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On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic, resulting in disruptions to education at an unprecedented scale. In response to the urgent need to recover learning losses, countries worldwide have taken RAPID actions to: Reach every child and keep them in school; Assess learning levels regularly; Prioritize teaching the fundamentals; Increase the efficiency of instruction; and Develop psychosocial health and wellbeing. Marking three years since the onset of the pandemic, this report looks back at policy measures taken during school closures and reopening based on country survey data, initiatives implemented by countries and regions to recover and accelerate learning, and their emerging lessons within each RAPID action. With schools now reopened worldwide, this report also looks ahead to longer-term education transformation, offering policy recommendations to build more resilient, effective and equitable education systems.

Almost two years into the pandemic, its widespread impact continues to deepen, increasing poverty and entrenching inequality. While some countries are recovering and rebuilding in a 'new normal', for too many, COVID-19 remains a catastrophe. The unequal rollout of COVID-19 vaccines is putting entire communities at risk. And as new variants continue to emerge, children and their communities continue to face health risks. Increases in poverty have set back progress toward realizing children's rights and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Children's diets have deteriorated, and families struggle to find ways to find enough food and safe water for their children. By September 2021, schoolchildren around the world have lost an estimated 1.8 trillion hours of in-person learning due to COVID-related school closures, which will have profound long-term, unequal social and economic effects. Essential nutrition and health services such as routine immunization programmes and maternal and childcare continue to be disrupted. School closures, job losses among families and increased stress and anxiety have affected the mental health of children and young people. COVID-19 remains an urgent crisis for children that requires sustained, focused action. This report lays out the work in front of us by taking stock of the ongoing impact of COVID-19 on children and the road to respond and recover to reimagine the future for every child. [This report was produced by UNICEF's Division of Global Communication and Advocacy.]

Significant progress has been made to close gender gaps in education over the last 25 years. Nevertheless, gender inequalities persist and education remains elusive for many girls. The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) estimates that 11.2 million girls and young women may drop out or not have access to school due the pandemic. As the pandemic led to a surge in the use of digital technologies in education, it also revealed staggering gender gaps in access to and use of digital technology all around the world -- not just in contexts where there is no parity in education. Indeed, gender-based exclusion is present throughout the technological world. However, the pandemic showed that learning can occur anywhere and anytime. Innovative solutions are at our fingertips and we have an opportunity now to leverage global experience to deliver quality learning for girls, from high-tech to low-tech, to no-tech. This brief note highlights how United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) will advance inclusive and transformative digital technology to enhance girls' learning and skills development for work and life.

The COVID-19 pandemic has raised huge concerns for the mental health of an entire generation of children. But the pandemic may represent only the tip of a mental health iceberg -- an iceberg we have ignored for far too long. For the first time, "The State of the World's Children" examines the mental health of children and adolescents. Against a backdrop of rising awareness of mental health issues, there is now a unique opportunity to promote good mental health for every child, protect vulnerable children and care for children facing the greatest challenges. Making that happen will require urgent investment in child and adolescent mental health across sectors -- not just in health -- to support proven interventions. It will also need societies to break the silence surrounding mental health, by addressing stigma, promoting understanding, and taking seriously the experiences of children and young people. [This report is produced by the Office of Global Insights and Policy. For "The State of the Worlds Children 2017: Children in a Digital World," see ED590013.]

"Growing Steady and Strong: Early Childhood Development Regional Guidance in East Asia and the Pacific" was developed against the backdrop of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) crisis to support the country offices of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) in implementing the early childhood development (ECD) agenda as a key pillar for UNICEF in 2022-2025. It aims to provide a vision for action to UNICEF country offices in East Asia and the Pacific and other interested ECD partners and stakeholders to enhance the ECD policies and programmes in the region and position its importance in policymakers' plans for a brighter future. Chapter 1 describes the purpose and rationale of the document. Chapter 2 highlights East Asia and the Pacific system-wide advances as well as challenges in ECD systems strengthening and integrated national policies. Chapter 3 summarizes the direct impacts on young children and their families in the region amidst the COVID-19 pandemic that has affected more than 150 million young children under 5 years of age. Finally, Chapter 4 details pathways to achieve the strategic vision of "Building back better for young children through ECD." The analysis suggests two key response pillars: systems strengthening and family and child-friendly policies. It also recommends five key policy actions. [Financial support for this document was provided by the Prudence Foundation.]

