Increased Support Needed for Myanmar in 2025 to Reach 5.5 Million People in Desperate Need

The 2025 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan (HNRP) for Myanmar that was launched today requests US$1.1 billion to provide life-saving assistance to 5.5 million people struggling to survive the impacts of a humanitarian crisis that has devastated countless lives. 

Humanitarian needs are soaring to unprecedented levels in Myanmar, with an estimated 19.9 million people in need of assistance in 2025, including 6.3 million children. The humanitarian crisis is fuelled by conflict that has escalated since the military takeover in 2021, as well as disasters, epidemics, widespread explosive ordnance and landmine contamination, and economic decline. 

Civilians across the country, including women and children, are facing the painful consequences of this crisis. Conflict has driven people to flee their homes and livelihoods in record numbers. It is estimated that almost 3.5 million people across Myanmar are internally displaced, approximately one third of them children. Education and health services are severely disrupted. Millions of people are without safe shelter or drinking water. More than 15 million people are expected to face food insecurity in 2025. People are confronted with grave protection threats, and coping capacities are stretched to the limit. The crisis is spilling over across the region, with 1.3 million Myanmar refugees and asylum seekers in neighbouring countries.

To respond to this crisis, the 2025 HNRP outlines a cohesive plan to address complex and evolving needs across the country. The 2025 HNRP is the result of heavy prioritization to meet the most urgent needs, focusing on life-saving interventions. The 5.5 million people prioritized for assistance are the most severely affected – help for them cannot wait.

Scaled-up support for Myanmar in 2025 is urgently needed to prevent the crisis from deteriorating into a catastrophic situation. Dangerously low levels of funding in 2024 drastically affected the capacity of humanitarian partners to deliver life-saving aid to people who had been prioritized for urgent assistance. With only 34 per cent of the 2024 HNRP funding requirements received to date, partners were unable to provide the depth, frequency and quality of assistance that was planned, leaving millions of people without aid. Without the required funds in 2025, humanitarian partners will have to prioritize further, favouring lower-cost life-saving and critical activities that do not offer the required depth of relief or contribute to people’s overall well-being, offer dignified living conditions, meet global standards, or provide a chance of finding durable solutions.

Despite formidable challenges, aid workers continue to deliver aid to those most in need. With the generous support of donors, humanitarians reached 3 million people in need in the first three quarters of 2024. With solidarity and increased support from the international community, the humanitarian community will be ready to collectively step up in 2025 to save lives and protect the most vulnerable.

The HNRP is available here: 

https://humanitarianaction.info/plan/1275/document/myanmar-humanitarian-needs-and-response-plan-2025