Child labor rising during pandemic, warns UNICEF

Child labour rises to 160 million – first increase in two decades | UNICEF (press release):

June 9, 2021 – "The number of children in child labour has risen to 160 million worldwide – an increase of 8.4 million children in the last four years – with millions more at risk due to the impacts of COVID-19, according to a new report by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and UNICEF. Child Labour: Global estimates 2020, trends and the road forward – released ahead of World Day Against Child Labour on 12th June – warns that progress to end child labour has stalled for the first time in 20 years, reversing the previous downward trend that saw child labour fall by 94 million between 2000 and 2016. 

"The report points to a significant rise in the number of children aged 5 to 11 years in child labour, who now account for just over half of the total global figure. The number of children aged 5 to 17 years in hazardous work – defined as work that is likely to harm their health, safety or morals – has risen by 6.5 million to 79 million since 2016....

"In sub-Saharan Africa, population growth, recurrent crises, extreme poverty, and inadequate social protection measures have led to an additional 16.6 million children in child labour over the past four years. Even in regions where there has been some headway since 2016, such as Asia and the Pacific, and Latin America and the Caribbean, COVID-19 is endangering that progress. The report warns that globally, 9 million additional children are at risk of being pushed into child labour by the end of 2022 as a result of the pandemic. A simulation model shows this number could rise to 46 million.... 

"Additional economic shocks and school closures caused by COVID-19 mean that children already in child labour may be working longer hours or under worsening conditions, while many more may be forced into the worst forms of child labour due to job and income losses among vulnerable families. 

'We are losing ground in the fight against child labour, and the last year has not made that fight any easier,' said UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore. 'Now, well into a second year of global lockdowns, school closures, economic disruptions, and shrinking national budgets, families are forced to make heart-breaking choices. We urge governments and international development banks to prioritize investments in programmes that can get children out of the workforce and back into school, and in social protection programmes that can help families avoid making this choice in the first place.'"

 Other key findings in the report include:                

• The agriculture sector accounts for 70 per cent of children in child labour (112 million) followed by 20 per cent in services (31.4 million) and 10 per cent in industry (16.5 million).   
• Nearly 28 per cent of children aged 5 to 11 years and 35 per cent of children aged 12 to 14 years in child labour are out of school.  Child labour is more prevalent among boys than girls at every age. When household chores performed for at least 21 hours per week are taken into account, the gender gap in child labour narrows.   
• The prevalence of child labour in rural areas (14 per cent) is close to three times higher than in urban areas (5 per cent). 
• Children in child labour are at risk of physical and mental harm." 

Read more: https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/child-labour-rises-160-million-first-increase-two-decades

Gov't Covid strategies killed 200,000 children in south Asia, UNICEF report estimates

Covid-19 disruptions killed 228,000 children in South Asia, says UN report | BBC News:

March 17, 2021 - "The disruption in healthcare services caused by Covid-19 may have led to an estimated 239,000 maternal and child deaths in South Asia, according to a new UN report. It's focused on Afghanistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, home to some 1.8 billion people. The report found that women, children and adolescents were the worst-hit....

"Many countries, including those in South Asia, responded to the pandemic with stringent lockdowns. While hospitals, pharmacies and grocers remained open, almost everything else shut down. The report - Direct and Indirect Effects of Covid-19 Pandemic and Response in South Asia - examines the effect of these government strategies on healthcare, social services, including schools, and the economy.

"It estimates that there have been 228,000 additional deaths of children under five in these six countries due to crucial services, ranging from nutrition benefits to immunisation, being halted. It says the number of children being treated for severe malnutrition fell by more than 80% in Bangladesh and Nepal, and immunisation among children dropped by 35% and 65% in India and Pakistan respectively.

"The report also says that child mortality rose the highest in India in 2020 - up by 15.4% - followed by Bangladesh at 13%. Sri Lanka saw the sharpest increase in maternal deaths - 21.5% followed by Pakistan's 21.3%....

"The full effect of the pandemic - and ensuing lockdowns - is just starting to become clear as countries take stock of their public health and education programmes. Experts in India already fear that malnutrition rates will be significantly worse across the country when the data pours in over the next few months....

"The interruption to health services also affected those suffering from other diseases - the report predicts an additional 5,943 deaths across the region among adolescents who couldn't get treated for tuberculosis, malaria, typhoid and HIV/Aids."

Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-56425115

Read report: https://www.unicef.org/rosa/media/13066/file/Main%20Report.pdf

3rd World lockdowns may kill more than COVID19

Unicef warns lockdown could kill more than Covid-19 as model predicts 1.2 million child deaths | The Telegraph - Sarah Newey:

May 13, 2020 - "The risk of children dying from malaria, pneumonia or diarrhoea in developing countries is spiralling due to the pandemic and 'far outweighs any threat presented by the coronavirus', Unicef has warned.... Stefan Peterson, chief of health at Unicef, cautioned that the blanket lockdowns imposed in many low and middle income [countries] are not an effective way to control Covid-19 and could have deadly repercussions.

