COVID-19 in Nepal: Assessing Impact and Opportunities for a Child and Family-friendly Response

About a year ago , at  the International Social Protection Conference (18-19^th November 2019,) the government of Nepal and key members of civil society and  development  community came together to put together a vison for resilient social protection for all Underlying this vision was the commitment to protect the children, marginalized and the vulnerable from attenuating impacts of a disaster and enable them to access basic services to help then reach their potential.  This was before COVID 19, a crisis inflicting hitherto unprecedented impact on lives, economy, jobs livelihoods and childhood.  The lessons from this conference are ever more relevant today.

COVID is a crisis of child rights as much a crisis of health and economics.  While for adults, the hardship lasting for months and possibly years will be over with slow though inevitable recovery of economies and regeneration of jobs and livelihoods, a large section of children particularly 0-6-year-old, face a future bleaker than before.  According to UNICEF’s Child and Family Tracker (CFT), an estimated 6 million children are now in poverty, including multidimensional poverty- a fourfold increase over the pre-COVID stats.  Though for many this will be a transitory experience, many more would suffer irreversible loss of their potential of cognitive and physical growth and development, decelerating Nepal’s accumulation of human capital, productivity of labour and the potential for economic growth. 

In response to the threat of COVID, Nepal responded with alacrity, imposing a strict lockdown on 23 March which lasted well into July.  As a result, economic activity and growth slowed down with millions losing jobs/ earnings. Families with children were especially hit.  According to UNICEF’s CFT, about 61 per cent of the respondents of this national 7000 HHs monthly, longitudinal survey have had no earnings in the last three months.   

Putting a child’s face on this crisis is important because children have borne the brunt of poverty in Nepal disproportionately. It is also because the transmission loss of income (through loss of jobs, income or remittances) means reduction in quantity and quality of food and a risk of increased undernutrition with possible results in stunting and wasting.  Children form about 40 per cent of Nepal’s population. And about 50 per cent of then live in the bottom two quintiles, the two groups most vulnerable to shocks. Since lockdown 8 million children have been out of school and though an increasing proportion of children have started learning at home, the access of modern, digital platforms of learning is accessible mostly to children attending private schools in urban (metro and sub-metropolitan) municipalities.  Confined to homes that are under extreme economic stress, devoid of the normal avenues of socialization, children are also exhibiting signs of deteriorating mental health.  Domestic violence has increased, which is bad news for any context, but especially for Nepal, where Violence against Children was high even pre-COVID.  Though data is hard to glean on sensitive protection issues like forced/child marriage trafficking and Gender Based Violence, evidence from disasters, less extreme than that of COVID, indicate these crises often result in aggravation of such practices, as families struggle to ensure basic survival, literally.

Response

Amidst growing distress, Government of Nepal has responded with a slew of relief measures, a mix of macro, meso and micro responses within the National Relief, Recovery and Rehabilitation Programme. rolled out to provide relief and to shore up the businesses including small and medium enterprises The National Planning Commission has assessed the socio-economic impact of COVID to guide the implementation and detailing of this national response. While COVID continues to perplex global planners and researchers, with the full impact still unfurling and responses being crafted,  NPC and UNICEF  believe it is prudent to take stock and  examine the evidence  about the impact of COVID in Nepal and reflect  on the ongoing and planned response, with inputs and inspirations gathered from some of the global responses in child relevant sectors- social protection , education , health and nutrition  and child protection.

Against the backdrop of the recent anniversary of Child Right Convention and the Human Rights Day, an e-conference is planned on 10 December to gather key policy makers and practitioners to stimulate this reflection and inform national policy response.   
 

Agenda

Click HERE for a summary of the conference