Learning through Play in Response to COVID-19 in Myanmar

• In Event: Learning through Play in Emergencies: Lessons Learned in Implementing Learning through Play in Acute and Protracted Crises

Proposal

The Parenting under Pressure (PUP) programme aims to empower parents and caregivers of children ages 0 – 8 in humanitarian emergencies to provide nurturing care that supports children’s healthy development and wellbeing. The programme aims to strengthen relationships between mothers, fathers, and other caregivers as co-parents to increase male engagement in caregiving, and improve gender equality and social cohesion in communities affected by humanitarian crises. Under the LEGO Foundation-funded project Let’s Keep Playing, the PUP programme was implemented in Myanmar with 855 participants in 25 villages in Nyaung U district (Mandalay Region), Kachin and Rakhine State from August to December 2022.

The programme came at a critical time in Myanmar, where the culmination of the COVID-19 pandemic and the military coup d’état in February 2021 pushed nearly half of children under the national poverty line by 2022, constituting an increase of over 15% since the beginning of the crisis and a return to 2005 levels of poverty. Families face steep price hikes, rising food insecurity and diminishing opportunities for income-generating activities, resulting in a significant care burden, particularly for mothers, and increased risks of negative coping mechanisms affecting children’s protection and development. Since the military takeover, more than a million people have been displaced and severe movement restrictions are delaying the delivery of humanitarian assistance to the 14.4 million people, including 5 million children who are estimated to need it. Social services like health and education are disrupted, and families face rising insecurity due to shootings, airstrikes (including on schools), explosives and civilians being used as human shields, with long-lasting impact on both parent’s and children’s mental and emotional well-being. The number of people targeted by the 2022 Humanitarian Response Plan has increased six-fold since 2021 and UNICEF estimates that 6 million children nationwide have restricted access to learning or are not accessing learning since the start of the school year, resulting in an additional burden on their caregivers, who often become solely responsible for their learning and development.

Against this backdrop, Plan Denmark and Plan Myanmar implemented the PUP programme with two delivery methods to parents/caregivers: face-to face, which has been tested in other contexts, and a new hybrid model, combining face-to-face and remote delivery modalities designed for the project. The hybrid model intends to increase flexibility and reach of the PUP programme, particularly in contexts where humanitarian access is limited due to COVID-19 restrictions, conflict, etc. The project seeks to better understand which aspects of the programme can be delivered remotely and which adaptations might be needed to achieve similar results under the different approaches.

In collaboration with Innovation for Poverty Action (IPA), a comparative analysis of the hybrid delivery model and the face-to-face delivery model focused on three key questions using a combination of quantitative and qualitative data collection:

1. How do parent-level outcomes compare between hybrid version and traditional PUP programme?
2. How well can PUP programme be delivered remotely? What works well, less well remotely?
3. How does the cost of hybrid delivery compare to face-to-face delivery?

Authors

• Lisa Ewertson, Plan International Denmark

• Irene Kruse, Plan International Denmark