"'Indiscriminate lockdown measures do not have an optimal effect on the virus,' he told The Telegraph. 'If you’re asking families to stay at home in one room in a slum, without food or water, that won’t limit virus transmission.... I’m concerned that lockdown measures have been copied between countries for lack of knowing what to do, rarely with any contextualisation for the local situation,' he said....

"According to a stark report published in Lancet Global Health journal on Wednesday, almost 1.2 million children could die in the next six months due to the disruption to health services and food supplies caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The modelling, by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Unicef, found that child mortality rates could rise by as much as 45 per cent ... while maternal deaths could increase by almost 39 per cent.

"Dr Peterson said these figures were in part a reflection of stringent restrictions in much of the world that prevent people leaving their homes without documentation, preventing them from accessing essential health care services.... Dr Peterson warned that these trends have resulted in a reduction in the 'effective utilisation of services' - a shift which, in some places, could be more dangerous than the virus itself.  And lockdowns have a heavy economic toll, which could trigger a rise in poverty and malnutrition.

"The research looks at the consequences of disruption in 118 low and middle income countries, based on three scenarios. Even in the most optimistic case, where access to health services dropped by 15 per cent and child wasting rose by 10 per cent, an additional 253,500 children and 12,200 mothers died. But a worst-case scenario, where services are reduced by 45 per cent and the proportion of children who are wasting grows by 50 per cent, could result in 1.16 million additional child fatalities and 57,000 maternal deaths in just six months.

"The modelling projected that India would see ... the largest number of additional deaths in children under five and [in] maternal mortality, followed by Nigeria. Pakistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania and Indonesia are also likely to be hit hard.

"Such a situation has some precedent - research has shown that in 2014, during the Ebola outbreak in west Africa, more people died from indirect effects than the disease itself. But the scale of the pandemic means the consequences will be far greater....

"Dr Peterson urged countries not to impose draconian lockdowns, but to focus on identifying hotspots so that regional restrictions less damaging for public health can be introduced. He said he was concerned that the current battle against Covid-19 was turning into a 'child’s rights crisis' and robbing a generation of their health, education and economic prospects."

Read more: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/unicef-warns-lockdown-could-kill-covid-19-model-predicts-12/

Humanitarian aid groups turning to blockchain

PolloPollo: The crypto project putting chicken back on the table in Venezuela - Decrypt - Adriana Hamacher:

November 9, 2019 - "In a TV broadcast last month, Venezuelan President Maduro suggested installing hen coops in classrooms to feed the country’s starving children. It’s a measure of the enduring humanitarian crisis that he’s persistently insisted does not exist. And this stance, say aid workers, makes it impossible for international agencies, like UNICEF and the World Food Programme, to airlift and distribute the supplies that Venezuelans so desperately need....

"But a new initiative, PolloPollo, is hoping to put poultry, and other groceries back on the table once again. PolloPollo is using blockchain to deliver on its promise, but also to address questions of transparency and accountability that have been levied against other donation programs....

"It’s not the only one. Further afield, the World Food Programme has also been using DLT [distributed ledger technology] to distribute aid to those who need it most since early last year, and is now both expanding the ground it covers and improving on the technology....

"Casper Niebe, PolloPollo’s founder, told Decrypt [that aid] recipients don’t even need a smartphone. They simply have to register on the platform’s website, and post a request.... When a third party responds to the request and makes a donation on the platform, the person requesting food gets a text message or an email. They then pick up and digitally sign for their supplies from a food retailer or producer nearby. The shop or farm then receives payment for the produce in 'bytes,' the cryptocurrency of the Obyte platform PolloPollo is built on. The final step is when an Obyte representative visits the supplier and converts the cryptocurrency into Venezuelan Bolivars, or another crypto.

"Niebe said that the project was born out of his frustration at the lack of transparency in current aid distribution platforms. Transaction fees and costs eat up around 3.5 percent of the average donation, according to estimates, and former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has warned that up to 30 percent of development funds are lost to corruption.... Niebe believes PolloPollo is a better solution, one that offers more accountability. With their digital signature, the aid recipients activate the smart contract that ensures suppliers are paid. And donors are notified via the PolloPollo platform.....

"Since early in 2018, the World Food Programme has been using blockchain to address the food shortages that dog the 106,000 refugees who have fled Syria, and set up temporary homes in Jordan’s camps. 'Currently, we’re exploring the foundational blockchain layer, rather than cryptocurrency,' Houman Haddad, the UN executive behind the project, told Decrypt.

"His initiative, Building Blocks, provides food vouchers for the refugees to redeem in local stores. It uses a 'permissioned' or private version of the Ethereum blockchain, together with iris scanning technology, to manage the data underpinning the delivery of the vouchers. To buy food, a recipient need only go to a participating supermarket, where their iris is scanned and the price of the food they need is deducted from the family’s account....

"Instead of furnishing refugees with crypto, Haddad’s dream is to roll out a more decentralized version of Building Blocks; one that all 40 of the organizations assisting people in the camps can use.... Meanwhile, Building Blocks is expanding to Bangladesh and rolling out a blockchain that Haddad hopes will — eventually — service more than 800,000 Rohinga refugees."

Read more: https://decrypt.co/10972/pollopollo-the-crypto-project-putting-chicken-back-on-the-table-in-venezuela
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