This International Women’s Day, the United Nations (UN) in Myanmar stands in solidarity with women and girls across the country as they continue to demonstrate leadership, resilience and determination in the face of widespread conflict and immense humanitarian need. Their strength is undeniable, but they cannot face these challenges alone.
This year represents the 30th anniversary of the historic Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, a landmark framework for advancing women’s rights. While global progress toward gender quality and women’s empowerment has been made, it has been slow, fragile, and uneven. In Myanmar, escalating conflict, surging displacement, recurrent natural disasters, and economic collapse have reversed previous gains, deepening gender inequalities.
Under the 2025 UN theme for International Women’s Day, ‘For all women and girls: Rights. Equality. Empowerment.,’ the UN in Myanmar calls for immediate action and increased investment in gender equality. Urgent action is needed to protect the rights, safety, and dignity of all Myanmar women and girls. This includes ensuring access to life-saving sexual and reproductive health services, addressing gender-based violence, and empowering women and girls to lead and thrive.
The Urgent Humanitarian Reality Demands Action
In 2025, the humanitarian situation in Myanmar remains dire. Over one-third of the population needs humanitarian aid, including 10.4 million women and girls who bear the brunt of overlapping crises.
This International Women’s Day, the United Nations (UN) in Myanmar stands in solidarity with women and girls across the country as they continue to demonstrate leadership, resilience and determination in the face of widespread conflict and immense humanitarian need. Their strength is undeniable, but they cannot face these challenges alone.
Local women’s organizations report that gender-based violence has escalated, including intimate partner violence and conflict-related sexual violence. Economic hardship has eroded livelihoods, pushing many women into exploitative situations. While healthcare services—particularly services for sexual and reproductive health, mental health, and psychosocial wellbeing—remain underfunded. Limited access to maternal healthcare, family planning, and essential gender-based violence response services puts the lives and futures of women and girls at risk. As conflict continues to escalate, women and girls are at heightened risk of trafficking, unsafe migration, and exploitation as they look for refuge in safer areas. Many are forced to flee their homes, often without access to safe shelter or basic services, making them even more vulnerable. Recurrent natural disasters further exacerbate these risks, underscoring the urgent need for gender-responsive disaster preparedness, resilient shelter solutions, and community-led recovery efforts.
The Cost of Inaction is Too High
Women and women-led organizations in Myanmar continue to play a crucial role in delivering aid, strengthening economic resilience, and advocating for human rights and gender equality. However, they are under-resourced, overburdened, and increasingly at risk.
By the end of 2024, only 36% of the required funding under the UN’s Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan (HNRP) was received[1], and just two months into 2025, aid funding globally has faced sudden, drastic pauses and cuts–including that directed to Myanmar.
The consequences of this underfunding are devastating. In 2024, insufficient funding left more than 800,000 children without education support, increasing girls’ risks of child marriage, child labor, and sexual exploitation. An estimated 1.1 million survivors of gender-based violence were left without critical support, and 1.1 million children were left without access to protection services, increasing their vulnerability to violence, neglect, and exploitation.[2]
The UN’s Commitment to Stay and Deliver in Myanmar
This year, the UN and its humanitarian partners, including a vast network of women-led organizations, aim to reach 2.86 million of Myanmar’s most vulnerable women and girls with life-saving assistance. Despite global declines in aid, now is not the time to give up.
With only five years left to achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, we must redouble our commitments. As UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres reminds us: “Together, we must stand firm in making human rights, equality and empowerment a reality for all women and girls, for everyone, everywhere.”
On International Women’s Day—and every day—the UN in Myanmar remains steadfast in its commitment to upholding the rights, dignity, and future of Myanmar’s women and girls.
[1] Myanmar 2025 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan. UN OCHA. Available online.
[2] ibid.
Original link of Statement on UN Myanmar website: https://myanmar.un.org/en/290409-all-myanmar-women-and-girls-rights-equality-empowerment
