Attachments
OVERVIEW
On 20 January 2025, US President Donald Trump issued an executive order calling for a 90- day suspension of US-funded foreign aid, including humanitarian operations (WH 20/01/2025). On 24 January, the administration began issuing stop-work orders and suspending new aid projects (CNN 05/02/2025). On 10 March, after six weeks of conflicting information and decisions around the scope, scale, and duration of the suspension, the US Secretary of State announced that 83% of USAID programming, 5,200 programmes in total, had been terminated (Devex 10/03/2025).
The US is Myanmar’s primary humanitarian donor, providing around 25–40% of all humanitarian funding to the country between 2019–2024 (OCHA accessed 10/03/2025 a; OCHA accessed 10/03/2025 b; OCHA accessed 10/03/2025 c; OCHA accessed 10/03/2025 d; OCHA accessed 10/03/2025 e). In 2024 specifically, the US contributed USD 128.6 million, or 30% of total funding, to Myanmar’s Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan (HNRP) and non-plan humanitarian funding (OCHA accessed 21/02/2025 a). The US also provided an additional USD 111 million in nonhumanitarian foreign assistance, including for governance, health, agriculture, and education (ForeignAssistance accessed 10/03/2025).
By 15 March, the US funding freeze and cuts had led to the suspension and termination of humanitarian programmes across all sectors in most of Myanmar’s states and regions. This included the termination of programmes that had previously received waivers for lifesaving assistance (Joint analysis session 25/02/2025; Joint analysis session 10/03/2025; KII 14/03/2025 a; KII 05/03/2025; KII 17/03/2025 c). The health sector is among those severely affected, with cuts to malaria, tuberculosis (TB), and HIV treatment and prevention, maternal, child, and sexual and reproductive healthcare (SRH), and other vital health programming (KII 14/03/2025 a; KII 11/03/2025; KII 05/03/2025; KII 10/03/2025; KII 26/02/2025; KII 17/03/2025 a; Joint analysis session 25/02/2025; Joint analysis session 10/03/2025).
The termination of this assistance will have significant implications in Myanmar, where nearly 20 million people (37%) out of a total 54 million are in need humanitarian assistance in 2025. This includes 12.9 million people in need of humanitarian health assistance (OCHA 13/12/2024; WHO accessed 10/03/2025). In March 2025, conflict between the Myanmar Armed Forces and armed resistance groups continued to escalate, affecting 13 of Myanmar’s 15 states and regions (ACLED 12/12/2024; OCHA 13/12/2024; The Irrawaddy 21/01/2025). Climate hazards pose a recurrent threat to communities, with monsoon-related flooding and Typhoon Yagi affecting nearly one million people across Myanmar in 2024 (OCHA 13/12/2024). By March 2025, conflict and climate hazards had driven the internal displacement of 3.25 million people, representing an increase of one million since December 2023 (UNCHR 04/03/2025).