Urgent investment in South Asia’s children vital to prevent devastating impacts of COVID-19 being felt for decades – UNICEF

KATHMANDU: DEC. 10 – According to a new UNICEF report released on the agency’s 75th anniversary, governments across South Asia must urgently increase investments in basic health, education, and protection services for the millions of children and their families whose lives have been devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic and other disasters.

The report, “Reigniting Opportunities for Children in South Asia,” highlights the disproportionate impact that the pandemic has had on the most marginalized of the region’s 600 million children. The report says that unless rollbacks in critical health, immunization, nutrition, protection and education services are reversed, the worst consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic will persist for decades. The report notes that humanitarian disasters and climate-related hazards such as droughts, floods and air pollution have furthered exacerbated the situation for children.