Asia-Pacific regional synthesis Climate change, displacement and the right to education

Abstract

he year 2021 has been another year of extreme climate events: increasingly powerful tropical cyclones, more intense heatwaves, frequent wildfires, and prolonged droughts. At the time of writing this synthesis report, 2.4 million people are still in need of humanitarian assistance after Super Typhoon Rai (locally known as Odette) hit the Philippines in December of 2021. Nearly 144,000 people remained displaced for more than a month after the event. Many more still are living in damaged shelters with little access to basic services. The COVID-19 pandemic further worsened their livelihoods and security as an already vulnerable group who is often ‘ignored, invisible and excluded’ (Orendain and Djalante, 2021, p. 337), as access to safe shelters has been hindered by social distancing restrictions to avoid infections among the evacuees (OCHA, 2022).