Attachments
Highlights
· In 2025, Pakistan faced compounding humanitarian crises driven by climate extremes, security tensions, and large-scale population movements, deepening vulnerabilities for millions of people, especially children.
· UNICEF continued to deliver essential primary, maternal, and outbreak response health and nutrition services, through contingency supplies, supporting 595,000 people. This included treatment of 61,000 children with severe acute malnutrition and an expansion of preventive nutrition interventions.
· UNICEF scaled up community-based child protection, psychosocial support, and GBV services, reaching over 280,000 children and women.
· UNICEF reached 840,665 people with access to safe drinking water, while 112,310 children in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab and Gilgit-Baltistan were provided with education services.
· UNICEF appealed for US$69.89 million in 2025, with a 57 per cent funding gap, with contributions from bilateral donors, CERF, private funds and thematic support.
SITUATION OVERVIEW AND HUMANITARIAN NEEDS
Pakistan continues to navigate a complex and evolving humanitarian landscape shaped by recurrent natural disasters, economic pressures, and population movements. Throughout 2025, communities faced repeated shocks that compounded long standing vulnerabilities, including widespread poverty, fragile public services, and a persistent nutrition emergency. At the same time, Pakistan remains host to one of the world’s largest refugee populations, primarily from Afghanistan, placing additional strain on already limited resources and essential services.
The monsoon season, which began on 26 June and extended to mid-September, caused significant destruction across the country. According to the National Disaster Management Authority’s final consolidated situation report1 , by 2 October 2025, floods had resulted in 1,037 deaths, including 283 children, injured 1,067 people, and damaged 217,194 homes, with 55,130 completely destroyed. Punjab recorded the highest number of individuals affected by the floods at 3.5 million, with 0.6 million reached by end of December. In KP, an estimated 1.2 million people are affected, of whom 0.3 million have been reached. Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) reports a comparatively smaller affected population of 0.2 million, with 20,000 reached. Overall, the data indicates that while response efforts are underway across all provinces, a considerable proportion of affected populations remain unreached, underscoring the need to further scale up interventions, particularly in Punjab and KP2 . Pakistan also experienced increasingly severe heatwaves, with temperatures surpassing 45°C in many regions by June. Cities like Jacobabad and Turbat recorded temperatures 5–7°C above seasonal norms, indicating a worrying shift in climate patterns.
Drought conditions worsened in western and southwestern Balochistan, where the Meteorological Department noted a significant rainfall deficit and rising numbers of consecutive dry days between May and November 2025. These trends contributed to growing concerns about prolonged drought and its impact on already vulnerable communities. Meanwhile, northern areas such as Balochistan, Gilgit-Baltistan (GB), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), and Pakistan Administered Kashmir (PAK) faced severe winter conditions, with extreme cold and heavy snowfall compounding vulnerabilities for populations repeatedly affected by emergencies.
Security dynamics further complicated the humanitarian environment. The longstanding Shia–Sunni tensions in District Kurram, KP, persisted. Regional security tensions sharply escalated in early May following cross-border military actions linked to a security incident in Indian administered Jammu and Kashmir on 22 April. The ensuing four-day confrontation between India and Pakistan from 7 to 10 May marked one of the most serious escalations between the two states in decades, contributing to heightened uncertainty in Pakistan and across the region.
Population movements also remained a defining challenge. As of December 2025, Pakistan hosted about two million Afghans, including some one million registered Afghan refugees3 . Implementation of the Illegal Foreigners Repatriation Plan, introduced by the Ministry of Interior in September 2023, continued to affect Afghan communities across the country. Between January and 27 December 2025, authorities arrested or detained 150,797 Afghan nationals, 86 percent of whom were either Afghan Citizen Card holders or undocumented individuals. UNHCR and IOM continued monitoring arrest, detention, deportation, and movement trends under the plan.
Across all regions, humanitarian needs in the existing emergencies remained extensive. Communities require sustained support in nutrition, healthcare, water and sanitation, education, and protection. Women and girls face heightened risks of gender‑based violence and need access to comprehensive reproductive health and protection services. Children require nutrition support, psychosocial assistance, and opportunities to continue learning despite repeated disruptions. Elderly individuals and people with disabilities face additional barriers and require inclusive, tailored assistance to ensure their safety and dignity.
Throughout the reporting period, UNICEF continued to provide critical support to children, adolescents, and caregivers across crisis‑affected and high‑risk areas. UNICEF remains committed to reaching the most vulnerable, including those displaced internally or across borders, ensuring that lifesaving and life‑sustaining services remain accessible to all those in need.