Futures at Risk

The Impact of COVID-19 on Maternal, Newborn and Child Health in Fragile and Conflict Affected Setings

Women, children and babies cannot be put ‘last’ and forgotten in the global response to the pandemic.

Before the pandemic, children living in fragile and conflict-affected states (FCAS) were already twice as likely to die before the age of five.

Health systems in these settings were already facing extraordinary challenges in reducing the numbers of women, children and babies dying of preventable causes before the pandemic. Now, they are being pushed towards breaking point.

Numerous countries are facing more deadly and more infectious waves of COVID-19. Powerful global players like the UK, who have been leaders in supporting vulnerable children all over the world for years, must act now to prevent a catastrophic health crisis.

UNICEF UK’s new Policy Briefing Futures at Risk: The impact of COVID-19 on maternal, newborn and child health in fragile and conflict-affected settings draws on new evidence from a research report commissioned to explore the impact of COVID-19 on maternal, newborn and child health in fragile and conflict-affected settings. The study is the first of its kind to document how and why COVID-19 disruptions to maternal, newborn and child health and nutrition interventions in FCAS are increasing the preventable deaths of women, newborns and children.

It explores the main study finding of increased preventable deaths of women, newborns and children and three ‘disruption factors’ that have impacted services, leading to these preventable deaths, (1) Funding, (2) Change in supply and uptake of essential services and (3) COVID-19 mitigation and adaptation strategies.

Based on the vast disruptions to lifesaving health and nutrition services, the research warns that the effects on maternal and child mortality could be greater than the direct death toll from COVID-19.

This Policy Briefing makes key recommendations to the UK Government to protect children’s futures, maintain funding and save lives.

THE UK GOVERNMENT MUST TAKE ACTION NOW

In 2019, the UK Government made a Manifesto commitment to ending the preventable deaths of mothers, newborns and children. To fulfil this commitment, it must be at the forefront of global efforts to mitigate the devastating impacts of COVID-19 on women, children and babies in fragile and conflict-affected settings now, and in response to future waves of the virus.

The UK should:

  1. Protect funding for mothers’, newborns’ and children’s health services in fragile and conflict-affected settings.
  2. Publish the Government’s Action Plan on ending preventable maternal, newborn and child deaths.
  3. Lead efforts to deliver COVID-19 vaccines to health workers in fragile and conflict-affected settings as a priority.

About the Research Report

The research report presents a detailed analysis of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and is rich in first-hand testimony from interviewees relating to their direct or indirect experiences responding to the pandemic.

The main finding of the research is that there has been an increase in the preventable deaths of women, children and babies in fragile and conflict-affected settings as a result of the pandemic. It explores three ‘disruption factors’ which have contributed to this increase:

  1. funding
  2. COVID-19 mitigation and adaptation strategies
  3. change in supply and uptake of essential services.

About the Policy Briefing

The policy briefing draws out key content from the research findings and offers recommendations to the UK Government on how it can mitigate the impacts of COVID-19 and strengthen the response to limit further disruption and devastation. It includes both overarching and more specific recommendations.