HIGHLIGHTS
- Unprecedented climate-induced shocks, recurrent disease outbreaks, armed conflict and displacements compounded by significant macroeconomic challenges threaten the lives of 51 million children in Eastern and Southern Africa.
- UNICEF will deliver integrated life-saving assistance in partnership with regional and national authorities, civil society organizations and public and private stakeholders. By prioritizing localized responses and anticipatory actions, UNICEF will focus on strengthening community resilience and linking humanitarian efforts with development interventions to provide sustainable, inclusive and climate-adaptive support.
- UNICEF requires $147.1 million to address the acute needs of children in 15 countries: Angola, Botswana, Burundi, the Comoros, Eritrea, Eswatini, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, Rwanda, South Africa, the United Republic of Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. Six additional countries facing acute emergencies have standalone appeals: Ethiopia, Madagascar, Mozambique, Somalia, South Sudan and Zimbabwe.
- This regional appeal includes the support of the Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Office to all 21 countries in the region for multisectoral emergency preparedness and response.
HUMANITARIAN SITUATION
Conflict, natural disasters and public health emergencies are affecting 51 million children throughout Eastern and Southern Africa. Many children are facing multiple crises simultaneously, forced into repeated and prolonged displacement. Economic challenges, including currency depreciation, inflation, South Africa's weak economic growth and trade disruptions linked to the conflict in the Sudan compound the challenges that families are experiencing. High debt servicing costs and international spending pressures strain fiscal stability and impede poverty reduction. This has the potential to drive political instability, as governments contend with rising public frustration over economic hardships.
Nearly 12 million people are internally displaced within the region. And 4.6 million people – up 14 percent since 2023 – have sought refuge in the region, due in large part to escalating conflicts in the Sudan and in the Democratic Republic of the Congo Uganda hosts 2 million refugees, the highest in Africa and the fifth largest refugee population globally. The situation is critical for children who are refugees, because they are especially vulnerable to violence, exploitation and family separation. Gender-based violence, worsened by food insecurity and the lack of economic opportunities, is a growing threat, with adolescent girls at heightened risk of child marriage and other harmful practices as families adopt negative coping mechanisms. Educational outcomes are similarly dire, with nearly 47 million children in the region out of school.
Additionally, climate change is exacerbating the effects of the current El Niño weather pattern, which is now one of the five strongest on record. El Niño has led to unprecedented droughts and floods that have devastated already vulnerable communities throughout Eastern and Southern Africa. As the region braces for escalating humanitarian needs, the potential onset of the La Niña weather pattern looms. The outlook for children is increasingly alarming. Amid declining food production and rising malnutrition, they are bearing the worst of this crisis: approximately one in three children faces food poverty, 2.78 million children under age 5 are severely wasted 6 and 28 million throughout the region are at risk of being trapped in a cycle of malnutrition and poverty, 7 depriving them of the opportunity to thrive and reach their full potential.
Public health emergencies are disproportionately impacting women and children, with a number of countries experiencing outbreaks of cholera, measles, mpox and Marburg virus disease. Cholera continues to pose a significant threat in the Comoros, Malawi and Zambia, while outbreaks of Mpox in Burundi, Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda and Marburg virus disease in Rwanda present substantial regional risks.
Urgent and immediate action is critical to safeguard the most vulnerable populations and prevent further deterioration of children's already difficult situation.