COVID-19: Working with and for young people

From the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, one of the defining messages has been that older persons are more affected. Yet health and nonhealth impacts on young people are proving to be significant. A common understanding of these impacts and the role young people are playing in driving solutions is essential to the pandemic response. The repercussions of COVID-19 will extend beyond health and well beyond the pandemic time frame. This global crisis is exacerbating existing vulnerabilities and inequalities.1 All of these impacts are further amplified in humanitarian contexts where fragility, conflict, and emergencies have undermined institutional capacity and limited access to services.

Specific vulnerabilities

The impacts of COVID-19 are, and will continue to be, felt most harshly by young people already living in difficult and/or disadvantaged circumstances. These include but are not limited to:

• Refugees, asylum seekers, and internally displaced persons, both in and out of camp settings, and others caught in pre-existing humanitarian emergencies.

• Young people living in poor, highdensity urban areas and informal settlements without access to running water and other services and with limited ability to physically distance.

• Young people experiencing homelessness, who also have little access to services and limited ability to physically distance.

• Young migrants, who will suffer disproportionately, both from the pandemic and from its aftermath – whether because of restrictions on their movement, close living conditions, fewer employment opportunities, inability to return home, or increased xenophobia.

• Young people separated from, unaccompanied by, or left behind by migrant working parents, who face higher risks of exploitation, violence and mental health issues and have limited access to health services and protection.

• Young people with disabilities or who are differently abled, including those with physical, visual, hearing, intellectual, and other impairments.

• Adolescent girls and young women who already suffer from gender-based inequalities and deprivations, and are at heightened risk of experiencing gender-based violence (GBV) and increased care burdens.

• Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning, and intersex (LGBTQI) young people, who tend to face broad discrimination, including and especially in health-care settings.

• Young people living with chronic health conditions such as asthma.

• Youth living with HIV may be at heightened risk due to weakened immune systems and disruptions of their treatment regimens, while deprivations caused by the COVID-19 virus may increase the risk of HIV transmission, especially for girls.

Get in touch with us and join our efforts to work with young people in developing effective responses to COVID-19.