ARNEC is pleased to share with you the results of our survey in April and May 2020 on the impact of COVID-19 on young children and their families and the status of ECD services in the Asia-Pacific region at the height of the pandemic.

We have prepared a PowerPoint presentation on the " Summary of Survey Findings Perspectives on the Impact of COVID-19 on Young Children and Early Childhood Development in the Asia-Pacific Region, (June 2020), Views of the ECD Community".

Some of the key findings include:

• Finding 1. More than 50% of ECD respondents in the Asia-Pacific region assess families as under pandemic induced stress - stressed and very much stressed. Respondents from Pakistan, Bangladesh, India and the Philippines assess families as the worst off, with over 70% of respondents assessing families to be under significant stress.

• Finding 2. Over 50% of respondents in Asia-Pacific region assess families to be facing challenges in coping under the heightened stress. Respondents from Pakistan, India and Bangladesh assess families to have difficulty coping while those from Bhutan and Brunei assess families to be coping relatively well.

• Finding 3. Finding 3: Income losses, school/ECD center closures, and prolonged home stay are top reasons for family stress in the AsiaPacific region. Food insecurity is also significantly contributing to stress for families in India, the Philippines, and Bangladesh.

• Finding 4. Young children are not shielded from COVID-induced family stresses

• Finding 5. More than 40% of children are assessed to be affected by disrupted ECD services across the Asia-Pacific region.

• Finding 6. Day care and early learning services for children from 0 to 8 years old are the most disrupted services for children in the Asia-Pacific region.

• Finding 7. COVID-19 is having a significant impact on the nurturing care of young children.

• Finding 8. Young children from marginalised families and communities bear a heavy ‘pandemic burden’.

The final and full report on the results of our rapid survey on the impact of COVID-19 on young children and ECD was also released on June 30. The full narrative report includes an Annex on technical and explanatory notes which contains further explanation on some of the findings, can be found in this link, https://arnec.net/publication/full-narrative-report-on-arnec-rapid-survey-:-perspectives-on-the-impact-of-covid-19-on-young-children-and-ecd-in-the-asia-pacific-region.

This full report is final and should be the sole reference for the ARNEC survey on the impact of COVID-19 on young children and ECD in the Asia-Pacific region. Country-level reports are also available in the website for selected countries where participation in the survey is significant.