Real Time Assessment of UNICEF social protection response to COVID-19 in selected countries

This report aims to provide a snapshot of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)’s social protection responses during the pandemic, its relevance, effectiveness, adaptation to changes in the situation due to the evolution of the pandemic, with special focus on the gender and equity dimensions of the response, and the role played by partnerships and cooperative arrangements.

The object of the assessment are five Europe and Central Asian Region (ECAR) countries and five UNICEF country offices (COs): Albania, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The report defines social protection narrowly as to include social assistance, child benefits, labour market programmes, housing assistance, and social services.

The report adopted a Theory of Change (ToC) to guide our formative analysis of UNICEF’s COVID-19 response. Its findings are based on desk review of available literature, analysis of quantitative budget and results achievement data, and key informant interviews (KIIs) with three types of key stakeholder directly involved in COVID-19 response on the side of UNICEF COs, government counterparts, and non-government stakeholders (primarily COs), which allowed for extensive triangulation opportunities.

The intended audience of the report is primarily UNICEF ECARO and five UNICEF COs as well as their relevant governments, United Nations agencies, and other development partners as they reflect on and harness over the course of the response in their respective countries.