Despite generous support from our donors, 50 per cent of UNICEF’s response remained unfunded in 2025. Urgent additional support is needed in 2026 to sustain and scale lifesaving services for the most vulnerable children.
In 2025, the MENA region faced overlapping crises including conflict, displacement, economic collapse, disease outbreaks, and climate shocks, placing children at risk and disrupting access to services.
Middle East and North Africa offers a comprehensive, evidence-based analysis of one of the world’s most complex and dynamic mobility landscapes where labour migration, protracted displacement, environmental stressors and socioeconomic transitions converge.
After more than a decade of displacement, around 3 million displaced Syrians inside and outside the country were able to return home. In 2025 alone, around 179,000 people returned to Syria from Jordan and around 500,000 from Lebanon.
Despite urgent needs, 62 per cent of UNICEF’s response remains unfunded. Without timely support, the most vulnerable children risk missing access to critical, lifesaving services.
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), through its award-winning ShareTheMeal app, has partnered with Careem, a leading multi-service app in the Middle East, to launch a donation campaign across Jordan and the United Arab Emirates.
Since October 7, 2023, hostilities in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank have escalated to unprecedented levels, resulting in immense humanitarian needs in the occupied Palestinian territories (oPt).
UNHCR is engaging with thousands of refugees in neighboring countries, often with daily contact through helplines, surveys, focus group discussions, and other communications channels, listening to their concerns, providing up-to-date information, and understanding their perceptions and intentions around return.
Over the past 14 months, more than 44,000 Palestinians — mostly women and children — have been killed in Gaza. Nearly all of Gaza’s residents have been displaced — many multiple times.
On 18 October 2023, IFRC launched the Middle East Crisis Emergency Appeal to support the coordination and scale-up of response to the crisis, in addition to the readiness activities in neighbouring countries.
The Erasmus+ project CINEMATOMEDIA: Teaching Democracy through Cinema
is excited to announce its launch. This innovative project aims to empower youth
organizations across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) by harnessing the
power of cinema to foster political and democratic engagement among young
people.
