Futures at Risk: Climate-Induced Shocks and Their Toll on ... - ReliefWeb

Futures at Risk: Climate-Induced Shocks and Their Toll on Education for Crisis-Affected Children - World | ReliefWeb

Summary of findings

• About 62 million crisis-affected children and adolescents in 27 countries have had their education disrupted by climate shocks since 2020. These climate shocks also triggered 13 million displacements of children of school age. Nearly one-third of the 224 million crisis-affected children in need of educational support worldwide face the repercussions of climate-related events like floods, droughts, and storms, which are further intensified by climate change. Among these, around 31 million children find themselves in countries ill-prepared to handle the impacts of severe climate-related crises. Droughts, closely followed by floods, are the most frequently encountered climate-related shocks.

• Over the last decade, more than 91 million school-aged children impacted by crises have faced climate shocks amplified by climate change. The effects have been particularly pronounced in Sub-Saharan Africa, affecting 42 million children, and South Asia, impacting 31 million children. Among the various climate hazards assessed, droughts emerge as the most severe and persistent, disproportionately affecting children in Sub-Saharan Africa.

• Children affected by climate hazards are at risk of educational disruptions due to forced displacement. In the 27 crisis-affected countries where 62 million children have been exposed to climate shocks since 2020, there were 13 million forced movements of school-aged children due to floods, droughts, and storms.

Looking back further to the past ten years, the number of forced movements of school-aged children is an alarming 31 million — each movement representing a unique instance of disruption to a child’s education.

While droughts are more intense and affect more children, floods are the primary cause of these forced displacements.

• Displacement by climate-induced hazards boosts inequities in access to education, to the disadvantage of girls and the poorest households. Children who are already at risk of dropout face an even higher risk when exposed to crises worsened by climate change and environmental degradation. In Sub-Saharan Africa, where climate-related crises are prevalent, internally displaced children are 1.7 times more likely to be out of primary school compared to their non-displaced peers. Girls are disproportionately affected by the impacts of climate change, with a higher likelihood of dropping out of school and being forced into early marriages.