Phone panel survey to evaluate how COVID-19 and related mitigation interventions are impacting women and children in Sierra Leone

电话小组调查旨在评估 COVID-19 及相关缓解干预措施对塞拉利昂妇女和儿童的影响

• 批准号: AH/V008005/1
• 负责人: Frank Baiden
• 金额: $ 17.13万
• 依托单位: London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2020 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FV008005%2F1
• 关键词: Phone; panel; survey; evaluate; how

COVID-19 is spreading in sub-Saharan Africa with increasing number of infected people and deaths. Sierra Leone is among the least-developed countries in the world. About 57% of the population live below the poverty line and 50% of households experience chronic food insecurity. Sierra Leone is a highly patriarchal society. Gender norms that are entrenched in culture and tradition make women and children vulnerable to the effects of poverty and underdevelopment. To contain the spread of COVID-19, the Government of Sierra Leone has since 25th March 2020 declared a state of public health emergency, imposed a curfew, used lockdowns to restrict movements, closed schools, and placed a ban on public gatherings. These measures are reportedly having the desired effect of reducing the spread of COVID-19. However, it is a widely held concern that the measures are impacting adversely on vulnerable sub-populations. The Government, United Nations agencies and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are implementing interventions to minimize the effects of these measures. This study will explore how COVID-19 and related mitigation measures are impacting women and children through evaluating effects on; (1) Livelihoods and household incomes; (2) sexual and gender-based violence; (3) access to COVID-19 education messages; (4) exposure to misinformation; (5) children's access to alternative learning resources e.g. UNICEF-funded Ministry of Basic and Higher Education radio lessons. A panel of 900 women aged >18yrs (respondents) will be established through training the 180 members of 30 radio listeners clubs (RLCs) across the country. Each member will be trained on how to enrol five women within their locality using clearly-defined guidelines. The RLCs were formed in 2015 by Initiatives for Media Development (IMdev - http://imdev.media/), a local NGO, as part of its continued work with a network of 40 radio stations that are located in all districts in the country. The 900 respondents will be informed and consented to participate in the panel survey. A baseline survey will be conducted. This will be followed by two other surveys at thee-monthly intervals. A questionnaire that is mounted on tablets will be used to collect data that will be immediately uploaded. The phone interviews will be conducted by 10 (at least 5 will be females) trained interviewers. All interviews will be recorded for quality control purposes. Cross-sectional and cohort analysis will be performed at the end of each survey. The information will be shared with the agencies that are involved in the implementation of COVID-19 mitigation measures. This study is a collaboration between the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, IMdev and the Ministry of Social Welfare, Gender and Children's Affairs, with technical support from UNICEF-Sierra Leone, UNWomen Sierra Leone and Statistics Sierra Leone. The findings will be used to improve the interventions that safeguard the livelihood and incomes of vulnerable women, eliminate sexual and gender-based violence, improve women's access to COVID-19 information and improve children's access to alternative learning. The study will contribute to Sierra Leone's achievement of the targets set in Sustainable Development Goals 1.5, 5.2, 5.1 and 4.1. Beyond the period of this study, the datasets and findings will be used by UK and non-UK researchers involved in epidemic preparedness, gender studies and economic analysis. The duration of the study is 12 months. The panel of 900 women respondents across the country will be maintained as a resource for future research on women and children in Sierra Leone.

新冠肺炎正在撒哈拉以南非洲地区蔓延，感染人数和死亡人数不断增加。塞拉利昂是世界上最不发达的国家之一。约57%的人口生活在贫困线以下，50%的家庭长期粮食不安全。塞拉利昂是一个高度父权制的社会。根深蒂固的文化和传统中的性别规范使妇女和儿童容易受到贫穷和不发达的影响。为了遏制新冠肺炎的传播，塞拉利昂政府自2020年3月25日以来宣布进入公共卫生紧急状态，实施宵禁，利用封锁限制行动，关闭学校，并禁止公众集会。据报道，这些措施正在收到预期的效果，减少了新冠肺炎的传播。然而，人们普遍担心，这些措施正在对弱势群体产生不利影响。政府、联合国机构和非政府组织正在采取干预措施，尽量减少这些措施的影响。本研究将探讨“新冠肺炎”及相关缓解措施是如何通过评估以下方面的影响来影响妇女和儿童的：(1)生计和家庭收入；(2)性暴力和基于性别的暴力；(3)获取新冠肺炎教育信息的机会；(4)接触错误信息的机会；(5)儿童获得替代学习资源的机会，例如由联合国儿童基金会资助的基础和高等教育部无线电课程。通过对全国30个无线电听众俱乐部(RLC)的180名成员进行培训，将建立一个由900名18岁女性(受访者)组成的小组。每个成员都将接受培训，了解如何使用明确界定的指导方针在其所在地区招募五名妇女。RLCs于2015年由媒体发展倡议(IMDEV-http://imdev.media/)，)成立，这是一个当地非政府组织，作为其继续与位于全国各区的40个广播电台网络合作的一部分。900名受访者将被告知并同意参加小组调查。将进行基线调查。随后将每隔一个月进行另外两次调查。安装在平板电脑上的调查问卷将用于收集将立即上载的数据。电话面试将由10名(至少5名为女性)训练有素的面试官进行。所有面谈将被记录下来，以便进行质量控制。将在每次调查结束时进行横断面和队列分析。这些信息将与参与实施新冠肺炎缓解措施的机构共享。这项研究是伦敦卫生和热带医学院与社会福利、性别和儿童事务部合作开展的，得到了联合国儿童基金会塞拉利昂办事处、联合国妇女署塞拉利昂办事处和塞拉利昂统计局的技术支持。研究结果将用于改进保障弱势妇女生计和收入的干预措施，消除性暴力和性别暴力，改善妇女获取新冠肺炎信息的途径，并改善儿童获得替代学习的途径。这项研究将有助于塞拉利昂实现可持续发展目标1.5、5.2、5.1和4.1中规定的目标。在本研究期间之后，英国和非英国的研究人员将使用这些数据集和研究结果，这些研究人员将参与疫情防备、性别研究和经济分析。研究为期12个月。这个由全国900名妇女组成的调查小组将继续作为今后对塞拉利昂妇女和儿童进行研究的资源。