There are nearly 200 million lower and upper secondary age adolescent girls and boys out of school globally, and if current trends continue, another 825 million children will not acquire basic secondary-level skills by 2030. Global momentum to achieve universal primary education has placed increased demands on secondary education systems to serve more students, from a wider range of backgrounds, and to do so more effectively and inclusively. Many of the most marginalized adolescents in lower income countries who are enrolled in school have fallen years behind their peers. In alignment with the focus on the most marginalized adolescent girls and boys brought forward in the UNICEF Strategic Plan (2018-2021) (see ED608930), this guidance offers differentiated recommendations for countries at various stages of the progressive universalization of lower and upper secondary education. It presents principles of good programming, key concepts, and useful tools and resources to orient CO programming on secondary education, using data to identify where and which adolescents are in and out of the education system and why. Additionally, it presents programming recommendations and illustrative case studies aligned to the strategic plan, as well as costing and financing models, monitoring and evaluation tools, and insights on advocacy and partnerships.

This report summarizes the challenges, opportunities and proposed actions during and in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic as they relate to social protection, emergencies, the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) programme, immunization, education, child protection, nutrition, climate change, migrants, adolescents, mental health, gender equality and business and family friendly policies in East Asia and the Pacific -- all through the prism of UNICEF's Recover, Rebound and Reimagine strategy. This is a call to work together towards a more protected, healthier and immunized population, with an education system that leaves no one behind. A more equal, safe and fair world for all children. Keeping children physically and mentally healthy, well-nourished and safe, is the most urgent priority. The 'Recover' phase is about restoring the provision of essential services -- and scaling up successful interventions -- to support children, particularly those whose underlying conditions make them even more vulnerable to infection from the virus. Nurturing children's resilience amid the suspension or disruption of basic services is what the 'Rebound' phase is about, with the focus on protecting the most vulnerable. Reimagining nutrition, the WASH programme, mental health, and responses to climate change is the final phase. Reimagining is about tapping into an experimental mind-set to tackle obstacles on the road to creating a more equitable, inclusive and resilient society, one able to better cope with tomorrow's disasters.

At the height of nationwide lockdowns due to the COVID-19 pandemic, up to 1.6 billion children were affected by school closures, causing the largest mass disruption of education in modern history. This joint report by UNICEF and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) presents new insights into children and young people's access to digital connectivity worldwide, as well as the factors that drive inequities among and within countries. As a result of this learning crisis, UNICEF has joined forces with ITU to launch Giga, an ambitious global initiative to connect every school to the internet and every young person to information, opportunity and choice. With the support of Generation Unlimited, UNICEF now works under the Reimagine Education initiative to transform education by giving children and young people equal access to quality digital learning.

The gap between the levels of learning that education systems are providing and what children, communities and economies need, is growing. The breadth and depth of this learning crisis constitute the greatest global challenge to preparing children and adolescents for life, work and active citizenship. The lesson of the learning crisis is clear: the conventional assembly of education inputs is not improving learning outcomes. This presents a fundamental challenge to the way that governments, development partners and communities are managing and supporting education systems. A new, more radical approach that focusses on enhancing learning outcomes is long overdue and forms the basis for this strategy. The report also outlines the shift towards a greater focus on improving learning outcomes, including supporting the breadth of skills that allow young people to become agile, adaptive learners and citizens, equipped to navigate personal, social, academic, economic and environmental challenges.

This is the executive summary of the first in a planned series of United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) reports tracking progress on the child-related indicators in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The report highlights, through a data lens, the enormous task ahead for countries in meeting the 2030 Agenda for children. Through the development of projections to 2030, the report identifies areas where greater efforts are needed and reveals the alarming inadequacies of data to track progress. It also examines trends among subsets of children, including girls and boys, and children in urban and rural areas, to identify groups of children most at risk of being left behind. [For the full report, see ED589987.]

"The State of the World's Children 2017" examines the ways in which digital technology has already changed children's lives and life chances -- and explores what the future may hold. If leveraged in the right way and made universally accessible, digital technology can be a game changer for children being left behind -- whether because of poverty, race, ethnicity, gender, disability, displacement or geographic isolation -- connecting them to a world of opportunity and providing them with the skills they need to succeed in a digital world. But unless we expand access, digital technology may create new divides that prevent children from fulfilling their potential. And if we don't act now to keep pace with rapid change, online risks may make vulnerable children more susceptible to exploitation, abuse and even trafficking -- as well as more subtle threats to their well-being. This report argues for faster action, focused investment and greater cooperation to protect children from the harms of a more connected world -- while harnessing the opportunities of the digital age to benefit every child. The Perspectives section includes: (1) Realizing Limitless Possibilities: Technology Empowers People with Disabilities (Kartik Sawhney); (2) How Digital Technologies Herald a Bright Future (Karim Sy and Laura Maclet); (3) A Vision for the Future: Reflections on Children's Rights in the Digital Age (Pony Ma); (4) Are You Tattooed … Yet? (Juan Enriquez); (5) Look, Mum, No Data! (Anab Jain); (6) Hey, Alexa, Should I Wear the Pink or the Sparkly Dress Today? (Rachel Botsman); and (7) Empowering Children to Engage in the Digital World (Niels B. Christiansen).

