This report aims to support timely and context-relevant policy and programming in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, the State of Palestine (Gaza and West Bank) and Jordan by adding to the evidence base on adolescent girls’ and boys’ experiences during COVID-19. Drawing on mixed methods research it captures the risks and opportunities adolescents face across four low- and middle-income country contexts six to nine months after lockdowns in response to the pandemic were first introduced.

With a focus on the intersectional challenges faced by adolescents including by gender, age, marital status, disability and context, the report covers three key domains: education and learning; violence and bodily integrity; and voice, agency and community participation. This is the companion report to a report published in August 2020, ‘I have nothing to feed my family’, which focused on the immediate, short-term effects of COVID-19 and associated lockdowns on girls and boys across the same contexts. The report concludes with key recommendations for policy and programming actors so that efforts to ‘build back better’ post-pandemic can be more effectively informed by adolescents’ experiences and voices.

Authors: N. Jones, S. Guglielmi, A. Małachowska, B. Abu Hamad, W. Yadete with S. A. Hamad, E. Abu Hamra, F. Alam, S. Alheiwidi, T. Alabbadi, N. Al-Redaisy, W. Amaireh, T. Amdeselassie, K. Banioweda, R. Diab, Y. Gebeyehu, K. Gezahegne, A. Iyasu, A. Qandeel, M. Sultan, K. Tilahun and F. Workneh