The ECPC Global Call to Action in Response to COVID-19 for Children in Fragile and Conflict-affected Settings
Click above to read the interactive and sharable ECPC Global Call to Action brochure.
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Also available in Spanish (link is external) (Latin American), French (link is external) and Arabic (link is external).
ECPC Global Call to Action in response to COVID-19 for children in fragile and conflict affected settings: The promise of early childhood development
“The ECPC strongly supports the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ appeal to protect the rights of children and safeguard their well-being during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.”
(Web version)
WHO WE ARE
The Early Childhood Peace Consortium (ECPC) is a global movement of United Nations agencies, Non-Governmental Organizations, academia, practitioners and the private sector focused on sharing scientific and practice-based evidence on how investment in early childhood development (ECD) can contribute to sustainable peace, social cohesion and social justice. We recognise that investing in ECD is a powerful and cost-effective strategy for reducing violence, poverty and exclusion and for building peaceful societies.
The Consortium upholds the urgent calls from world leaders to prioritise peace as humanity grapples with the COVID-19 pandemic. We join the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in his COVID-19 call for an immediate Global Ceasefire in all corners of the world (United Nations, 2020 (link is external)), a message echoed by world leaders, and most importantly, by UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore, who urged warring parties to stop fighting to safeguard the lives of children living in conflict-affected areas (UNICEF, 2020 (link is external)).
“We stand in solidarity and collaborate with the United Nations Secretary-General, UNICEF, WHO and all other United Nations agencies, as well as with governments, religious leaders, non-governmental organizations, academia, early childhood networks and civil society as a whole in the response to the global pandemic humanitarian crisis, to mitigate its impact on families and young children living in situations of conflict, military occupation, and displacement.”
IMPACT ON THE MOST VULNERABLE CHILDREN
The COVID-19 outbreak and containment measures exacerbate existing crises and further violate vulnerable children’s rights. The pandemic severely affects young children’s physical and mental health, their social and emotional development, safety, economic security, access to education, play, recreational activities and more (United Nations, 2020 (link is external)).
CHILDREN LIVING IN FRAGILE AND CONFLICT AFFECTED SETTINGS
Children and their parents/caregivers living in conflict-affected and fragile settings already struggle with limited access to health services, including vaccinations. Virus-related containment measures negatively impact their already volatile safety and access to education (UNHCR). With school and childcare centre closures, young children’s learning, nutrition and hygiene suffer. For hundreds of millions of children, these closures can mean going without daily school meals, clean water and sanitation facilities (United Nations, 2020 (link is external)).
Measures to contain the pandemic, including movement restrictions lead to economic insecurity which is likely to result in increased child labour, sexual exploitation and trafficking, thereby perpetuating cycles of violence. Lockdown measures also increase the risk that children will suffer or witness violence and abuse (UNHCR (link is external); UN News, 2020 (link is external)). Furthermore, more children and abusers than ever before are online, heightening the risk of exposure to cyberbullying, hate speech, sexual exploitation and abuse (EVAC, 2020 (link is external); UN News, 2020b (link is external)). Childcare and school closures weaken or eliminate important early warning mechanisms for child abuse and neglect detection and reporting. Hence, there is an urgent need to protect children from violence amidst the pandemic. In a statement, 22 leaders of UN agencies and international organizations called on governments to provide child protection case management and emergency alternative care arrangements, and to ensure that all virus containment measures include social protection systems that support children’s rights (EVAC, 2020 (link is external)).
CHILDREN ON THE MOVE
Even in the absence of a pandemic, uprooted children, mothers, mothers-to-be and families—those living as refugees, migrants or internally displaced persons (IDPs)—face immense barriers to accessing health services and sanitation (UNICEF, 2020 (link is external)). The rapid spread of COVID-19 and the containment measures are worsening this already precarious situation, making migrants, refugees and their children, disproportionately vulnerable to exclusion, xenophobia, stigmatization and discrimination.
In camps or in overcrowded detention centres, the uprooted often live in deeply unsafe and highly stressful environments with no possibility of social distancing (CRC COVID-19 Statement, 2020 (link is external)). This pandemic also poses greater challenges for migrant and displaced families and children as they are faced with higher rates of deportation and mass expulsions; these practices threaten children’s rights and are a risk to public health.
WHAT DOES SCIENCE TEACH US ON THE IMPORTANCE OF EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT IN THE CONTEXT OF COVID-19?
The COVID-19 pandemic and the measures to contain it has produced huge societal public health and economic challenges across the globe. Although there is still a great deal we do not know, infectious disease experts have clearly outlined the steps we all need to take to limit the spread of the coronavirus (WHO Advice for Public, 2020 (link is external)).
Although most children are less likely to be symptomatic with COVID-19 compared to adults (Ludvigsson, 2020 (link is external)), data is now emerging that a small percentage children can develop a novel pediatric multisystem inflammatory syndrome (PMI) that can be deadly (Verdoni, 2020 (link is external)). In addition, there is no question that there are and will be many other life-threatening adverse consequences of the pandemic for millions of children across the globe. Children are, in many ways, the hidden victims of the pandemic.
Parents/caregivers are the first line of response to protect and support their young children’s health, learning and socio-emotional development, particularly in a crisis such as a pandemic (UNICEF COVID Guide for Parents, 2020 (link is external)). Consequently, separations from primary attachment figures (parents/caregivers) due to illness, quarantine, hospitalization or death will have immediate, harmful, and long-term effects on a child. Adverse effects also result from economic losses from lost wages and jobs of parents/caregivers, associated food insecurity, and the potential loss of housing. These factors are compounded by the psychosocial stress experienced by parents/caregivers—especially mothers—which seriously undermines their mental health and ability to provide nurturing care (Lundberg, 2012 (link is external); Barrero-Castillero, 2019 (link is external)). The unique challenges of uprooted families or those living in conflict-affected settings greatly exacerbate these adverse effects. As a result, hundreds of millions of children are now growing up in environments conducive to “toxic stress,” which can impair their neurological development and will likely prevent them from reaching their full developmental potential (Shonkoff, 2020 (link is external)). Sadly, this can cause lifelong challenges and become a self-perpetuating and intergenerational cycle (Shonkoff, 2020 (link is external)).
BUILDING A FUTURE FIT FOR THE WORLD’S CHILDREN
The good news is that developmental neuroscience has led to a revolutionary shift in assessing the interplay between genetic alterations in the developing brain and early life experiences, both positive and negative. The neuroscience and other multiple disciplines, such as epigenetics, psychology, and economics, indicate how ECD services can prompt members of high-risk groups to rebuild trust, re-connect, and develop long-lasting resilience (Donaldson, 2018). The science heralds a new era, asserting that ECD is a vital opportunity for building a sustainable future fit for the world’s children and empowering them through promoting The Culture of Peace, as called for by the United Nations (UN Resolution A/RES/74/21 (link is external)).
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