Brief summary of presentation of information made

COVID-19 pandemic is causing a socio-economic crisis of unprecedented scale. At the global level, the outbreak might push up to 66 million additional children into extreme poverty.

Presenters

Terry Kiarie - Cultural mediator for children, ATD Fourth World African Region

Martin Kalisa -Regional Director for Africa, ATD Fourth World

Joan Nyanyuki, - Executive Director, African Child Policy Forum

Olivier De Schutter - UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights

David Stewart - Co-Chair of the Global Coalition to End Child Poverty, Chief of Child poverty and Social Protection, UNICEF HQ

A global initiative to raise awareness about children living in poverty across the world and support global and national action to alleviate it.

The presentation was on the lived experiences of vulnerable children and families in Africa in times of pandemic was based on a dialogue they had with ten All Together in Dignity Fourth World local teams active in Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Senegal, Tanzania, and Togo.

• Their local teams are involved in a day to day life with the most disadvantaged families, creating a sense of trust, solidarity and friendship among families and children to support their dreams and projects.
• Their objective is to allow people in poverty to contribute to the recognition and development of their communities.

Countries face a Permanent State of crisis:

• High level of poverty and inequality
• Low level access to healthcare and information
• Natural disasters: deadly flooding in DRC, Burundi, etc.
• Drought, diseases (malaria, cholera; Ebola), food shortage

The Covid-19 crisis has reinforced existing inequalities. Information about the pandemic has not reached outlying rural areas without infrastructures and resources.

Consequences of the pandemic preventive measures:

• Closure of social institutions (schools, churches, mosques are now closed, and curfew imposed)
• Economy slow down (restriction in movement, market closure impacts the informal economic
• All negatively impact already struggling families

Effects on the poorest families:

• A child belongs to a family and a family lives in a community.
• Families already in poverty are now facing a sudden lack of opportunities to earn a living.
• The closure of borders and restriction of movements between provinces, and closure of markets have damaged informal activities, that of small businesses.
• In rural areas, the lean season between the end of the harvest and before sowing, means families have fewer reserves.
• As the same time, food, medicine, and transport cost are on the rise.
• Consequence, families fear hunger, famine, illness, and death.

Effects on the poorest children:

• This pandemic has worsened community life and children have been badly affected either directly or indirectly.
• Governments have launched school lessons on radio or television, but not all children have access to these devices nor have a quiet space to focus on their studies.
• This interruption in education risks becoming "a blank year”, especially for adolescents who will most likely not resume their schooling after the confinement.
• For many children, poverty forces work to support their families and lose their innocence of childhood.

Effects on the poorest children (2)

• For children living in shelters or on the streets -life has become even more difficult.
• In this period of restriction of movements and social distancing, these children lose all the security they had secured: a place to sleep, personal hygiene, access to their daily meal.
• The preventive measures of social distancing are inapplicable as the children feel more secure together especially after the 8pm curfew when they have to find a place to sleep or take shelter which in most cases is either inside schools or on rooftops.
• There are many children living in orphanages but despite the harsh life inside and outside, it is worth noting there is a lot of love and solidarity.

ATD Fourth World response:

• ATD teams looked for innovative ways to stay in touch with families and children.
• In Burundi, ATD team made each child, an ambassador, an actor in the fight against this disease of Covid-19.
• In Central Africa Republic, the team provided mobile water sources with soap by entrusting responsibility to a group of young people in each neighbourhood.
• Other ATD teams worked on sensitizing about the virus and protective measures and providing support to education and learning for the most vulnerable children.

ATD Fourth World response (2):

Tapori is the children branch of ATD Fourth World, a global network creating friendship between children of different socio-economic backgrounds.

In Kenya, ATD Fourth World has recently started a Tapori group in a school in Kibera, the largest slum in Africa.

• Now that the school has closed, the Tapori facilitators, accompanied by teachers, visit the children twice a week at their homes to identify the most isolated and vulnerable children and their families. The activities consist of reading mini books, drawing pictures with messages of hope and love, and learning about the preventive measures against Covid19.
• In Senegal, the team also supports the education of the most fragile students, with a focus on teenagers, by motivating them to study and stay on track. A special effort was made to ask the teenagers about their reflections in time of Covid, and the solidarity they were witnessing in the neighbourhood. For adolescents, the teams are seeking to define a project that will avoid dropping out of school or vocational training, based on a pedagogy of mutual sharing.

Policy recommendations based on these experiences

Short term:

• Ensure the most marginalized people are not left out in the campaign against covid-19 and are provided with the required equipment.
• Continuous support to the most vulnerable children and adolescents with their education.
• Encouraging and training young people from diverse backgrounds to be agents of change in their communities.
• Access to food and support to the informal sector for the most vulnerable families via cash transfer that respects their dignity.

Policy recommendations based on these experiences: Long term measures:

• Communities should be involved in the establishment and implementation of protective measures instead of a copy and paste of Western measures. We cannot succeed in reducing inequalities and building a just and fair society without considering the knowledge and experience of people experiencing poverty and social exclusion on a daily basis.
• Investment in medical infrastructures, access to medicine for all.
• Establishment of universal social protection floors to ensure access to health care and minimum income security for all children and families, especially the most marginalized.
• Access to quality education systems for all children, especially those most vulnerable.
• Creating green jobs for the poorest communities for a sustainable economic transition.
• Access to grant and scholarships for careers in social care and environmental protection.
• Call to people from all walks of life to promote social cohesion and be in solidarity with the most vulnerable, who are at the forefront of the fight against poverty

Where we are now?

1. Commendable political will and mobilization to combat COVID-19

• Recognition of the devastating impact of the pandemic
• Significant focus given to combat, often at complete neglect of other issues

2. Gaps in policy and strategy development

• Human rights values and principles not adequately reflected in the containment policies; Responses that are health focused.
• Policy lags (gaps in policies/strategies to keep up with the pace of the pandemic)
• Tendency to copy-and-paste from other regions/Contextualization lacking

3. Gaps in implementation:

• Gaps in coordination of responses, hence inefficiency.
• Limited rapid socio-economic measures to provide safety nets
• Gaps in reaching out to children living in sub-optimal conditions: extreme poverty, on the streets, in armed conflict, humanitarian setting, on the move, without parental care
• Securitization and criminalization of response.

What was of particular significance to share with The Salvation Army globally?

Keeping our eyes on children who are living on the streets and children in general. Reach out to children and seeing where we can help either in education or any other sector of their lives.

Web links for more information

The Policy Brief on Covid-19 impact on Children https://www.un.org/sites/un2.un.org/files/policy_brief_on_covid_impact_on_children_16_april_2020.pdf

ADT Fourth World https://www.atd-fourthworld.org/

Tags: United Nations, SDG1: No Poverty, SDG4: Quality Education, SDG3: Good Health and Well-Being, SDG2: Zero Hunger