The Asia-Pacific Region is home to half of the world's 7,117 living languages. Impressive regional progress on Sustainable Development Goal #4's vision to "ensure inclusive and equitable quality education" has been severely jeopardized by the COVID-19 pandemic. The more marginalized the child, the greater the threat. This Guidance Note aims to stimulate thinking into the unique challenges facing children from marginalized ethnolinguistic communities as they re-enter school or continue with various forms of distance learning. Links to resources that may not address language directly, but contain information that could be applied to ethnolinguistic minority children, are included as footnotes.

The Asia-Pacific region hosts the largest number of refugees and displaced people in the world, and is the place of origin for nearly half of all international migrants. However, data related to the unique language-in-education needs of refugee and migrant children in and from this area is sparse. The report aims to create a stronger knowledge base to support Member States as they formulate education policies that are responsive to the needs of such children. It aims to: (1) Examine how linguistic diversity and human mobility intersect and impact minority, migrant and refugee children's access to quality, inclusive education; (2) Link policy priorities to promising practices, based on international frameworks and lessons learned from successful programmes; and (3) Recommend steps for improving language-in-education policies and their implementation. [Funding for this paper was also provided by UNICEF's East Asia and Pacific Regional Office (EAPRO).]

Business as usual has not provided educational opportunities to world's most marginalized children. The South Asia Out-of-School Children Initiative (OOSCI) is part of the global initiative launched by UNICEF and the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) in 2010. The goal of the initiative is to make significant and sustained reduction in the number of out-of-school children around the world by: (1) developing comprehensive profiles of excluded children using consistent and innovative statistical methods; (2) linking these profiles to the barriers and bottlenecks that lead to exclusion; and (3) identifying, promoting and implementing sound policies that address exclusion from a multi-sectorial perspective. This report presents a snapshot of progress made since 1999 in improving child nutrition, expanding pre-school education, getting more children to school. Presented are graphic illustrations statistically demonstrating exclusion in education in South Asia, where the out-of school children in South Asia reside, who the out-of school children in South Asia are, the learning crisis, and what keeps South Asia's children from education in this part of the world. Suggestions for change are proposed. [This report was produced under the leadership of Leotes Lugo Helin and Urmila Sarkar, with contributions from Frank van Capelle and Shailendra Sigdel.]

This paper aggregates the academic literature reviewing and reporting interventions for out-of-school children (OOSC) around the world to serve as a guide for potential interventions in South Asia and elsewhere. It complements the Global Initiative on Out-of-School Children (OOSCI) South Asia Regional Study (2014). Thus the interventions reviewed include those in South Asia that were not extensively discussed in the OOSCI South Asia Regional Study as well as emphasis on interventions outside the region to further expand the knowledge base and evidence on effective interventions to reach out-of-school children. The interventions reviewed cover both those targeted for children who have never enrolled and those who may have enrolled in the past but have dropped out. It offers strategies and best practices for Early Childhood Development (ECD) programs with attention to cognitive and social-emotional development, as well as methods for expanding pre-primary access and improving school readiness with special attention to on-time enrollment, all known deterrents keeping children from dropping out of school. It also echoes assessments and reports describing a geographically wide array of non-formal education (NFE) interventions, covering the Alternative Education System in South Sudan, an educational resource center in Ireland, Educational Centers for Development in Mali, Community Learning Centers in Myanmar, complementary education and multi-grade schooling in Ghana, community engagement in Gambia, non-formal education in Zambia, and an overview of the potential of private school outreach and vocational non-formal education. Based on findings from impact evaluations and quasi-experiments, this literature review explores the effectiveness of pro-poor economic incentives, including voucher and cash transfer programs that have shown promising results in mitigating the opportunity cost of children relinquishing wages to attend school. This literature review also analyzes the decentralization of education systems and inclusive education through the lens of governance, providing short case reviews from around the world as learning examples and points of comparison. The paper then discusses sector plans in education as well as the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) and key literature while offering country examples. Additionally, the researchers provide a review of Education Management Information Systems (EMIS) and related systems around the world and highlight the opportunity for NFE and OOSC data incorporation into larger data systems as a means for providing paths to schooling for OOSC. The final section of this paper offers recommendations for possible way forward for the South Asia region, including further areas for research. An annex includes supplemental tables and figures.

