Eastern and Southern Africa Region Appeal

Nearly 30 million children in Eastern and Southern Africa are now in urgent need of humanitarian assistance due to overlapping crises. Conflict and insecurity within the region, as well as spillovers from the Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, combine with recurrent climate shocks, growing food insecurity and economic strain. This leaves families with fewer means to cope and limits children’s access to life-saving services, including protection. 

In 2025, forced displacement, protracted conflicts and sociopolitical turmoil have had a devastating impact on the well-being of children across the region. The region is home to more than 5 million refugees and asylum seekers and more than 8 million internally displaced people, one of the largest and most protracted displacement situations globally. Separated from their families, forcibly recruited, or being killed and maimed, children continue to be deprived of their fundamental right to protection. Girls are disproportionately affected. They face heightened risks of gender-based violence, child marriage and exploitation, especially in displacement sites and in drought-affected areas where economic collapse has deepened vulnerabilities. Safe learning spaces serve as critical protective environments, but education systems have also been under severe strain: 46 million children are out of school in the region. Limited resources and disrupted schooling further expose children to violence, exploitation and irreversible learning loss.

Climate shocks are hitting the region in rapid succession, leaving families no time to recover. The 2023/2024 El Niño-induced drought devastated agricultural production in Angola, Madagascar, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe, where most households rely on rain-fed farming. Djibouti remains affected by persistent drought and extreme heat, compounding water scarcity and malnutrition. At the same time, Comoros, Madagascar and Mozambique remain highly exposed to destructive cyclones, recurrent flooding and coastal erosion, with climate extremes repeatedly destroying infrastructure, damaging schools and health facilities and displacing communities.

Malnutrition remains extremely high across the region, with some areas in South Sudan facing hunger at increasingly alarming levels. An estimated 4.2 million children under age 5 are severely wasted, an 8 per cent increase compared with 2025. Reduced dietary diversity, unsafe water and overstretched systems are escalating risks for young children. Without timely treatment and front-line nutrition services at scale, many children face long-term, irreversible developmental impacts. 

Simultaneously, the Eastern and Southern Africa region is facing multiple, recurrent public health emergencies. Cholera outbreaks – often following climatic shocks, conflict, displacement, limited access to safe water and overstretched WASH systems – remain widespread in 19 out of 22 countries. Between January and June 2025, cholera cases in the region increased by 21 per cent compared with the same period in 2024, while deaths rose by 35 per cent, highlighting both the scale of transmission and the persistent gaps in early detection, treatment and sustained outbreak prevention. Measles is also resurgentacross the region due to gaps in routine immunization services. These recurrent outbreaks are further straining already fragile health, WASH and education systems, increasing preventable illness and mortality and placing children at heightened immediate risk.

In 2026, UNICEF will continue to safeguard the lives and rights of children affected by crises in Eastern and Southern Africa, while reinforcing the systems that families depend on for care, learning, protection and dignity. The strategy focuses on children and communities facing the most severe and urgent needs in contexts disrupted by conflict, climate shocks and disease outbreaks. It prioritizes life-saving assistance while supporting governments and partners to strengthen preparedness and build resilience to withstand and recover from future shocks. 

UNICEF will deliver timely integrated support in the areas of health, nutrition, WASH, child protection, gender-based violence, education and social protection, ensuring children can access essential services and treatment and safe, protective environments. This includes scaling up treatment for severe wasting; improving access to safe water, hygiene and sanitation to prevent disease; ensuring continuity of primary healthcare; providing mental health and psychosocial support; preventing and responding to violence, exploitation and abuse; and keeping children learning, including through safe temporary learning spaces and school readiness support. 

Localization remains central to the approach. UNICEF will work through and alongside local authorities, civil society, youth networks and community structures to ensure assistance is trusted, appropriate and sustainable. UNICEF will also collaborate with the Southern African Development Community, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development and national governments to strengthen preparedness, coordination and localized response capacities, prioritizing the most affected and hardest-to-reach populations. 

Preparedness and anticipatory action are core pillars of the UNICEF response. UNICEF will expand the use of early-warning triggers to activate anticipatory actions before crises escalate; reinforce community-based surveillance and referral systems to detect risks early; and strengthen shock-responsive social protection and humanitarian cash transfers so families can withstand shocks without resorting to negative coping strategies. Pre-positioned supplies, efficient supply chains and trained front-line capacity will enable fast, agile response to disease outbreaks, natural disasters and sudden population movements. 

At the regional level, UNICEF will monitor emerging risks, guide scenario and contingency planning and coordinate support to country offices, including for cross-border preparedness and response. The UNICEF Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Office will also support rapid scale-up at the onset of crises through surge deployments, targeted technical support and programme quality assurance to ensure responses are timely, accountable and aligned with the Core Commitments for Children in Humanitarian Action.

Across all interventions, UNICEF will uphold strong commitments to accountability to affected populations, protection from sexual exploitation and abuse and gender- and disability-inclusive programming. This will ensure assistance is safe, equitable and protective for children and their caregivers, while supporting communities to recover and build lasting resilience.