“There are so many organisations and donors and grantees and subgrantees unsure about what is going on. People are panicking and sharing information, much of which is misinformation. And it’s still unclear what is actually happening.”
The aid worker said they were hoping for a return of funding and normalcy in a situation that is “incredibly stressful”.
“Had communication been clear, it could have been avoided,” the aid worker said.
While few working in international development take issue with the right of donors to review their policies, the speed and scale of the funding cut came as a shock. Many had assumed that those with active contracts would be protected, or that the cuts wouldn’t be so widespread or so deep.
The news was first delivered on January 24 when US Secretary of State Marco Rubio sent a cable to senior officials ordering them to stop work on all foreign assistance worldwide for 90 days pending his review. The cable said waivers had been issued for military support for Israel and Egypt, as well as for emergency food assistance, but offered no details.
The fallout was immediate among NGOs, contractors and subcontractors receiving US government funding. They were left scrambling for alternative sources of support, and in the meantime were forced to lay off staff, cancel medical services and close facilities. Smaller organisations have been left unsure of their ability to survive the 90-day review period.
By any measure, Myanmar is among the world’s neediest countries. According to the International Rescue Committee, 35 percent of Myanmar’s population – 18.6 million out of 53.8 million – are in need of humanitarian aid. In terms of human development, Myanmar ranks 149 out of 191 countries.
Myanmar’s humanitarian needs were significantly underfunded even before Trump’s aid cutoff. According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, international donors met only 36pc of the required US$995 million for Myanmar’s 2024 plan. Of the funding received, the US provided the largest share at 32pc, or $114 million.
According to the UN, the US government is the largest single donor in the world, providing $72 billion in global assistance during 2023 and reportedly providing more than 40pc of all humanitarian aid accounted for by the UN during 2024.
Human rights observers are worried that the aid cuts are just the beginning of the debilitating effect the Trump administration could have on the global humanitarian community.
“What’s happening on foreign aid is just the start of Trump’s problematic shift of US foreign policy back to increased isolationism punctuated by case by case realpolitik style interventions focused on what a foreign partner can do for the US,” human rights activist Mr Phil Robertson posted on X.
“Since poor refugees on a remote border have little to offer either Trump, or his team, one can expect there will be little interest going forward for the US to continue helping them with foreign aid.”
The impact of the new US administration’s policies on Myanmar is not limited to the global aid freeze. On Thursday, Trump cancelled $45 million in scholarships for Myanmar students to study at Asian universities.
Ms Bryony Lau, deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch, told Frontier that she was “most concerned about the impact on smaller organisations which don’t have a buffer to sustain the rupture to their financing”.
“We know that due to restrictions on access and efforts to block assistance by the military junta, local non-government organisations are extremely important to delivering assistance to those who need it most,” she said.
On the ground in Myanmar and for Myanmar refugees in neighbouring countries like Thailand, years of conflict, neglect and low economic development means resources are scarce even in the best of times. In many parts of the country, NGOs are often the only source of services normally provided by states, including medical care and medicine, education, shelter for internally displaced people and emergency food aid.
Charities and other NGOs affected by the US aid freeze have also had to stop other activities, such as documenting human rights violations, protecting human rights defenders and supporting independent media, civil society and democratic institutions.
The Chin Human Rights Organization, which provides mobile health services and psycho-social support among other services in Chin State and across the border in India, has had to fire 16 of its psycho-social support staff and 40 healthcare workers due to the loss of US funding.
CHRO’s executive director Za Uk Ling told Frontier that he estimates 40pc of the residents in war-torn Chin are internally displaced and 20pc are refugees in the neighbouring Indian state of Mizoram. Those who remain in the state have few other healthcare options, he added.
“It’s like leaving a critically ill patient without medicine,” said Za Uk Ling. “He might not die immediately. But he will die.”
He admitted that he had expected Myanmar to be exempt from the cutbacks, due to the historically bipartisan support for democracy in the country, especially from the US Congress.
In western Thailand, near the border of Myanmar’s Kayin and Kayah states, Reuters reported the closures of medical clinics serving nine camps along the border, home to some 100,000 long-term Myanmar refugees, financed and operated by international donors and organisations.
A member of a refugee committee at Mae La camp in Tak province and a local schoolteacher were quoted by Reuters as saying that the International Rescue Committee, which had been receiving significant funding from the US, had already discharged patients and denied medicine to patients, including pregnant women and people with breathing difficulties dependent on oxygen tanks.
The Thai government said it would help fill the gap by providing medical treatment, even though it was not their responsibility. The Bangkok Post quoted Thailand’s Minister of Public Health Somsak Thepsutin as saying, “No matter who they are, we have to take care of them.”
On Tuesday, Rubio issued a temporary waiver for “life-saving humanitarian assistance” which “applies to core life-saving medicine, medical services; food, shelter, and subsistence assistance, as well as supplies and reasonable administrative costs as necessary to deliver such assistance”.
The waiver also opened the possibility of additional exceptions, instructing that “implementing partners and NGOs are to work through their U.S. government agency partners on such requests”.
But Myanmar aid organisations were just as confused by the waiver as they were about the original executive order cutting aid. None of the organisations Frontier spoke with could say whether their programmes were exempt or whether any expenditures after January 25 would be reimbursed. They were waiting for formal notification from their contacting authorities.
The 90-day review of the original aid freeze is mandated to be completed by April 20. However, many service providers fear that they may not survive long enough to restart their operations, even if offered the possibility.