With over 50% of teams in the YAR initiative of UNESCO’s Social and Sciences Programme having submitted their proposals, and over 25% being approved and conducting research, teams are off to a steady start. Ranging from Global to Regional teams, young researchers are exploring topics such as mental health, accessibility to services, perception of education and more, which immensely impact youth from all over the world. The Global Human Rights team, the North America team, the Global Youth Action, Global Small Island Developing States and Europe’s Regional Team share their first experiences.
Major Focus Areas
In light of sexual and health services and rights, the Global Human Rights Team aims to cast light on how the pandemic has affected young people’s access to adequate, youth-friendly sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) services at the clinical, educational and programmatic levels that are tailored to their needs. The team seeks to uncover the barriers specific communities face whilst trying to access SRHR information or services during the pandemic. Based on their findings, there is a global acknowledgement of the pandemic putting a halt to basic rights. Global HR researcher Donna Fry expands on this: “I expect to discover confirmation that the opportunities and services young people have previously had to exercise these rights have been severely impacted in many contexts.” Likewise, Europe’s Regional Team aims to highlight the impact of Covid 19 on rights and services; however, they’re looking at it from the prospect of mental health. The Team’s proposal sheds light on how COVID-19 has largely affected European university students’ access to mental health care. The proposal centers around the accessibility of students within social distancing confines: Whether students are able to reach these institutions and seek help or manage to conduct their appointments effectively from home.
Drawing on the abruption to services, the Global Small Island Developing States (GLO SIDS) team’s research pertains more to abruptions in the education field and the realities of such abruptions during the pandemic. Their research subtopics include academic transition process, perceived effectiveness of distance or hybrid learning, access to technology, motivation, and social and emotional well-being. Perhaps the largest educational transition for many students was from in-person learning to remote learning. However, the team elaborated that the COVID-19 restrictions might have impacted even the students and teachers that never left the in-person classrooms, as they need to be physically distanced or wear a face mask might have influenced many students’ and teachers’ experiences. On a similar note, the Global Youth Action also draws on education and the limitations COVID-19 is causing, including constraints on physical interactions in light of the strict social distancing protocols universally held. However, it aims to batter the common misconception that underscores youth as “passive” victims of the pandemic, and instead, they look into the various ways in which youth have maintained a high level of agency and innovation in response to the employment and education challenges of the Pandemic.
In line with education is employment, being as well hampered by the pandemic with varying degrees between men and women. In this regard, the North America team chose to explore the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on women’s right to work, and more specifically how gendered expectations on family care and industry employment have affected working women differently in comparison to men in Canada and the United States. North America team hypothesizes that women have had to juggle more home responsibilities during the pandemic than male counterparts. Based on their research, in economies of every size, women are left with consequences of losing their regular income, while pushing through with an increase in domestic work burden. Often taken for granted, women work multiple jobs and are not given the deserved recognition in comparison to men.
Overcoming Obstacles
As teams continue to conduct research and collect data regionally, there are multiple challenges they are facing along the way. When research is conducted on such a broad and collective scale, respondents are often met with uncertainty: is their anonymity safe? Is the survey time-consuming? Would their association to a global initiative be a conflict of interest within their region?
The Global HR team emphasizes the need to be conscious of differing perspectives when it comes to sexual and reproductive health and rights. Informing themselves of the laws in place in different countries was their top priority in order to disseminate the surveys. By altering the surveys to better suit the needs of the respondents, the team made the survey flexible, allowing respondents to skip or remove questions. The Global Youth Action Team showed similar accountability when it came to allowing respondents to have flexibility. By countering technological challenges, researchers utilized low-bandwidth options, including the use of audio instead of the video format while conducting their interviews online, and employing various technology platforms in the research process to facilitate communications with the respondents. Even within their internal realm of communication, multiple teams have seen progress with using a wide range of technology tools that have enhanced inclusion, engagement and transparency for all participants.
We want to recognize…..
- Follow the journey of these youth researchers to learn more
- Youth as Researchers (YAR) Global Landing Page
See also
- More on the launch of the Youth as Researchers (YAR) programme
- UNESCO Programme on Youth
- UNESCO Chair in Children, Youth & Civic Engagement, National University of Ireland Galway
- UNESCO Chair in Rural Community, Leadership, and Youth Development, Penn State University
Other related links