Myanmar: Humanitarian Response Plan 2024 - Quarter One Dashboard (Jan - Mar 2024)

OVERVIEW

The humanitarian crisis in Myanmar has deteriorated dramatically in the first quarter of 2024, characterized by persistent conflict, widespread insecurity, surging displacement and disrupted basic services. The intensification of fighting, aerial bombardment in urban areas and growing explosive ordnance contamination is having severe consequences for millions of civilians, exacerbating humanitarian needs across the country, including shortages of food and lack of access to critical services such as health and WASH. Amid the escalating conflict, the number of internally displaced people (IDPs) had surged to 2.9 million by 31 March, reflecting a significant increase from 2.6 million at the start of 2024. Changes in territorial control in many parts of the country have made humanitarian operations increasingly complex and conflict dynamics in Rakhine are fueling worrying inter-communal tension.

Despite these daunting challenges, humanitarian partners remained committed to delivering assistance to meet the deepening needs of affected populations, reaching almost 950,000 people during the first quarter. However, a comparison between the first quarters of 2023 and 2024 reveals a concerning trend with the percentage of the targeted population reached decreasing from 27 per cent in 2023 to 18 per cent in 2024. This 9 per cent decline is likely the product of both severe underfunding and the heavily restricted operating environment. The 2024 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan (HNRP) remains alarmingly under-resourced, with only 5 per cent of required funding received, according to the Financial Tracking Service (FTS) as of 31 March. This is despite the deepening needs, the surge in new displacement, and soaring inflation that have further stretched the grossly insufficient resources across clusters.

Challenges posed by funding shortages and access constraints were exacerbated by the targeting of aid workers by parties to the conflict. Between January and March, humanitarian organizations reported a total of 359 access incidents across the country, impeding the delivery of vital assistance and services to conflict-affected populations particularly in Rakhine, northern Shan, Kayin and Sagaing. In the face of these challenges, humanitarian partners prioritized assistance for the most vulnerable groups, including IDPs, returnees, resettled and locally integrated IDPs, and non-displaced stateless people. Collectively, partners reached 63 per cent of the people targeted in these population groups, including almost half a million IDPs. However, coverage for other crisis-affected people remained lower at 36 per cent of total targets.

Humanitarian efforts were marginally scaled up in the worst-hit areas especially in the Northeast (Kachin and northern Shan) and Rakhine, reaching between 28 and 36 per cent of the total annual targets for these areas. The Shelter/NFI/CCCM cluster reached the highest proportion of its target at 25 per cent, followed by Food Security and WASH (21 per cent each), although underreporting of activities remains a response-wide challenge. The percentage of people reached in the Health and Protection clusters was notably low (3 and 8 per cent respectively), highlighting gaps in healthcare and protection services and the added complexity of delivering these types of activities in the current environment. These figures are based on self-reporting by partners and indicate an improvement in willingness to share progress but the numbers are still unlikely to be capturing all responses.

Looking ahead, projections suggest that Myanmar will continue to face challenges in responding to displacement, with the number of people fleeing their homes already nearly surpassing the full year IDP projection for 2024. Partners are actively developing an HNRP addendum to analyze new conflict and displacement trends and outline the dire consequences if current funding levels continue for the remainder of the year. Urgent action is needed to secure immediate funding to prevent further reductions in coverage and assistance packages, particularly for newly displaced people in vulnerable situations who stand to miss out on access to critical services. Continued commitment to localization among humanitarian actors, increased support from donors, and efforts to engage regional neighbours on addressing the crisis are essential to expanding reach and reducing suffering for millions of vulnerable people across Myanmar.