Attachments
Highlights
- In the first half of 2025, Latin America and the Caribbean continued to endure overlapping climate-related hazards, from severe floods in Argentina’s Bahía Blanca and Bolivia’s Beni to prolonged drought in the Amazon and flash floods in the Dominican Republic. These events compounded displacement, protection risks and threats to essential services, deepening humanitarian needs and disproportionately affecting children in vulnerable communities.
- In response, UNICEF delivered rapid WASH, education, nutrition, child protection services and more, restoring safe water access for over 800,000 people, distributing more than 13,000 learning and hygiene kits, establishing 19 child-friendly spaces and training over 1,000 frontline responders, while simultaneously strengthening preparedness through shock-responsive simulations, a digital monitoring platform and regional capacity-building workshops.
- For 2025, UNICEF appealed for US$19 million to strengthen emergency preparedness and rapid response across the region. With just US$5.3 million in new contributions raised to date, additional sustained and flexible humanitarian funding will be critical to meet emerging needs, mitigate rising risks and uphold children’s rights.
SITUATION IN NUMBERS
1,030,000 People affected by disasters
3,100,000 Children in need of protection services
2,800,000 Children in need of education support
2,300,000 Children in need of health and nutrition services
FUNDING OVERVIEW AND PARTNERSHIPS
In the first half of 2025, UNICEF secured US$5.3 million in humanitarian funding for Latin America and the Caribbean. UNICEF gratefully acknowledges the generous support of its donors, whose contributions have enabled the delivery of life-saving assistance to vulnerable children and families. Donors included the European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (DG ECHO); the Government of Australia; the Government of Greece; the Government of the United Kingdom; UNICEF’s Central Emergency Response Fund; private fundraising through UNICEF offices in Argentina, Denmark, Mexico and Portugal; and the World Food Programme. In addition, UNICEF’s Global Humanitarian Thematic Funds supported emergency preparedness efforts.
With these resources, UNICEF and its partners - including national governments, United Nations agencies and non-governmental and civil-society organisations - have been able to provide essential services in health, nutrition, education, child protection and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), while strengthening national systems to enhance resilience to future crises.
For 2025, UNICEF issued an appeal for US$19 million to support emergency preparedness across the region and enable rapid response to children’s humanitarian needs. Although US$5.3 million has been raised to date, a 72 per cent gap remains in new funding. Therefore, additional flexible support is essential to uphold children’s rights and maintain essential services amid growing vulnerabilities.
SITUATION OVERVIEW AND HUMANITARIAN NEEDS
Between January and June 2025, Latin America and the Caribbean endured a series of overlapping climate-related hazards—from the floods that inundated Argentina’s Bahía Blanca and Bolivia’s Beni to prolonged drought in Peru’s Amazon basin and flash floods in the Dominican Republic. These events disrupted access to clean water, education and healthcare, compounded protection risks and displaced thousands of children in both urban and remote settings.
As one of the world’s most disaster-prone regions, Latin America and the Caribbean continues to suffer increasingly frequent and severe weather extremes driven by climate change. Seventy-four per cent of countries in the region are highly exposed to floods, droughts and storms, exacerbating food insecurity, and one in five children now live in areas of high or very high food insecurity. 2 National systems remain overstretched, and children in underserved communities continue to bear the greatest burden.
In response, UNICEF and its partners have scaled up emergency preparedness and response efforts under the 2025 Humanitarian Action for Children appeal, working closely with national authorities, civil-society organisations and United Nations agencies to adapt service delivery in high-risk contexts, reinforce child protection and WASH systems and ensure rapid humanitarian assistance reaches affected populations.
Through timely WASH interventions, safe drinking water has been restored for over 800,000 people. More than 13,000 learning, hygiene and dignity kits have been distributed to support continuity of education and personal safety. Nineteen child-friendly spaces have offered psychosocial support to thousands of girls and boys, while frontline responders received training in psychological first aid and shock-responsive social protection. At the regional level, UNICEF has piloted a digital early-warning platform and convened capacity-building workshops to strengthen national preparedness systems. Despite these advances, critical gaps in both preparedness and recovery persist. Continued, flexible humanitarian funding will be essential to protect every child’s right to survival, development and dignity.