among other things, UNICEF aims to improve the schooling of 93 million children.
Charlotte Petri Gornitzka worries that there are signs from rich countries to cut aid in the corona pandemic suites. Among other things, there is a proposal in the UK to reduce the share of development assistance in GDP from 0.7 to 0.5 percent.
– Now, if ever, it is important to maintain development assistance. Preventive work is usually the least expensive. Dealing with the effects of the corona pandemic is the exact opposite of prevention. It is expensive for everyone, but it becomes more and more resource intensive the longer it takes. There must be a developmental perspective in the measurements.
Restrictions during the pandemic, With closed communities and national borders it has also made it harder to reach those who need help most. In Syria, ten million people suffer from severe water, sanitation and sanitation shortages.
Are there flashes of light?
– When schools were closed during the pandemic, it became clear that well-maintained digital learning is possible. It is an opportunity that should be available to everyone. Today, there are 365 million children who do not have access to a digital connection.
When most schools closed this spring, 70 percent of children in rich countries had access to digital education. In poor countries, the corresponding figure was 30 percent. Work is underway, with the participation of Ericsson, among others, to ensure that all schools are connected by 2030.
Read more: UNICEF distributes two billion doses of corona vaccine
