Mizzima-Apr 9
A new report urges humanitarian actors responding to Myanmar’s devastating 28 March earthquake to adopt a conflict-sensitive and locally driven approach, warning that missteps could risk lives and inadvertently legitimize the military junta. The report, titled Do No Harm Considerations to Funding, Partnering and Implementing in Myanmar’s Earthquake Response and Recovery, highlights the need for tailored aid strategies in a country already fractured by civil war.
The most severely affected areas include Sagaing Region, Mandalay Region, and Naypyidaw, as well as parts of southern Shan State and Bago Region. However, the response is complicated by ongoing military attacks, restrictions on movement, and surveillance by the military junta. Despite the natural disaster, the junta has continued military campaigns, with 27 airstrikes reported in the week following the quake. The report warns that local responders, often working under great risk, face harassment, arrest, and communication blackouts. Humanitarian organizations are encouraged to bypass junta-controlled channels when possible, and instead partner with resistance-affiliated networks and ethnic revolutionary organizations (EROs) that have existing local infrastructure and trust. The report also calls for the use of informal financial systems, like Hundi, to avoid endangering local partners through exposure to junta scrutiny. Importantly, the paper emphasizes empowering women-led organizations and smaller community-based groups, who have been at the forefront of both resistance efforts and humanitarian service. It also underscores the need for inclusion of people with disabilities and for aid designs that reflect the cultural and logistical realities on the ground.
Rather than imposing international agendas, the report advises donors to reduce bureaucracy, trust local actors, and adapt to Myanmar’s fragmented landscape: “Effective response depends on acknowledging who holds power on the ground and who communities trust—not just who holds formal authority.”
As Myanmar continues to reel from the twin disasters of political violence and natural catastrophe, the report serves as a blueprint for how to save lives without fueling further harm. Read more at: https://eng.mizzima.com/2025/04/09/21188
