Unicef: Philippines records highest number of child displacements
MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines has recorded the highest number of child displacements due to weather-related disasters in the past six years, making it the “epicenter” of a crisis seen to further worsen due to the climate crisis, according to a new analysis by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
The report revealed that an estimated 9.7 million children in the Philippines were displaced due to weather-related disasters during the said period, the highest among the 44 countries included in the list.
The report, titled Children Displaced in a Changing Climate, is the first global analysis of the number of children driven from their homes between 2016 and 2021 due to floods, storms, droughts and wildfires.
UNICEF reported 43.1 million internal displacements globally during the six-year period.
India and China ranked second and third in terms of absolute numbers, with 6.7 million and 6.4 million displaced children, respectively.
The Philippines ranked first in terms of the number of children displaced due to storms (8.3 million) and third for floods (1.3 million), after India (3.9 million) and China (3.7 million).
“Children are among those who suffer the most when they are displaced in times of disasters. They experience stress, lose days in school, get sick and become more prone to exploitation and abuse. We need to strengthen efforts to protect children at risk and support those already displaced,” Oyunsaikhan Dendevnorov, UNICEF representative to the Philippines, said.
The report recognized that numbers are higher in countries such as the Philippines, where “reporting is better and there are more pre-emptive evacuations due to good early-warning systems and tracking and monitoring.”
“This results in far higher caseloads but potentially less vulnerable populations,” it said.
The report cited the Disaster Response Operations Monitoring and Information Center of the Department of Social Welfare and Development as a best practice, particularly in terms of collecting data on the number of people evacuated and those staying in shelters.
Although there are preparedness measures in place, the UNICEF highlighted questions about the absorptive capacity of
