The Impact of COVID-19 on Children

in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Researchers of the Social Policy Research Institute (SPRI Global) supported UNICEF Ethiopia in partnership with the Central Statistical Agency in carrying out a quantitative study on the impact of COVID-19 on Children in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The survey data were collected by Rebret Business and Consultancy PLC under the leadership of Dereje Kebede.

This policy brief makes a first attempt to explore the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on children in Addis Ababa. The data are based on the results of telephone interviews with 241 households (encompassing more than 1000 individuals) in 3 sub-cities of Addis Ababa.
The study finds that children are highly vulnerable to the indirect effects of the pandemic and related policy measures. Although Addis Ababa had among the lowest headcount rates of multidimensionally poor children before the pandemic, children experienced hardship due to service disruption and movement restrictions.

This research was undertaken as part of a quantitative poverty analysis report entitled: Faces of Poverty: Studying the Overlap between Monetary and Multidimensional Child Poverty in Ethiopia . The report analysed the relationship between monetary and multidimensional child poverty, and investigated other factors associated with deprivation, from basic goods and services to multidimensional deprivation.

In addition to this quantitative survey focusing on Addis Ababa, qualitative interviews with key informants in the sectors of health, nutrition, child protection, education, and WASH were carried out in Amhara and Somali to investigate bottlenecks in service provision before and since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Download the report: Download file