Rebuilding Human Capital Amidst the Pandemic: The Impacts of COVID-19 on School-Aged Children and Youth in Haiti

Rome (Italy): World Food Programme (WFP), 2022.

English

32 p.

ELR3074

In Haiti, 1,714 youth aged 15-24 years old and 629 parents of schoolchildren were randomly surveyed online in May–July 2021. This study found that the deteriorating economic and security conditions posed additional education access challenges for children and youth in a country that already suffered from low school enrolment. Young girls were particularly affected by insecurity and violence, which was the main reason for not enrolling them in school. While COVID-19 did not significantly affect school enrolment among young children, 6 percent of youth reported leaving school during the pandemic. The pandemic had a severe impact on the income of parents. The food security of Haitian children was found to be alarmingly compromised, with around half of children having eaten only one meal the day before the survey and being forced to adopt the most severe food-based coping strategies in the month preceding the survey. About one third of youth reported eating fewer than two meals per day, with 20–24 year olds, and women, most affected. Some 70 percent of youth also reported being forced to adopt foodbased and/or livelihood-based coping strategies to survive, which confirms the very precarious food security state among schoolchildren.

Electronic ed.

Public

ELR 3074

English