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

COVID-19在撒哈拉以南非洲蔓延，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国家之一。大约57%的人口生活在贫困线以下，50%的家庭长期处于粮食不安全状态。塞拉利昂是一个高度父权制的社会。文化和传统中根深蒂固的性别规范使妇女和儿童容易受到贫穷和不发达的影响。为遏制COVID-19的蔓延，塞拉利昂政府自二零二零年三月二十五日起宣布进入公共卫生紧急状态，实施宵禁、封锁以限制行动、关闭学校及禁止公众集会。据报道，这些措施对减少COVID-19的传播产生了预期效果。然而，人们普遍关切的是，这些措施对弱势群体产生了不利影响。政府、联合国机构和非政府组织正在采取干预措施，以尽量减少这些措施的影响。本研究将探讨COVID-19和相关缓解措施如何通过评估以下方面的影响来影响妇女和儿童：（1）生计和家庭收入;（2）性暴力和基于性别的暴力;（3）获得COVID-19教育信息;（4）接触错误信息;（5）对妇女和儿童的影响。（5）儿童获得其他学习资源，例如由联合国儿童基金会资助的基础和高等教育部广播课。将通过培训全国30个广播听众俱乐部的180名成员，建立一个由900名18岁以上妇女（答卷人）组成的小组。每个成员将接受培训，学习如何使用明确的指导方针在其所在地区招收五名妇女。RLC是由当地非政府组织媒体发展倡议（IMdev -http：//imdev.media/）于2015年成立的，作为其与位于该国所有地区的40个广播电台网络持续合作的一部分。900名受访者将被告知并同意参与小组调查。将进行基线调查。随后将每隔三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数据，并立即上传。电话访谈将由10名（至少5名为女性）经过培训的访谈员进行。所有访谈都将被记录，用于质量控制目的。在每次调查结束时将进行横断面和队列分析。有关资料将与参与实施COVID-19缓解措施的机构分享。这项研究是伦敦卫生和热带医学学院、国际发展与发展部和社会福利、性别平等和儿童事务部之间的合作，得到了儿基会塞拉利昂办事处、塞拉利昂妇女署和塞拉利昂统计局的技术支持。调查结果将用于改善干预措施，以保障弱势妇女的生计和收入，消除性暴力和性别暴力，改善妇女获得COVID-19信息的机会，并改善儿童获得替代学习的机会。该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中设定的具体目标。在本研究期结束后，数据集和研究结果将由参与流行病准备、性别研究和经济分析的英国和非英国研究人员使用。研究持续时间为12个月。将保留由全国900名妇女答卷人组成的小组，作为今后塞拉利昂妇女和儿童问题研究的资源。

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.