The numbers are out, the data have been analysed, and the conclusions are clear: despite substantial gains in school enrollment over the past 15 years, the world has missed the goal of universal primary education by 2015. The failure to deliver on what seemed to be such a realistic and achievable goal represents a broken promise to millions of children who continue to be denied their fundamental right to a primary education. This report presents the latest statistical evidence from administrative records and household surveys to better identify children who are out of school and the reasons for their exclusion from education. It aims to inform the policies needed to reach these children and finally deliver the promise of Education for All. Based on a series of national and regional studies and policy analysis by leading experts, the report explains why better data and cross-sector collaboration are fundamental to the design of effective interventions to overcome the barriers facing out-of-school children and adolescents. While highlighting the way forward for system-wide policies to improve educational quality and affordability, the report also presents the information needed for targeted approaches to address the compounding effects of disadvantage faced by children caught up in armed conflict, girls, working children, children with disabilities, or members of ethnic or linguistic minorities. This report presents a roadmap to improve the data, research and policies needed to catalyse action for out-of-school children as the world embarks on a new development agenda for education. [For the full report, "Fixing the Broken Promise of Education for All: Findings from the Global Initiative on Out-of-School Children," see ED560017.]

Despite rapid economic growth in South Asia, strong inequalities persist and children pay a heavy price. This publication examines latest trends and data on children in the eight countries of the region. It highlights what has been achieved in the 25 years since the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child--and what remains to be done.

This report sets out the latest internationally comparable data on child deprivation and relative child poverty. Taken together, these two different measures offer the best currently available picture of child poverty across the world's wealthiest nations. Previous reports in this series have shown that failure to protect children from poverty is one of the most costly mistakes a society can make. The heaviest cost of all is borne by the children themselves. But their nations must also pay a very significant price -- in reduced skills and productivity, in lower levels of health and educational achievement, in increased likelihood of unemployment and welfare dependence, in the higher costs of judicial and social protection systems, and in the loss of social cohesion. [Support for this report was provided by the Andorran, Belgian, Swiss and United Kingdom National Committees for UNICEF.]

Whether in health, in education, or in material well-being, some children will always fall behind the average. The critical question is -- how far behind? Is there a point beyond which falling behind is not inevitable but policy susceptible, not unavoidable but unacceptable, not inequality but inequity? There are no widely agreed theoretical answers to these questions. Report Card 9 seeks to stimulate debate on the issue by introducing a common measure of 'bottom-end inequality'. This permits each country's performance to be assessed according to the standard of what the best-performing countries have been able to achieve. Such a standard may not represent the best that may be aspired to in theory, but in practice it suggests a level below which 'falling behind' is manifestly not inevitable. This Report Card presents a first overview of inequalities in child well-being for 24 of the world's richest countries. Three dimensions of inequality are examined: material well-being, education, and health. In each case and for each country, the question asked is "how far behind are children being allowed to fall?" [Support for this report was provided by Andorran, Australian, Belgian, German, Swiss and United Kingdom National Committees for UNICEF.]

This review of child poverty in rich countries finds that the proportion of children living in poverty in the developed world has risen in 17 out of the 24 OECD nations for which data are available. No matter which of the commonly-used poverty measures is applied, the situation of children is seen to have deteriorated over the last decade. UNICEF believes that reversing this trend is a priority for the OECD countries. Allowing the kind of poverty that denies a child the opportunities that most children consider normal is a breach of the United Nations "Convention on the Rights of the Child" to which almost all OECD countries are committed. Reducing child poverty is also a measure of progress towards social cohesion, equality of opportunity, and investment in both today's children and tomorrow's world. This report explores one means of making more visible the real impact of government tax and transfer policies on children in low-income families, and warns that in some countries the net result of current policies may be to support early retirement over investing in children. Most fundamentally, the report urges all OECD governments to establish credible targets and timetables for the progressive reduction of child poverty. This publication is the sixth in a series of Innocenti Report Cards designed to monitor and compare the performance of the OECD countries in meeting the needs of their children. It is also the first in a series of annual Innocenti Reports on Child Poverty in Rich Countries.

This digest examines the problem of child labor and education in India and other Southeast Asian countries. It offers novel insights into the extent of child labor and the shortcomings and inertia of educational systems in adapting to the needs of working children. Also, the digest describes a series of promising educational innovations meant to bring education within the reach of working children and youth. Particular attention is given to the condition of the female working child. Innovative strategies that are discussed include India's Institute of Psychological and Educational Research, Self-Employed Women's Association, the voluntary agency named Chetna Vikas, the Indian Institute of Education, a crafts project in Madhya Pradesh, and the Indian Institute of Rural Workers. Thailand's mobile school, Malaysia's on-the-job training, and Bangladesh's educational program for under-privileged children are also discussed. It is concluded that the record of achievement in the field of education in South Asia is not impressive, except in the cases of Thailand and Sri Lanka. Powerful vested interests, whether in semi-feudal agriculture or unorganized industry, continue their severe exploitation by actively recruiting child labor in a perpetual quest for profit. State intervention is needed to achieve the goal of universal primary education. (RH)