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Economic Crisis and Child Well-being in West and Central Africa
Kaku Attah Damoah, Frank Otchere, Dominic Richardson ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-sonnet-5-5The paper looks at how the economic crisis caused by COVID-19 affected children in UNICEF's West and Central Africa Region. Economic output in the region shrank by 2.4 per cent in 2020, and 11 of 24 countries had negative growth. The study estimates that up to 6.7 million children born in 2020 may not have been fully vaccinated by age 1, and that undernourishment was projected to rise by 1.38 percentage points from 16.5 per cent. It encourages governments not to cut funding for essential child services such as immunization and education, and calls for extra support to households and more help from international partners.
Key points
- Economic output in West and Central Africa shrank by 2.4 per cent in 2020, the first contraction in 6 decades.
- 11 of the 24 countries in the region recorded negative real GDP growth.
- Up to 6.7 million children born in 2020 might not have been fully vaccinated by age 1.
- Undernourishment prevalence was projected to rise by 1.38 percentage points from a pre-pandemic level of 16.5 per cent.
- Governments are urged not to cut financing for essential child services such as immunization and education as part of austerity.
Limitations
Only the abstract is available, so the methods, data sources and country-level results cannot be assessed. The estimates are described as conservative because they leave out the effects of containment measures. The figures are projections, not measured outcomes.
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic that swept over the world from early 2020 triggered both health and economic shocks of unprecedented proportions in recent memory. For the first time in 6 decades, the economic output in the West and Central Africa Region (WCAR) of UNICEF shrank by 2.4 per cent in 2020 as 11 out of the 24 countries in the region recorded negative real GDP growth. Building on impact of economic crisis in the past, particularly the financial crisis of 2008 and the commodity crisis of 2014, this paper examined the impact of the COVID-19 induced economic crisis on child selected child wellbeing outcomes. <br><br>The study finds that up to 6.7 million children born in 2020 might have missed essential vaccination land were not fully vaccinated by age 1. Similarly, the prevalence of undernourishment was projected to increase by 1.38 percentage points from the pre-pandemic level of 16.5 per cent. These estimates are conservative since they do not account for containment measures adopted to limit the spread of COVID-19. To avert these reversals in progress, governments are strongly encouraged to not cut financing for essential child services such as immunization and education as part of austerity measures. Indeed, extra economic support will be needed to offset the anticipated economic effects on households. The international development community are also strongly encouraged to provide additional resources and technical support to ensure that the well-being of children in the WCAR is protected and promoted to the greatest extent possible during this period of economic and social uncertainty.