Located in Southeast Asia, the Philippines lies near the equator and within the Pacific Ring of Fire. Due to its geographic location, the country is highly exposed to a wide range of hydrometeorological hazards and has been ranked first among 193 countries assessed for disaster risk for four consecutive years (2022-2025) by the World Risk Index. What drives this ranking are not the hazards alone, but how hard it is for people to recover. Wide income gaps, weak infrastructure, and the limited ability of institutions to respond leave communities exposed. Health services are strained, many families have no savings or insurance to cover their losses, and delivering long-term preparedness across more than 7,600 islands is slow and costly.

The effects of the climate crisis are increasingly evident across the country. In the past few years, disasters have also been compounding, striking the same communities before they can recover. Six cyclones crossed the country across 30 days in the last quarter of 2024, affecting more than 13 million people. In September 2025, Super Typhoon Ragasa, Typhoon Bualoi, and a magnitude 6.9 earthquake hit within eight days, followed five weeks later by Typhoon Kalmaegi and Super Typhoon Fung-wong.

Low-lying coastal communities are threatened by rising sea levels, while increasingly intense typhoons, averaging around 20 each year (Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration) bring devastating floods and landslides. Prolonged droughts and erratic rainfall patterns also disrupt agriculture, water resources, and access to basic services. These climate impacts disproportionately affect marginalized communities, exacerbating poverty, gender-based violence, and inequality. At the same time, complex and evolving socioeconomic conditions further increase the country’s vulnerability to the intensifying effects of climate change. 

CARE has operated in the Philippines since 1949, partnering with government agencies, civil society, and local communities to tackle poverty, gender inequality, and climate vulnerability. In FY25 alone, CARE implemented 31 active projects alongside 183 local partners 31 active projects spanning integrated programming in disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation, health, and women’s economic growth, including flagship approaches such as community-based risk management and women-led livelihood recovery models. Key milestones include strengthening community resilience to recurrent disasters, advancing women’s economic participation, and scaling up anticipatory action and disaster risk financing to enable early response before major hazard events occur.