5 Questions with Juanita Vasquez Escallon
UNICEF’s Evaluation Specialist breaks down how COVID-19 is changing the lives of Cambodians and how data can help better meet their needs
UNICEF Cambodia is pleased to introduce ‘5 Questions with...’ where we discuss a pressing issue with an expert and make technical topics easier to understand.
In today’s 5 Questions, Juanita Vasquez Escallon, UNICEF’s Evaluation Specialist speaks about how COVID-19 is changing the lives of Cambodians and how agile research is helping UNICEF and partners to better meet the shifting needs of the most vulnerable. All these topics come together in an ongoing COVID Socio-economic Impact Survey.
Juanita Vasquez Escallon works on evaluation of development programmes, with a special focus on children and youth, rural development and conflict-related policies. She is especially interested in behavioral patterns and has been involved in randomized-field experiments and behavioral experiments in developing countries. She also works as a technical advisor for large scale data collection efforts, such as the ongoing efforts in Cambodia that today’s interview covers.
1. What is this survey about?
The goal is to capture how people’s lives are changing over time in the context of COVID-19. Cambodia’s strategy to isolate cases has shown great success, however, the socio-economic impacts of the pandemic have touched every single person in the country. The most vulnerable pay the dearest price because they have fewer resources to adjust when the ground shifts under their feet. And we’ve seen that, in the COVID pandemic, these shifting circumstances create evolving needs.
In order to meet these needs, we must first understand what to do for whom. We are looking at income and employment, food security, access to essential services, any fluctuations in household vulnerabilities and overall well-being of household members.
We picked survey households to match the nationwide wealth composition. We started with around 2000 households, with a steady response rate of around 1000 households in each round. We’ve tracked who is responding, to ensure we don’t end up with skewed data in our responses and to keep the IDPoor percentage at a steady 30 per cent. This way we can present a good picture of what’s generally going on with the country, and also zoom in on the most vulnerable.
In the first year we had monthly interactions with households, asking the same questions, but every three months we would add more in-depth questions, on a particular topic, like food security, or tailor questions to an emerging topic, like vaccine hesitancy. This flexible structure keeps the survey brief, which means people are more likely to keep answering over time, while also giving us a balanced combination of constant and diverse data.
Learn more or to download the Phase One End Report here.
2. What is unique about it?
First, I would say the agility of the approach. The questions that stayed the same ensured that we consistently monitored the same aspects of people’s lives. However, the quarterly questions allow us to take the pulse on the changing situation. Like with school opening, different partners asked if families might hesitate to send their kids back to school. Once we heard school might reopen, we added a question on school hesitancy right away. We could see that there is no hesitancy, but there are more dropouts, and we know why those children are not going to go back to school.
Second, I would say that the duration of the survey sets it apart. Currently in its 15th month, this survey is one of the few that has continued into medium-term impacts. Continuity is so important because COVID-19 is a prolonged global crisis; in order to help vulnerable people, we must know how their lives are impacted in a constantly changing context. The survey allows us to understand those shifts and adjust our actions accordingly.
The diverse partnership structure is another one. Phase One included UNICEF, WFP, UNFPA, UNAIDS, and UNWomen. This helped keep the perspective balanced across UN agency mandates and their target populations – families with children, the situation of children, changes to gender dynamics, food security and nutrition, etc. Asian Development Bank, who joined for Phase Two, brings a wider dissemination network, through economic forums and working groups with the Ministry of Economy and Finance, private sector, and civil society. Information sharing in these groups means the data can help government and development partners direct their COVID-19 recovery efforts to where they are most needed.
3. What are the very top findings of this ongoing survey?
The links between income changes and nutrition were clear. More than 60% of households consistently declared an income reduction, putting food security at risk as more households struggled to afford nutritious food for their families and children. As the pandemic progressed, more caregivers reported that children were eating fewer and smaller meals, while also switching to foods that cost less but are generally less diverse and nutritious.
The most vulnerable households experienced income reduction of 50 per cent or more, leaving them more likely to adopt a less nutritious diet, take out loans or borrow money, sell household assets, withdraw children from school, and put children to work as coping mechanisms for the extra financial stress.
In education, we saw the digital divide become wider. Distance learning is simply not accessible for much of the population due to a combined lack of proper equipment and parental engagement. Although alternative learning materials (online tools, TV and radio classes in multiple dialects) are available, up to 45 per cent of children depend on paper worksheets provided by schools, and community learning sessions. Close to 90 per cent of households polled were unable to provide parental support for distance learning.
In mental health and wellbeing, the most recent survey revealed that 37 per cent of the respondents felt anxious daily and 23 per cent felt constantly depressed. Only 48 per cent were feeling strongly optimistic about the future. Major concerns related to losing jobs or income, with a large increase in the people concerned over not knowing what to do in case of getting COVID.
4. How is the data being used?
The survey results inform our advocacy and have allowed us to share emerging issues directly with stakeholders and decision-makers at different levels. They also show us precisely the areas where programme interventions call for strengthening based on the current conditions.
For instance, from the pressing nutrition needs that we identified, UNICEF has worked with the Ministry of Social Welfare to integrate nutrition promotion into the social cash transfers, supporting the use of cash for nutritious food especially for women and children. This provides an important entry point to strengthen the linkages between essential nutrition services and social protection programmes, which is critical to mitigate the wide impacts of the pandemic.
In education, the survey findings showed that printed materials needed to be distributed to children for them to continue learning despite school closures. UNICEF supported the Ministry of Education in developing and distributing both alternative learning materials and home learning packages for school children. The home learning packages are under distribution to all Grade 1 and 2 students nationwide and include minority languages. The packs include books and self-study materials to improve literacy and mathematics and information on how parents can support their children’s education and protect them from COVID-19.
Findings from the survey have also informed our messaging and tactics in risk communication and community engagement on COVID safety and mental health. Understanding who needed what information allowed us to simplify, reconfigure, or retarget to address expressed concerns, especially regarding vaccination. In terms of mental health, the survey findings allowed us to target those in need with social media messaging. We regularly share tips on maintaining good mental health, normalizing mental health struggles, reminding young people they are not alone, and keeping hotlines and other resources top of mind. However, the scale of mental health issues revealed by the survey also highlighted a need for direct support. We have partnered with Transcultural Psychosocial Organization (TPO) to provide specialized, remote counselling, and worked with Child Helpline Cambodia to deliver online and phone-based counselling, while also providing connections to the right child protection services.
5. What’s next?
Phase Two of the survey will wrap up in January of 2022. Since the last wave in July 2021, restriction measures in Cambodia are starting to ease; schools have begun cautiously re-opening and the country is preparing to open up to tourism. We look forward to seeing the next round of results and are hopeful for some upticks in mental health, if nothing else.
UNICEF and partners have identified this survey as a priority to continue beyond the current phase, so we might study longer-term impacts of COVID-19 and possibly even the effectiveness of measures to offset the impacts of the pandemic.
NOTE: The information from this survey is periodically made available through presentations to UN agencies, development partners and government counterparts. The Phase One End Report is available for download here.