Attachments
Highlights
- Humanitarian context: East Asia and the Pacific remained the world’s most disaster-prone region in 2025, with climate shocks, disease outbreaks and conflict affecting tens of millions of people. Floods, typhoons, earthquakes, drought and violence drove large-scale displacement, with 5.2 million people internally displaced at the start of the year2 and children facing the highest climate risk globally.
- Coordinated response: The Regional Office oversaw the Myanmar Level 2 emergency and earthquake response, deploying surge staff and supplies, and coordinating multisectoral support. Country Offices delivered humanitarian assistance in Cambodia, China, the Cook Islands, Fiji, Indonesia, Kiribati, Lao PDR, the Marshall Islands, Mongolia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Tonga, Vanuatu and Viet Nam.
- Results for children: With UNICEF support, 1.2 million children were vaccinated against polio, 2.3 million children aged 6-59 months received vitamin A, and 23,765 children aged 6–59 months were treated for severe wasting. Critical WASH supplies reached more than 320,000 people; over 395,000 children continued learning; 16,657 households received humanitarian cash assistance; and over 15 million people received life-saving information.
- Preparedness and systems strengthening: UNICEF supported governments and partners to advance child-focused, inclusive and accountable humanitarian action across health, nutrition, WASH, child protection, education and shock-responsive social protection.
- Funding: Only US$14.5 million in new funding was received for implementation of activities planned under the 2025 EAP Regional Humanitarian Action for Children appeal. Of the US$47 million in carryover funds, almost half was earmarked for ongoing COVID-19 response and health systems strengthening, resulting in notable funding shortfalls for other sectors and for new sudden-onset emergency responses.
SITUATION IN NUMBERS
10,700,000 children missed first dose of measles vaccine
1,500,000 children affected by severe wasting
81,000,000 people lack basic water services
210,000,000 children are highly exposed to cyclones
SITUATION OVERVIEW AND HUMANITARIAN NEEDS
Throughout 2025, East Asia and the Pacific faced overlapping climate, health and social crises, with extreme weather events and conflict affecting tens of millions of people. As the world’s most disaster-prone region, it is home to an estimated 580 million children and adolescents exposed to more frequent and intense climate and environmental hazards than anywhere else. All countries are classified as high or extremely high risk on the Children’s Climate Risk Index. The region records the highest levels of disaster-related displacement globally and, at the start of 2025, 5.2 million people were internally displaced by conflict and disasters, the highest level since 2016. Women and adolescent girls continued to face heightened risks of violence, including gender-based violence (GBV), and barriers to accessing humanitarian aid and protection services.
Climate hazards intensified throughout the year. Between July and December, Viet Nam was struck by 15 storms, including seven consecutive typhoons,8 affecting more than 1.5 million children and causing an estimated US$4 billion in damage. In the Philippines, Tropical Cyclone Tino affected 5.5 million people in November, followed by Super Typhoon Uwan, which affected 7.7 million people and displaced 1.2 million at its peak. Typhoons in Lao PDR affected 305,258 people, while monsoon floods in southern Thailand impacted 2.9 million people, including 519,000 children. Flooding in Indonesia affected 3.5 million people, displaced over 1 million, and damaged 2,185 educational facilities, affecting 180,717 students.9 Earlier in the year, extreme heat in the Philippines forced school closures for more than 68,000 students and fires displaced 12,000 people. Drought affected 46 per cent of Mongolia, increasing dzud risk for 70,000 people, while more than 10,000 people in Bougainville, Papua New Guinea, faced acute water shortages.
Public health emergencies further strained systems. Dengue outbreaks reached epidemic levels across the Pacific.10 Measles outbreaks continued in Mongolia, Viet Nam, Lao PDR, Cambodia, the Philippines and Indonesia, with more than 41,000 cases in Indonesia and over 13,000 in Mongolia. Polio outbreaks in Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and Lao PDR triggered emergency responses; while a bubonic plague outbreak in Khövsgöl province, Mongolia, resulted in lockdowns affecting approximately 130,000 people. Other health emergencies included a 160 per cent increase in HIV diagnoses in Fiji, a diarrhoeal disease outbreak in the Solomon Islands and a pertussis outbreak in Vanuatu that claimed three children’s lives.
Geophysical hazards compounded humanitarian needs. Vanuatu continued its recovery from the 7.3-magnitude quake in December 2024, which affected 80,000 people. Earthquakes in the Philippines affected more than 1.5 million people,11 while a 6.8 magnitude earthquake in China’s Xizang Autonomous Region left approximately 47,500 people without shelter in sub-zero temperatures. Volcanic activity in Indonesia and the Philippines displaced more than 8,600 families.
Conflict and violence drove further crises. Border clashes between Thailand and Cambodia escalated in December, closing more than 2,400 schools and displacing over 1 million people across both countries.13 In Papua New Guinea, inter-communal and election violence displaced more than 1,700 people, while civil unrest in the Federated States of Micronesia disrupted essential services and education. Maritime migration of Rohingya refugees resulted in an estimated 427 deaths.
Myanmar remained the most complex crisis in the region, with overlapping crises creating a "humanitarian catastrophe".14 A 7.7-magnitude earthquake in March affected 9 million people, including 2.7 million children, and monsoon flooding affected more than 85,000, compounding the effects of the ongoing armed conflict. Record levels of airstrikes on civilian targets, including schools and health clinics, were reported in the second quarter of 2025, and humanitarian access was restricted in 114 townships.15 By year’s end, over 3.6 million people remained displaced, 21.9 million people needed humanitarian assistance, 16.7 million faced acute food insecurity, with 540,000 children projected to suffer from acute malnutrition.