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THE United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) is using a slew of strategies under its five-year country programme to help bolster national efforts to protect and secure the rights of Jamaican children, and reduce inequities which confront them in the society.Jean Gough, UNICEF regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean, says the 2022-2026 programme includes ramping up access to digital learning."This is something that we progressively need to roll out across the different countries; children do not need to lose their education system, but continue learning. We are looking at it as improving the quality of learning... children also need exposure and these digital tools, and this is something we want to continue," she told the Jamaica Observer last week during her tour of UNICEF programmes in Jamaica.Gough said UNICEF has started discussions with the Jamaican Government on digitising textbooks and also mentioned that UNICEF wants to work with schools and communities to create safer environments for children. On this note, she said the fund is discussing methodologies and practices that provide teachers with alternative means of discipline, outside of corporal punishment."We have been working with the Government, but it's not up to the scale to make an impact," she said, adding that the novel coronavirus pandemic has also highlighted the need for more mental health support for children, another area which UNICEF is focusing on in its global programme.The regional director also said there will be increased emphasis on health and nutrition in the new five-year country programme, noting that UNICEF is particularly concerned about a decline in immunisation levels, due to the restrictions caused by COVID-19, which prevented people from making regular visits to health facilities."Another thing that is here in Jamaica is an increase in obesity [in children] - over nutrition and under nutrition," she said.Further, Gough said there is need for more emphasis on the post-secondary school transition process, and pointed out also that it is critical that children who are institutionalised have access to education and mental health support."That's why we are promoting the diversion programme because we don't want them in institutions," she said.UNICEF is proposing to spend just over US$19 million on these initiatives and others in Jamaica, under the programme which was designed based on a survey on COVID-19's socioeconomic impact on children; the United Nations common country analysis; the UNICEF gender programmatic review conducted in 2019; the 2020 climate landscape analysis for children; and a series of strategic consultations with the Government, private sector, civil society organisations, and children and adolescents.The fund is using a number of implementation strategies including social and behavioural change to address prevalent and influential harmful social norms, violence against children and gender-based violence, and stigma associated with mental health issues; systems strengthening to enable government counterparts to effectively implement evidence-based solutions so that policies, strategies, plans, budgets and systems holistically address the needs of children and their families, and programming to address gender stereotypes and norms.UNICEF outlined in its programme rationale that three out of every secondary school-aged children are out of school. This is approximately 50,000 adolescents. Pregnancy and financial problems have been identified as the main reasons that children from the poorest strata of the society quit school.