Protecting Children during Infectious Disease Outbreaks

Adjust child protection programs in the context of infectious disease outbreaks

This course will equip child protection practitioners with knowledge and skills to implement evidence-based crisis response and prevention strategies to protect children during infectious diseases outbreaks.

Identify the child protection risks caused by infectious disease outbreaks

COVID-19 impacts children through:

• Infection with the virus/disease
• the impact of social and economic infection prevention measures
• the potential longer-term effects on mental health and psychosocial wellbeing

In this course, you will reflect on how infectious diseases outbreaks impact children, families, and communities through disruptions to families, friendships, daily routines, community dynamics, and income.

You will learn about the resulting negative consequences for children’s protection, wellbeing, and development and discover ways to adapt child protection strategies to the disruptions.

Adapt child protection strategies and programming during infectious disease outbreaks

As you explore the social and developmental consequences of infectious disease outbreaks for children, you’ll learn to adjust child protection programming in the context of Infectious Diseases Outbreaks keeping children at the centre. You will also learn about joining up with other sectors to implement strategies for protecting children and strengthening partnerships with governments.

Learn with experts at the Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action (The Alliance)

The course is designed to help child protection practitioners navigate infectious disease contexts. You will learn via technical notes produced by The Alliance and endorsed globally and how these have been used by colleagues on the ground.

This course is designed for child protection professionals around the world rising to the challenge of finding creative ways to support the most vulnerable children, families, and communities in the context of public health measures associated with infectious disease outbreaks that span from physical distancing to lockdown measures.

This may include child protection advisors, coordinators, managers, officers, field managers of national and international NGOs, UN agencies, representatives of government institutions, and child and family-focused members of the social service workforce.

Please note that this course is for practitioners with experience in child protection and child and family-focused programming in development and/or humanitarian settings. It is not a comprehensive child protection or child protection in humanitarian action capacity building course.

This course is designed for child protection professionals around the world rising to the challenge of finding creative ways to support the most vulnerable children, families, and communities in the context of public health measures associated with infectious disease outbreaks that span from physical distancing to lockdown measures.

This may include child protection advisors, coordinators, managers, officers, field managers of national and international NGOs, UN agencies, representatives of government institutions, and child and family-focused members of the social service workforce.

Please note that this course is for practitioners with experience in child protection and child and family-focused programming in development and/or humanitarian settings. It is not a comprehensive child protection or child protection in humanitarian action capacity building course.

• Assess the context set through public health measures and elaborate on how this affects protective and risk factors for children in preparedness, response, transition and recovery from infectious disease outbreaks.
• Describe the main child protection risks during major outbreaks of infectious diseases in your context through a socioecological and developmental lens
• Explain the centrality of child participation through all stages of the programme cycle and identify ways to foster safe child participation
• Describe how to jointly implement with other sectors to protect children
• Identify key actions to support risk informed programming and contribute to system strengthening in future infectious disease outbreaks
• Summarise ways to adapt child protection prevention and response programming in line with CPMS principles and standards