Children Face Rising Hunger Across Middle East and Afghanistan Amid Severe Drought, World Vision Warns

16 December 2025 – Escalating drought and food insecurity are placing millions of children in the Middle East and Afghanistan at extreme risk, World Vision warns in a new policy brief. Rising temperatures, prolonged dry periods, and chronic water shortages are driving acute hunger, malnutrition, and disrupted schooling, while families are increasingly forced to adopt harmful coping strategies. Close to 50 million people in the Middle East and Afghanistan now face high levels of acute food insecurity. Children are disproportionately affected, with their health, nutrition, education, and safety under growing threat. 

“This is a crisis layered on a crisis,” said Eleanor Monbiot, World Vision Middle East Eastern Europe Regional Leader. “Children are bearing the heaviest burden. Rising drought and food insecurity are forcing families into impossible choices, increasing displacement risks, and heightening tensions within communities. Urgent, coordinated humanitarian and climate-adaptation responses are essential to prevent a catastrophe.”

Emerging risks across the region increase as drought deepens:

• Afghanistan: Nearly 400,000 people, including many children, were displaced in early 2025, disrupting access to food, safe water, and essential health services. Droughts and floods are worsening children’s diets, with families reporting that women and mothers often eat last and least.
• Iraq: The country is undergoing one of its worst droughts in decades, with over one million people still displaced – including 168,000 due to climate shocks. World Vision’s previous research shows children experience high levels of psychological distress from climate change, including anxiety, sadness, and guilt.
• Jordan: Close to 75% of Syrian refugees in Jordan are facing food insecurity. Syrian refugee children are particularly affected by extreme heat, drought, and water shortages, which disrupt school attendance, increase mental health stress, and heighten exposure to violence, including at water collection points. Girls are at elevated risk of early marriage and other protection concerns.
• Lebanon: More than 94% of adolescents surveyed report that conflict and insecurity make it harder for their families to access food. Children describe anxiety, sadness, and fear linked to water scarcity and food shortages, with girls facing higher risks of verbal and physical abuse during water collection.
• Syria: More than 14 million people need food security support, with maternal and child malnutrition at emergency levels. Children, particularly in northern areas, face overlapping risks from drought-related water shortages, illness, and disrupted schooling.
• West Bank: Children are experiencing heightened health risks due to extreme heat and water scarcity, including respiratory illnesses. Movement restrictions, infrastructure and service gaps also exacerbate these impacts, while children report emotional distress, including anxiety, sadness, and fear of climate-induced displacement. One in four families report behavioural changes in children linked to fear, anxiety, or trauma.

Children across the region are missing school due to floods, heatwaves, and displacement, while anxiety, malnutrition, and unsafe living conditions grow. Climate strategies and emergency responses must prioritise children’s needs and rights, protecting schooling, ensuring safe water and nutrition, providing mental-health support, and enabling young people to shape the decisions that will determine their future.

Donors, governments, and development partners must urgently scale up climate-adaptation funding to protect millions of children and families in the Middle East and Afghanistan from worsening droughts, food insecurity, and water scarcity. Climate action must put children at its centre – protecting their education, health, and wellbeing while ensuring their voices shape the policies that will define their future. Lastly, restoring and expanding humanitarian and development financing, alongside investments in sustainable livelihoods and green job opportunities, is essential to help families withstand climate shocks and rebuild their lives with dignity.

Notes to editor: 

About World Vision Middle East and Eastern Europe: World Vision Middle East and Eastern Europe (WV MEER) is a regional office of World Vision International, a global Christian humanitarian organisation dedicated to improving the lives of the world’s most vulnerable children. WV MEER works across more than 15 fragile and crisis-affected contexts to protect children, strengthen families, and build resilient communities through humanitarian response, development programmes, child participation, and advocacy.

World Vision is responding with integrated, resilience-focused interventions across the region. These include sustainable water access through watershed rehabilitation and groundwater recharge, climate-smart agriculture and livelihood support to protect families from crop failures, and early warning systems that enable communities to prepare for drought and protect their food, income, and water resources. Child-focused support ensures continued access to education, nutrition, and mental health services even amid worsening climate conditions.

For more information, please contact:

Evita Jourdi, Advocacy, Policy and External Engagement Senior Advisor at World Vision Middle East and Eastern Europe: evita_jourdi@wvi.org

Laurentia Jora, Emergency Communications at World Vision Middle East and Eastern Europe: laurentia_jora@wvi.org