East Asia and Pacific Region Appeal
Humanitarian Action for Children
UNICEF’s Humanitarian Action for Children appeal helps support the agency’s work as it
provides conflict- and disaster-affected children with access to water, sanitation, nutrition,
education, health and protection services. Return to main appeal page.
Appeal highlights
- Across the East Asia and Pacific region, the COVID-19 pandemic, compounded by disasters, continues to contribute to severe acute malnutrition (SAM) among children, unimmunized children and children without access to education. Girls and boys are exposed to heightened risks of physical, mental, and sexual violence and abuse. Millions of people lack access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene across the region.
- The UNICEF regional office will continue to support country offices, governments and partners by strengthening preparedness, enhancing systems and providing technical expertise for child-sensitive, gender-informed and disability-inclusive humanitarian action and risk-informed programming. UNICEF will also support in controlling the spread of COVID-19 and address the associated socioeconomic impacts.
- UNICEF is seeking US$118.8 million to respond to these critical needs, including US$99.6 million for the COVID-19 response and US$19.1 million to address non-COVID-related humanitarian needs. Twenty-four countries and territories are directly covered by this regional appeal.
Key statistics
1.7 million children affected by severe wasting in the region
7.4 million children miss first dose of measles vaccine
89 million people lack basic hygiene services at home
150 million children in psychosocial distress due to COVID-19
115 million children and adolescents lack access to education
Funding requirements for 2022
Regional needs and strategy
Humanitarian needs
Natural hazards, civil unrest, displacement and protracted conflicts continue to impact the lives of children across East Asia and Pacific (EAP). Over 31 million people were affected by disasters triggered by natural hazards in EAP in 2020, more than any other region worldwide. In January 2021, the West Sulawesi earthquake in Indonesia killed 107 people and affected 99,827 people. The region is significantly affected by climate change, leading to more frequent and intense heatwaves, storms, floods and drought. Tropical storms and cyclones affected children in the Pacific Islands, Philippines, Indonesia, Cambodia and Viet Nam. In Viet Nam alone, 7.7 million people were affected in 2021, including 2.5 million children. Heavy rains resulted in flash floods and landslides affecting households in China, Indonesia and Timor- Leste. In addition, chronic and protracted humanitarian situations due to unresolved conflict and political instability continue to affect millions of children and their families, including those at risk of security threats and protests. Moreover, a surge in COVID-19 cases further exacerbated existing vulnerabilities and impacted emergency response and recovery in the region. These conditions pose critical threats to children’s health, nutrition, education, protection and access to basic life-saving services, including water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), with profound impacts on the most vulnerable. An estimated 42.5 million children under 2 years of age in the region are not fed a diet diverse enough to grow well. Furthermore, girls and boys, including those with disabilities, affected by disasters, conflict and migration, are exposed to heightened risks of physical and emotional violence, abuse and exploitation, including gender-based violence. Across the region, there are 19 million children living with disabilities, 8 million child migrants, 772,000 children in residential care, 24,000 children in detention, and 25 million children in child labour, including hazardous labour. COVID-19 related school closures continue to disrupt access to education of 270 million children in the region.
UNICEF’s strategy
UNICEF regional office will continue supporting country offices in emergency preparedness, including capacity building of UNICEF and partners in humanitarian response through simulation exercises. Country offices will be supported with active risk monitoring of political, security and emergency threats. The use of horizon scanning tools will be expanded to cover risks beyond natural hazards, including tapping into external risk analyses on socio-political and security threats. UNICEF will maintain a response fund to enable country offices to rapidly support government response efforts. It will also expand the network of local partners and building capacities of local service providers, thereby contributing to the localization of humanitarian response and the broader Grand Bargain. Collaboration with inter-agency partners will be further enhanced to support more coherent and harmonized approaches to preparedness and response planning. Furthermore, UNICEF will address the socioeconomic impacts of emergencies, including COVID-19, by restoring basic services for children in the areas of health, nutrition, WASH, child protection, education and social protection, focusing on the most vulnerable. This includes strengthening the integration of cross-sectoral efforts to address the needs of children with disabilities, adolescents, women and girls in humanitarian settings, focusing on genderbased violence (GBV) services, accountability to affected populations (AAP) and prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse (PSEA) in emergencies. Moreover, UNICEF will support governments and partners to strengthen capacities for risk communication and community engagement (RCCE), child-centred disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation, including through supporting risk assessments to enable more disaster and climate resilient programmes and thereby contributing to the humanitarian-development nexus. To ensure greater predictability and accountability in humanitarian settings and learn from previous emergencies, including the COVID-19 response, UNICEF will advance knowledge management, evidence base and humanitarian innovations.
Programme targets
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Highlights
Humanitarian Action is at the core of UNICEF’s mandate to realize the rights of every child. This edition of Humanitarian Action for Children – UNICEF’s annual humanitarian fundraising appeal – describes the ongoing crises affecting children in East Asia and the Pacific; the strategies that we are using to respond to these situations; and the donor support that is essential in this response.
