UNICEF SRI LANKA Annual Report 2020 REIMAGINING A BETTER SRI LANKA FOR OUR CHILDREN Annual report coordinator: Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation (PME) Section, UNICEF Sri Lanka Editors: Louise Moreira Daniels, Chief Social Policy; Lara Perera, Programme Officer, PME; and Nalika Unantenne, Consultant, UNICEF Sri Lanka Photography: All photographs ©UNICEF Sri Lanka ©UNICEF Sri Lanka 2020 CONTENTS Message from the Representative 4 In a Nutshell: Key Results in 2020 6 Children in Sri Lanka 7 Looking Back: 2020 in Review 10 Early Childhood Development 11 Children in Middle Childhood 13 Adolescence 15 Social Policy and Child Rights Monitoring 17 Communications, Advocacy and 20 Partnerships Efficiency and Effectiveness: 22 Delivering Programme Results The World Changed: 24 Emergency Response in 2020 We did it Together! Partnerships and 36 Collaborations in 2020 Live and Learn: Lessons Learned and 38 Innovations Acronyms 40 in the region to recover the high rates of coverage) and maternal care. Message Dear Partners, The crisis also provided an opportunity to improve water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) facilities in primary healthcare centers, early childhood from the Dominated by the COVID-19 pandemic, 2020 was a challenging year for centers, schools and in high-density, low-capacity urban settlements. Sri children in Sri Lanka. We saw several lockdowns, schools closed for long Lanka’s robust response to the pandemic was recognised and praised Representative periods, industries suffer (including many where women are regionally and globally; however, challenges persisted. over-represented), job losses, and Sri Lanka slipping back to a lower-middle income country status in the middle of the year. Nationwide school closure for most of the year disrupted learning for 4.7 million students. Accessibility to and quality of alternative learning In 2020, UNICEF led the charge to respond, recover, and reimagine a Sri programmes varied significantly, widening learning gaps. In September Lanka fit for children, and amidst the unique challenges of the year, we 2020, the telephone survey indicated that only 59 per cent of households had some wins. Your support played a key role in these achievements. had online learning equipment/resources. To minimize learning losses,in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, UNICEF provided study packs Guided by our UNICEF Country Programme 2018-2022, we worked for 665,000 Grade 1 and 2 students. swiftly to assess the impact of the pandemic on families and children and to help address them. We did this by conducting four rounds of nationally School closures and restrictions on movements also had a major impact representative surveys (three over the telephone and one face-to-face) to on child protection, mental health and children’s well-being. Children's collect information to inform our response, as well as that of partners and routines and social support were disrupted. More stressors were placed Government. Initial results, in early May, showed the severity of the on parents and caregivers who had to find new childcare options or crisis: 39 per cent of respondents said they lost all income and a further forego work. All this made children more vulnerable to violence and 32 per cent lost some income. This forced too many families to adopt psychosocial distress. Reports of domestic violence and harsh discipline potentially damaging coping strategies, like using up savings, taking extra increased, and anecdotal evidence suggests an increase in suicidal loans, pawning and selling assets. Food security was also threatened, thoughts amongst adolescents and young people. with families reducing their food consumption, particularly of nutritious food. Subsequent survey rounds still showed similar results, despite It became clear that the COVID-19 crisis was, and still is, a child rights some improvement. crisis. With strong and continued advocacy from UNICEF Sri Lanka together with other stakeholders in Child Protection, the GoSL declared Our history of responding to crises means that UNICEF has been a key child protection/care services as essential services during the curfews partner to the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) in tackling the COVID-19 and the child helpline was strengthened to support the higher volume of pandemic. The GoSL quickly recognised the need for both a health and calls. Unfortunately, we saw increased demand from families to place fiscal response to the COVID-19 crisis. It put in place one of the world’s children in institutions as they could no longer make ends meet. UNICEF most robust COVID-19-control approaches. This helped contain the continues to support the GoSL to effectively respond to the crisis, while spread of the virus for most of the year. The GoSL also initiated a strengthening available systems to ensure that essential services still relatively large social protection response, which reached most of the reach all children, particularly those most vulnerable. population and offered some level of financial support for two months. The response was impressive in scale and scope, with new recipients The pandemic is still battering our health system, disrupting regular life, registered and payments made at a remarkable speed. In close and increasing household vulnerability. We recognise that the path ahead collaboration with the GoSL and other partners, UNICEF delivered multiple is still challenging, but we will continue to deliver on our mandate to risk communication mass media campaigns, media engagement and protect and promote children’s rights, help meet their basic needs, and digital and social media activities to raise awareness on COVID-19 expand their opportunities to reach their full potential. UNICEF knows prevention methods. These reached a viewership of 12 million on mass how to help children recover from crises, including the current pandemic. media and gained over 44 million views and over 7.9 million engagements But we can act more swiftly and efficiently if we work with you, our on social media. trusted partners. Together, we can prevent the pandemic from becoming a lasting crisis for children. The strict containment measures allowed Sri Lanka to limit COVID-19 transmission and reopen businesses and schools towards the end of the We take this opportunity to thank all our partners for their commitment second quarter. However, reduced incomes and food insecurity had and trust in UNICEF. We sincerely hope you will continue to work with us aggravated already critical levels of malnutrition among children. A study to reimagine a better Sri Lanka for our children, now and post-pandemic. conducted by the Medical Research Institute in urban Colombo showed a drastic increase (34 per cent) in child wasting. At that time, more than 50 per cent of eligible children were currently not receiving essential nutrition commodities, a situation that remains challenging. The GoSL managed to quickly reorganize and prioritize essential maternal Emma Brigham and child health services, ensuring continued access to life-saving Representative a.i. interventions. These included child immunization (being the first country UNICEF Sri Lanka Annual Report 2020 | Sri Lanka 4 in the region to recover the high rates of coverage) and maternal care. Dear Partners, The crisis also provided an opportunity to improve water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) facilities in primary healthcare centers, early childhood Dominated by the COVID-19 pandemic, 2020 was a challenging year for centers, schools and in high-density, low-capacity urban settlements. Sri children in Sri Lanka. We saw several lockdowns, schools closed for long Lanka’s robust response to the pandemic was recognised and praised periods, industries suffer (including many where women are regionally and globally; however, challenges persisted. over-represented), job losses, and Sri Lanka slipping back to a lower-middle income country status in the middle of the year. Nationwide school closure for most of the year disrupted learning for 4.7 million students. Accessibility to and quality of alternative learning In 2020, UNICEF led the charge to respond, recover, and reimagine a Sri programmes varied significantly, widening learning gaps. In September Lanka fit for children, and amidst the unique challenges of the year, we 2020, the telephone survey indicated that only 59 per cent of households had some wins. Your support played a key role in these achievements. had online learning equipment/resources. To minimize learning losses,in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, UNICEF provided study packs Guided by our UNICEF Country Programme 2018-2022, we worked for 665,000 Grade 1 and 2 students. swiftly to assess the impact of the pandemic on families and children and to help address them. We did this by conducting four rounds of nationally School closures and restrictions on movements also had a major impact representative surveys (three over the telephone and one face-to-face) to on child protection, mental health and children’s well-being. Children's collect information to inform our response, as well as that of partners and routines and social support were disrupted. More stressors were placed Government. Initial results, in early May, showed the severity of the on parents and caregivers who had to find new childcare options or crisis: 39 per cent of respondents said they lost all income and a further forego work. All this made children more vulnerable to violence and 32 per cent lost some income. This forced too many families to