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Some of the findings from our recent Policy Study #34: Measuring the Economic Effects of State Aid Granted to Private Enterprises in North Macedonia: The Case of the Governmental Economic Growth Plan (bit.ly/3ycc2Md) has been presented at the 55th Annual Meetings of the Canadian Economic Association (online, 3-5 June 2021) by one of the authors, prof. Marjan Petreski.
More about the 55th Annual Meetings of the Canadian Economics Association: economics.ca/cpages/cea2021
Skopje, 1 June 2021: While government COVID-19 socio-economic measures have mitigated the impact on extreme child poverty, more children are living below the average standard of living. Furthermore, disruptions to services in social protection and education and decreased demand in health services are putting children at further risk as the pandemic lingers – according to an updated analysis of social and economic effects on children, published today by UNICEF, conducted by Finance Think and funded by USAID.
“Children are not the face of this pandemic, but they are among its biggest victims. With over a year of lockdowns, empty classrooms, disrupted services, losses to family livelihoods, children’s lives have changed in profound ways. All children, of all ages, are affected, but for the most vulnerable the pandemic and its socio-economic consequences have exacerbated pre-existing vulnerabilities and adversity. Without additional investment in measures to restore access to vital services in protection, education and health, the pandemic can have a lifelong impact on children,” said Patrizia Di Giovanni, UNICEF Representative.
The updated study on the social and economic impact of COVID19 on children is a follow up to the analysis conducted in 2020. The new research highlights that:
“Although the government has designed six packages of measures to deal with the social and economic consequences of the pandemic, they have rarely been focused on children. This was reflected in the budget planning in 2021. Although children received additional protection through the support that was provided for the preservation of jobs and the income of the parents, the experience of COVID-19 shows us that we should consider adjusting the system so that it can protect the most vulnerable children from future shocks.” said Blagica Petreski from Finance Think, one of the authors.
The findings in the new research call for shifting policy efforts to restore access to services to reduce the risk of children being among the biggest victims of the pandemic:
First, reopening schools must be a priority. Schools not only provide space for learning; they also provide delivery platform for essential protection and mental health services. With COVID-19 vaccines available, additional efforts are needed to ensure teachers and school staff receive the vaccine, so they are protected from the virus and able to hold in person classes. The situation also calls for increasing investment to build schools capacities to respond to mental health, and ensure schools are resilient to future disruptions by further strengthening systems to deliver remote learning and reducing the digital divide especially for the most vulnerable, including for children with disabilities.
Second, the situation also calls for efforts to fully restore social protection, including violence prevention services. Ensuring that social workers receive the COVID-19 vaccine, will enable them to conduct needed community outreach and restore full access to prevention services.
Third, to overcome the risks associated with postponing necessary health checks of children, there is a need to introduce additional measures to increase public confidence and demand for services including support for mental health; as well as investment in building capacities for tele-health services to introduce efficiencies and ensure the health system is resilient to future disruptions.
Fourth, to address the underutilization of cash benefits, additional efforts to improve outreach, information and support to complete the application process is needed to ensure all eligible families benefit from the assistance.
Fifth, psychosocial support must remain available, affordable and accessible. This includes building the capacities of professional support staff within schools and focusing them on provision of guidance and counselling to pupils and parents experiencing emotional and mental health difficulties.
The findings from the five analyzes for gender-responsive budgeting in the municipalities were presented at an internal meeting with UN Women Skopje and representatives of the Municipalities of Veles, Gjorce Petrov, Kocani, Sveti Nikole, Veles.
They will soon be publicly available and you can see the details.
This research was developed by Finance Think – Economic Research and Policy Institute, within the UN Women project “Promoting Gender Responsive Policies and Budgets: Towards Transparent, Inclusive and Accountable Governance in the Republic of North Macedonia”, financially supported by The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation and the Swedish International Cooperation and Development Agency – SIDA
Prof. Petreski, one of the authors of the study, exemplified the findings and recommendations in the prominent TV debate on Alsat-M.