UNICEF UK SUBMISSION INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE INQUIRY HUMANITARIAN CRISES MONITORING: IMPACT OF CORONAVIRUS UNICEF UK UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund, is mandated by the UN General Assembly to uphold the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and promote the rights and wellbeing of every child. Together with partners, UNICEF works in over 190 countries and territories focusing special effort on reaching the most vulnerable and excluded children, to the benefit of all children, everywhere. UNICEF globally is at the frontline of the humanitarian response to the Coronavirus crisis. UNICEF has a core role to play in the provision of critical supplies; as global lead of the Nutrition, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) clusters and co-lead of the Education cluster; co-lead in risk communication interventions; and as leading member of the UN Crisis Management Team. Unicef UK is submitting evidence to the International Development Committee with the aim of ensuring that the UK Government continues to protect the most vulnerable children from the impact of Coronavirus by supporting their health, education, and future opportunities. 1. SUMMARY 1.1 Significant progress has been made globally over the past three decades in realising children’s rights, improving their lives and enabling them to develop to their full potential. The UK Government has played an important role in achieving this progress. 1.2 With the Coronavirus pandemic, the world now faces an unparalleled crisis. Not only does this challenge governments and communities the world over, it jeopardises the vital progress made on children’s rights and poses a significant risk to children’s health, education and futures. 1.3 Unicef UK is calling for urgent action from the UK Government to mitigate the impact of this pandemic and the response on children’s rights. In the long term, we want the UK Government to learn from this pandemic and strengthen international health and education systems so they are prepared for future non-conflict crises. 1.4 Now and in the future, the global community, including the UK Government, must work together to protect children’s lives and their rights. 2. THE EMERGENCE, INCIDENCE AND SPREAD OF CORONAVIRUS VIRUS INFECTIONS AND -19 DISEASE IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES 2.1 Since the start of the outbreak in December 2019, Coronavirus has spread to nearly all countries and territories around the worldAs of 5 May 2020, there have been over 3.5 million confirmed cases of coronavirus disease 2019, with over 243,00 deaths reported, including among children.1 UNICEF reports the following geographic breakdown and specific concerns: . As of 5 May 2020, 151,000 cases were confirmed positive in the East Asia and Pacific with and more than 7,000 deaths. 1 https://www.unicef.org/appeals/files/UNICEF_Global_CoViD19_Situation_Report_No4__16_30_April_2020.pdf . As of 29 April, a total of 58,120 cases and 1,651 deaths were recorded in the South Asia region. Recent assessments have shown that due to the ongoing lockdown measures there is a significant decrease in access and provision of essential health services. The South Asia region could face a further public health crisis as children miss routine vaccinations as lockdown measures across the region have halted immunization drives and parents refrained from taking their children health facilities for vaccinations. The Eastern and Southern Africa region continues to report an increase with a total of 6,570 confirmed cases and 152 deaths as of 27 April 2020. Multiple collateral impacts from the outbreak control measures, especially strict containment measures, have been reported in the region, with social and economic repercussions for the impacted populations. The pandemic continues to escalate in West and Central Africa with the region surpassing 10,000 confirmed cases in the last week of April 2020. The number of reported confirmed cases has doubled, growing from 5,820 to 13,718 (136% increase) within two weeks. A total of 371 deaths associated to coronavirus were reported as of 30 April 2020. On top of the pandemic needs, there are also ongoing outbreaks of measles in Burkina Faso and Central African Republic as well as resurgence of new cases of the Ebola virus disease in DRC. In the Middle East and North Africa, a total of 162,966 cases were reported as of 29 April, with a 32 per cent increase in just one week. Iran has the highest number in the region with more than 57 per cent of total cases and 80 per cent of total deaths. Of concern is the first cases recorded in refugee camps in the Djibouti, Lebanon, and the State of Palestine. In Yemen, five new cases were reported in Aden - three weeks after the only previous laboratory- confirmed case was detected in the Eastern governorate of Hadramout. Health systems of are under tremendous strain to detect and isolate coronavirus carriers, suggesting that the epidemic could be progressing faster than recorded. In Latin America and the Caribbean there have been over 200,000 