Gender Alert: The 2026 El Niño and Compounding Crises in Asia and the Pacific

The Asia-Pacific region is currently facing the onset of a strong 2026 El Niño event, overlapping with severe economic shocks stemming from the 2026 Middle East Escalation. Building on previous UN Women analyses of the gendered impacts of climate extremes, this alert aligns with the latest 2026 tiered risk classifications by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Food and Agriculture Organization, World Food Programme, and World Meteorological Organization to guide governments as well as development and humanitarian actors. Discriminatory gender norms, structural inequalities and heavy unpaid care burdens mean that the compounding crises of climate variability and market shocks will disproportionately harm women and girls. Without targeted, gender-transformative anticipatory action, the 2026 El Niño threatens to deepen poverty, escalate gender-based violence and severely compromise women’s food security.