May 2020

The first UNICEF Leading Mind sevent featured expert panelists: Dr Vikram Patel, Professor at Harvard Medical School, USA based in India; Patrick Burton, Executive Director of the Centre for Justice and Crime Prevention, South Africa; Mizuko Ito, Professor at Humanities Research Institute at the University of California, USA; Nighat Dad, Executive Director Digital Rights Foundation, Pakistan; and Daniel Kardefelt Winther, Digital Research Specialist, UNICEF Office of Research Innocenti, Italy.

May 2020

In this webinar we look at why some of the measures taken to contain the Coronavirus could be magnifying the risk factors for violence against children and women - What can be done to prevent violence against children and women and support survivors now and post-COVID 19?

June 2020

The webinar looks at how stimulus packages measure up and ask our expert panelists:

• In the rush to protect lives from the virus, who is protecting livelihoods, and how?

• What does history tell us about previous global emergencies and fiscal crises for the present?

• Is the very future of social protection itself under threat as we hurtle towards an inevitable economic crisis?

June 2020

A panel of high-level experts looked at how the global pandemic and resulting school closures are worsening learning gaps, and deepening the learning crisis.

July 2020

September 2020

Just in Europe and north America alone some 90 million full-time jobs were lost in the second quarter, according to the ILO. The COVID-recession not only threatens to erode global development but is predicted to have a broader and deeper impact than the 2008 financial crisis as it hits both supply and demand chains as well as informal sectors across Africa and South Asia. But does it have to be as bad as it seems? We asked a panel of experts where the economy stands now, what lies ahead and how do we make the best of the worst that is to come for children and young people.

October 2020

As COVID-19 has been kinder to children, it’s also pushed children into the shadows – they’re barred from play, barred from school and more critically barred from health clinics with routine health services grinding to a halt. Adolescents too have seemed invisible even invincible. What do we know about the virology of children and young people – why do children seem to have special immunity?

October 2020

From March to May 2020 the world stood still. The impossible seemed possible: cleaner air, greener, quieter cities. From Lagos to London, Lahore Los Angeles, greenhouse gasses fell by an astonishing 17%. The right result but for the wrong reasons. Can we do it again? Has COVID changed Climate Change? Can children who’ve left the least damage on the planet now make the biggest difference?

November 2020

It has never been easier to access information and knowledge. But just as facts are easily shared, so too is misinformation. How can children and young people learn to distinguish truth from lies? On Thursday 12 November 2025, Sarah Crowe and David Anthony ask Angus Thomson (UNICEF), Maria Ressa (Rappler), Guy Berger (UNESCO), and Claire Wardle (First Draft) the important questions on COVID-19, the infodemic, and fake news.

December 2020

It was expected to be the worst hit, but instead Africa is waging an effective campaign against COVID-19. The youngest continent on earth, with the average age just 18 years old, sub-Saharan Africa has experienced only a fraction of the death toll elsewhere in the world.

But while Africa may be winning the numbers game, it has come at a massive cost. 250 million more children are out of school. The region is heading into its first-ever economic recession. With aid budgets shrinking in donor countries, we ask our panelists if youth leadership today will bring a brighter tomorrow, plus we explore some out-of-the-box approaches for the region to avoid financial ruin.

April 2021

The COVID Vaccine Race has been nothing short of a scientific triumph. In just under a year the unimaginable has happened, with not just one but several different vaccines tested, transported and delivered to millions around the world to protect them against a virus that has brought the world to a standstill.

But how can we achieve vaccine equity? We have asked Leading Minds:

• Dr Zweli Mkhize, Minister of Health, Government of South Africa

• Dag-Inge Ulstein, Minister of Development and Co-operation, Government of Norway

• Dr Soumya Swaminathan, Chief Scientist, WHO

• Henrietta H. Fore, Executive Director, UNICEF