COVID-19 has severely stretched the capacity of families to maintain their sense of wellbeing and mental health, and disrupted access to social and environmental supports and many families are grappling with the loss of both loved ones and livelihoods. The global recession, and introduction of austerity measures and budget cuts
KEY FINDINGS: 1. Nearly 1 in 3 people in South Africa will experience a mental disorder in their lifetime, and most mental health disorders have their roots in early childhood and adolescence. 2. While there are no national prevalence data, mental health problems affect an estimated 10 -20% of children and adolescents in lowand middle-income countries (LMICs) with the most common being anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and substance-use disorders.
are likely to further undermine children’s access to services and support systems. While climate change, rising temperatures and extreme weather events are shaking the very foundations of our planetary life support system and fuelling a rise in anxiety, depression and PTSD.
KEY HIGHLIGHT: Given these existing challenges and emerging shocks to the system, a focus on remedies and on enabling children and families to cope with adversity is both urgent and essential. The 2021 Child Gauge therefore aims to focus attention on opportunities to promote child and adolescent mental health and wellbeing across the life course; and identify emerging and best practice policy and programmes for prevention, promotion and treatment both within and outside the health care system.
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HARNESSING GLOBAL DATA
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After the release of the groundbreaking 2017 Lancet
tries to improve child development, early learning and
Series on advancing early childhood development, a
pre-primary education through better understanding
key recommendation was the development of a glob-
of the determinants of and risks to children’s devel-
al monitoring and evaluation system. The Countdown
opment, the economic consequences of inaction, and
to 2030 Country Profiles on Early Childhood Develop-
policy and legal frameworks to address challenges.
ment were thus devised, providing available data for each country and allowing progress to be tracked on
UNICEF’s ECD Countdown to 2030 country profiles in-
42 indicators. While initially 91 country profiles were
cluded data from 197 countries and contained 42 ear-
released, 138 low- and- middle income countries were
ly childhood development (ECD) indicators. This gives
included in 2019. This work gave rise to the Harness-
the most comprehensive picture of about 99.8% of the
ing Global Data Project, funded by the UKRI’s Global
world’s children younger than five years old.
Challenges Research Fund, and led by Professors Linda Richter, who heads the CoE-HUMAN Durban of-
In 2021, the researchers modelled global estimates of
fice, and Alan Stein (University of Oxford). The project
the impacts of Covid on the world’s youngest children.
brings together researchers, policymakers and imple-
Already data reveals that 10.75 million additional chil-
menters from around the world to use available data
dren fell “off track” in their early development, with
on young children in low- and middle-income coun-
this concentrated in LMICs.
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