Picture This: COVID-19 impacts on children
Did you know? According to UNICEF, that as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic:
Up to 142 million more children in developing countries
could be pushed into monetary poverty
An additional 6 to 7 million children under age 5
could suffer from wasting or acute malnutrition
More than 168 million children
have experienced school closures for almost a year.
Picture this: Children in the poorest countries, already in desperate situations, are at higher risk for severe impacts from COVID-19. To help these children, we need to know more—and using data insights, we can start to find solutions.
COVID-19 is about more than case numbers and hospitalization statistics. Below the surface, there is another story about profound societal disruption. A deep global recession, social instability, and widespread economic hardships have created ripple effects that are just beginning to be understood.
While we can’t predict the future, what we can see in the present is that the pandemic has made life much more precarious—and that the world’s children are suffering disproportionately.
UNICEF, a global organization dedicated to improving the lives of children, is using data to shine a light on the crisis.
Because data is critical for understanding, UNICEF has made their databases open and globally accessible, using international open data standards that maximize transparency and make data easier to analyze.
With details such as location, gender, and education level, leaders can see the policy gaps and make better decisions that ensure the needs of the most vulnerable children are prioritized.
But data itself can only go so far in reaching the hearts and minds of leaders and decision-makers.
This is where accessible data and visual analytics can make a difference, helping leaders see and understand their data more quickly, and share insights with others.
For UNICEF, investment in data is an investment in children. To ensure a better future, we must continue to ask hard questions and look for answers in the data. Our data-informed decisions can bring us one step closer to protecting the world’s most vulnerable population: children.
Visit data.unicef.org to learn more about data and insights #foreverychild. To see how organizations like UNICEF are using Tableau to communicate the impacts of COVID-19, explore the Tableau COVID-19 Data Hub.