More than a year after the first known case of Covid-19 set in motion a raft of lockdown restrictions, social science researchers have released new data about the impact of disrupted schooling on children.

The findings confirm what many warned would happen — early grade reading among primary school children in lower quintile schools has suffered a significant setback.

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Comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) and youth-friendly sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) services are critical to the health and wellbeing of adolescents and young people. When access to CSE and SRHR services are restricted, the consequences are detrimental, especially for girls’ health and rights.

The past two years of school disruptions and COVID-19 lockdowns demonstrate this phenomenon, as the region is witnessing rising numbers of adolescent girls and young women who have become pregnant during the COVID-19 lockdown period. Such stories demand heightened attention to ensuring adolescents and young people have access to CSE and SRHR services and support, especially during emergencies.

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The impact of COVID-19 will have an irreversible effect on progress that has been made if governments do not redouble their efforts and move forward with ever greater commitment to adolescent wellbeing. What is needed – now more than ever – is greater economic investment and infrastructure development in health, education, technology and protection while ensuring the involvement of young people in the policy discourse.

This is the outcome of an exploratory study undertaken by MIET AFRICA and the Human Science Research Council (HSRC), the report of which was recently launched.

Prior to the outbreak of COVID-19, some progress had been made in improving adolescents and young peoples’ lives, although economic inequalities meant that the benefits had not been enjoyed by all young people. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has not only exacerbated challenges experienced by the most vulnerable but has made every young person vulnerable.

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Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, sub-Saharan Africa was at risk of not achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. The pandemic has reversed gains and deepened poverty, social exclusion and access to critical services. Further, it has adversely impacted socioeconomic, environmental and political conditions which will have a significant impact on children’s rights to develop their full potential.

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