reported cases in all 36 countries and territories, and more than 10,000 deaths by end April. Globally, Brazil, Peru and Ecuador are amongst the 20 countries with the highest numbers of confirmed cases; while Brazil, Mexico and Ecuador are now part of the 20 most affected in terms of deaths As many countries lack capacity to adequately test, monitor and report new cases, available data is considered to vastly underreport the severity of the situation. In the Europe and Central Asia region, cases continued to rise, with 210,453 (excluding Italy) at 28 April, a marked increase in Turkey (now 114,653) and 190 cases within the refugee/migrant population in Greece. Belarus (12,208), Romania (11,616), Ukraine (9,866) and Serbia (8,497) reported large numbers and Tajikistan announced its first (15) on 30 April. The situation is rapidly evolving and the latest global, regional and national UNICEF Situation Reports are available here. The above data is from the 6 May Global Situation Report.2 2.2 In countries facing humanitarian crises, the Coronavirus outbreak is creating significant additional pressure on already overburdened social and health service delivery systems and exacerbating the vulnerabilities of affected populations. These countries are already grappling with multiple shocks such as conflict, large-scale-displacement, disease outbreaks, droughts, cyclones, and invasion of locusts and are more likely to have weak health systems that are heavily reliant on the support of donors, UN and NGO partners to subsist. Of particular concern are countries such as the DRC, Somalia, Yemen, South Sudan and Nigeria that are battling measles, malaria upsurges, cholera, polio (vDPV) outbreaks and malnutrition while responding to Coronavirus cases. 2.3 UNICEF is working to prevent further spread of the virus and care for those with the disease, protect and improve access and availability of life-saving services for mothers, newborns, children and adolescents, and focusing on a health systems strengthening approach wherein health systems can respond to Coronavirus immediately, as well as reliably provide affordable and quality health care in the long term. 2 https://www.unicef.org/appeals/files/UNICEF_Global_CoViD19_Situation_Report_No4__16_30_April_2020.pdf 3 THE DIRECT AND INDIRECT IMPACTS OF THE OUTBREAK ON DEVELOPING COUNTRIES, AND SPECIFIC RISKS AND THREATS 3.1 Children are at risk of being the invisible CASE STUDY: COMMUNITY victims of the Coronavirus pandemic, with both the disease and the response RESISTANCE IN THE DRC affecting their rights. In particular, the poorest and most vulnerable children will The Democratic Republic of Congo was expected to experience the greatest loss during this declare the end of Ebola on 12 April. Then, after 52 time as vital public services are greatly days without any confirmed cases (from 18 February impacted. Poor children living in unsafe, 2020), a new case was reported in Beni on 10 April unhygienic slum settings; children with 2020. This was followed by another new case on 12 disabilities unable to get the support they April. need; undocumented migrant children – these are all groups who are at risk of The community is questioning the reasons for this falling further through the cracks during this resurgence and has shown resistance to response time. workers, making it difficult to carry out health promotion work to prevent the spread of 3.2 Around the world, an estimated 800 million Coronavirus. children live in conflict-affected and fragile areas.3 These children experience a double UNICEF has strengthened the existing Risk (perhaps even triple) crisis, having already Communication and Community Engagement team had their lives uprooted and now affected in Beni and is working actively with the Community by the global pandemic. These children Animation Cells and civil society to address may live in refugee camps or areas that are community resistance, follow up of contacts and hard to reach or do not have access to facilitate the other essential response activities. suitable health or child protection services. Their access to safe, clean drinking water It is likely we will see more instances of Coronavirus and open spaces may also limit their ability exacerbating existing tensions and creating serious to keep a safe social distance to prevent secondary impacts. the spread of the virus. 3.3 At the end of 2019, 19 million children were internally displaced by conflict and violence – more than ever before. The numbers of internally displaced people regularly outpace refugee figures, but regretfully these populations are often overshadowed by the needs of refugees and migrants.4 3.4 RECOMMENDATION: The UK Government must not lose sight of internally displaced children in their response to the Coronavirus pandemic, and should encourage other stakeholders to similarly address the needs of these children. 3.5 Children living in poverty around the world will also experience challenges due to their living situations, with overcrowded communities or slum dwellings not affording them the luxury of social distancing nor handwashing.