COVID-19 Response - Issues and Special Challenges for Children and Youth

This COVID-19 Coordination Call, organised by CORE Group, focused on the role of children and youth and how organisations can prepare to address rapidly changing programme needs to support them during the COVID-19 response.

In this eighth call of the weekly series (see Related Summaries, below), David Imbago Jácome, Knowledge Management and Communications Advisor, CORE Group, framed top-line youth issues and moderated a panel of presenters who identified emerging issues and possible solutions to address these challenges, including how young people can meaningfully engage in the response. At the end of the call, Julie Dargis, Senior Advisor, CORE Group Global COVID-19 Response, shared specific children and youth resources with call participants.

Presentations in this group coordination call included:

1. Presentation: How Can Digital Technologies Ensure Effective and Relevant Learning Outcomes?
By: Shiraz Chakera, Education Specialist, UNICEF Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Office, and Hawi Bedasa, T4D Business Analyst, UNICEF Western and Central Africa Regional Office
Summary: This presentation discusses the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)'s response to education in the current context when schools have been closed. It looks at UNICEF's 6 dimensions of the COVID-19 education response, which includes: what can be done to get education to children (though the use of radio or mobile phones, for example); the need to monitor, learn, and improve; and the need to plan for the reopening of schools. The presentation also showcases a new draft digital toolkit developed by UNICEF that seeks to address the fact that most learning technologies are high cost and low impact, and do not really address the needs and realities on the ground. The toolkit offers an iterative, human-centred design process that is meant to help organisations better assess their context in order to develop digital technologies that are effective and result in relevant learning outcomes.

2. Presentation: A Youth-Led Approach to Intersectional COVID-19 Action
By: Victoria Watson, Executive Director, International Youth Alliance for Family Planning (IYAFP)
Summary: This presentation begins with a brief description of the IYAFP, which works to provide an accessible platform for youth from around the world to gain the necessary skills and expertise to advocate for themselves and their communities around family planning and sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). In response to COVID-19, there has been a shift in focus to look at responding more generally to young people's needs during the pandemic. This has led to the emergence of the COVID-19 Youth Taskforce. The presentation looks at how this task force is working and shares young people's experiences and priorities during COVID-19 as expressed by task force members, which include the issue of isolation and access to reproductive health services. The presentation also highlights some examples of what youth are doing to take action and support their communities, such as providing counselling services and hand-washing stations in their communities. Finally, it looks at what support youth would like to see from the global health community.

3. Presentation: Youth Programming During COVID-19 Pandemic
By: Dr. Natasha Salifyanji Kaoma, CEO, Copper Rose Zambia
Summary: Copper Rose Zambia works to empower young people and women in the areas of leadership and mentorship, economic empowerment, menstrual health management, and SRHR and works with youth volunteers and networks. The presentation explores how their current work has been affected by COVID-19 - impacting, for example, on the distribution of contraceptives, and bringing to a halt interventions like girls' clubs at schools. It highlights the challenges that are being faced by young people and youth organisations in this context and offers recommendations for the way forward to support young people and youth-led and youth-serving organisations. These recommendations include the use of radio to reach hard-to-reach areas, the piggy-backing of reproductive health awareness onto COVID related community outreach, and more flexibility of funding so that youth organisations can adapt and modify their programmes to the current situation.

4. Presentation: Building Resilience to Overcome Corona Impact - The #Solidarity4Humanity Campaign
By: Michael Asudi, Country Coordinator, Organization of Africa Youth, Kenya
Summary: In response to the COVID-19 outbreak, the Organisation of African Youth (OAY) has started the #Solidarity4Humanity Campaign, @S4HCampaign, which is described as "an organic movement to inspire action and resilience during and after the pandemic". The campaign focuses on the role of, and likely impact of COVID-19 on, young people, who constitute the largest section of Africa's population and are most vulnerable due to unemployment and the high level of family dependency on working youth. The presentation looks at the objectives and activities of the campaign, which revolve around preventing the spread of COVID-19 and ensuring immediate and long-term socio-economic security. The campaign essentially seeks to harness the power of youth not just for youth but for humanity, and it is seeking to do this through a digital campaign and the sharing of information to ensure, amongst other things, that youth direct and drive the response. The presentation also identifies some critical issues that the OAY has identified around youth and COVID-19.

On February 6 2020, CORE Group began a series of weekly calls (see Related Summaries, below) to convene members and partners to discuss their institutional positions around a range of topics related to COVID-19 in an effort to coordinate and support the global pandemic response. During each call, people who signed up for the discussion have the opportunity to ask questions and give input, and these discussions are also included in the recording. To receive updates and coordination call announcements, subscribe to CORE Group's One Health Interest Group listserv or email the listserv using: onehealth@lists.coregroup.org.