From Evidence to Action: Centering Children's Voices during Infectious Disease Outbreak related School Closures and Reopenings

During 2021 and 2022, the Alliance and the Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE), commissioned Proteknôn Foundation for Innovation and Learning to conduct participatory research across three humanitarian settings—Lebanon, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Colombia—to explore the impact of COVID-19 school closures on child protection and educational inequalities.

This research showed that there was an urgent need:

• To support children who are still most impacted by COVID-19 related school closures
• To develop policies and guidance to support child-centred decision-making related to school closures, school reopenings, and the holistic well-being and protection of children and young people before, during, and after future IDOs in humanitarian settings.

Following the research, and to respond to these needs, the INEE and the Alliance worked with research partners to conduct a series of Round Tables during the last quarter of 2022 and early 2023, with each Round Table building on the next. The Round Tables provided an opportunity to present the findings and recommendations from the research, and participants—children and young people from humanitarian settings, humanitarian actors from various sectors, and global donors—then worked to develop actions to promote child-centred IDO preparedness, response, and recovery.

This summary report highlights the phased approach to the Round Tables and provides brief details of the methodology used and summaries of the outcomes and outputs. Key actions and suggested ways forward are also presented, with a focus on accountability to children.