Attachments
To date, this Emergency Appeal which seeks CHF 198.2 million, is 47 per cent funded (funding coverage as of 31 December 2025 is CHF 93.2 million. Further funding contributions are needed from all sources including IFRC and its membership to enable the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society (BDRCS), to continue to meet the humanitarian needs of displaced people from Rakhine, as well as the local community affected by the influx.
OVERVIEW
Eight years after the large-scale displacement from Rakhine State, Myanmar in 2017, the humanitarian crisis in Cox’s Bazar remains one of the world’s most protracted and critically underfunded emergencies. As of 31 December 2025, nearly 1.18 million displaced people reside in 33 highly congested camps across Cox’s Bazar and Bhasan Char, with limited freedom of movement, restricted access to livelihoods, and continued reliance on humanitarian assistance. Renewed violence in Myanmar has further intensified needs, driving more than 141,500 new arrivals since 2024, with projections indicating that this number could reach 200,000 by mid-2026. Host communities in Ukhiya and Teknaf continue to face mounting social, environmental, and economic pressures as the crisis endures. Despite the rising needs and population growth, in 2025, the UN-led response moved toward a more rationalized ‘One Camp’ approach, prioritizing life-saving coverage amid reduced resources and a shrinking partner footprint.
In response to this emergency, the BDRCS has been supported by IFRC and its member societies to continue the Population Movement Operation (PMO) since March 2017. To ensure funding for the PMO, the IFRC revised Emergency Appeal for Bangladesh (MDRBD018), covering the period 2017–2027, seeks CHF 198.2 million to sustain lifesaving and community-based assistance for displaced and host populations. As of 31 December 2025, the appeal is 47 per cent funded (CHF 93.2 million), leaving a significant funding gap that directly threatens the continuity and quality of essential services.
In 2025, a total of 564,454 people were reached from Federation-wide coverage (451,813 people from IFRC Secretariat support) through multi-sectors’ assistance for displaced people in camps and affected host communities. In parallel, institutional disaster risk management and preparedness interventions supported approximately 1.4 million people across all 33 camps and surrounding host communities, strengthening community readiness for multi-hazards. This reach matters because it sustained essential services, safe water, sanitation, shelter repair and maintenance, basic healthcare services, protection and accountability mechanisms, and disaster preparedness at a time when the funding cuts across the wider response reduced rations and services, increased protection risks, and heightened exposure to cyclones, fires, floods, landslides, disease outbreaks, and insecurity.
Despite funding constraints, the operation sustained core lifesaving services and strengthened resilience in priority areas, reaching 23,789 people with shelter/NFI support, 92,803 with WASH, 193,170 with health care, 53,080 with livelihoods, 148,968 with DRM and 118,967 with PGI alongside 81,724 engaged through CEA protecting public health, safety, preparedness, and inclusion across camps and host communities.
However, progress was uneven due to funding shortfalls, policy limits on permanent infrastructure, insecurity, and rising new arrivals. Consequently, shelter upgrades could not be scaled beyond pilots, health service expansion and community healthcare capacity were constrained, and livelihood training has yet to translate into sustained income because of market and mobility restrictions. This protracted response has been under increasing strain from new arrivals, shocks multi-hazards (cyclone, flood, fire etc.), and insecurity. Critical gaps remain in shelter upgradation, WASH operation and maintenance (for faecal and solid waste management), primary and maternal health care, protection, and basic support for new arrivals, leaving women, children, persons with disabilities and other vulnerable displaced people in camps and affected host communities most underserved.
Lessons from 2025 show that care and maintenance and community-driven models deliver strong value under tight budgets, but coordination trade-offs, extreme weather-exposed infrastructure, and security volatility continue to disrupt coverage.
In 2026, the priorities of PMO are to sustain lifesaving WASH, health, shelter, livelihoods, and PGI/CEA services; scale targeted risk reduction across all camps; prioritize new arrivals and extremely vulnerable individuals (EVIs) with minimum packages; strengthen ‘One Team’ efficiencies and localization; and intensify humanitarian diplomacy and resource mobilization to prevent further service contraction.