A LOT of guidance has been drafted on coronavirus and its impact on children since early March, including a range of “technical notes”. Here, we shine a spotlight on the technical notes which are relevant to children’s wellbeing, and how they might help guide our community-led child protection work during this time.
But firstly, what is a technical note? In the COVID-19 and children’s wellbeing context a technical note is a brief which lays out the main considerations as well as our understandings so far on how and why children are or could be impacted by the pandemic. The notes might also suggest how to address these issues programmatically and sometimes through advocacy and policy. Mostly, they are developed collaboratively between different agencies, and are designed to align with each other and other global guidance and tools, including the 2019 edition of the Minimum Standards for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action.
Technical notes are very useful in helping us understand key issues affecting children during COVID-19, as well as focusing our thinking. However, as they are written for a global audience, we also need to ensure we read them from the perspective of the contexts where we are working.