Agile in adversity: How COVID-19 changed the way World Vision works

Decades of development gains are slipping away as poverty rises, jobs are lost and wages are cut. Desperate situations are forcing families to make impossible decisions to send children and young people to work, beg or get married. As a child-focused organisation, World Vision is especially concerned about the impact of the pandemic on children’s well-being. Indirect aftershocks of COVID-19 are being felt by billions of citizens. At its peak, COVID-19 forced schools to close nationwide in 194 countries, affecting 1.6 billion learners or over 90% of the world’s school-going population.1 World Vision’s research suggests that these school closures could result in teenage pregnancy rates increasing by 65%.2 As such, an estimated 1 million girls in sub-Saharan Africa may be blocked from returning to school.