Partnerships
Working together, to achieve better lives for children.
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The opportunity
Every day, children in Myanmar look to UNICEF to change their lives. Families want UNICEF to ensure their children are nourished, healthy, safe, and educated. Communities rely on UNICEF to be their voice. And UNICEF’s partners count on us to transform the funds they have provided into effective action for children. In turn, UNICEF counts on the partners to continue believing in our mission – in the possibilities for children – and to sustain partners’ support for UNICEF.
With our partners’ support, UNICEF can pioneer new ideas for children; work across the entire childhood from birth through adolescence; scale-up proven solutions; prepare and respond rapidly in emergencies and thereafter; and, most importantly, given our sustained presence in the country, achieve the greatest impact for children.
The challenges
Conflict escalation with multidimensional crises – Conflict and violence have escalated across the country since February 2021, impacting children and their families and displacing over 2.6 million people as of January 2024. The ongoing political crisis has been coupled with economic challenges, increasing people’s vulnerability. Adding to this, in 2023, Cyclone Mocha caused widespread destruction in five states, and seasonal monsoons
negatively impacted already vulnerable communities. Altogether, more than 18.6 million people, including 6 million children, require humanitarian assistance in 2024.
In 2024, people and children in Myanmar face the following challenges:
Funding constraints – UNICEF Myanmar struggles to secure resources to help children, in the face of escalating requirements. This has left many children at risk of going without critical lifesaving support and begs the question: what happens to children in an underfunded - or what some call ‘forgotten’ - crisis?
UNICEF’s sustainable response
UNICEF Myanmar’s humanitarian strategy focuses on working with local civil society organisations, nongovernmental organisations, and other UN agencies to broaden the humanitarian response for children, maximising the coverage of its seven field offices in all conflict-affected states and regions.
Working with partners, UNICEF Myanmar implements evidence- and experience-based strategies to broaden the humanitarian response for children, through the following sectors:
Health and Nutrition – Delivery of lifesaving, high-impact maternal, newborn and child health interventions, using a primary health care platform, with interventions jointly delivered, managed and integrated with other essential sectors; nutrition services, improve diets and preventative services among children, women of reproductive age; vaccination services with a focus on zero dose.
WASH – Provision of lifesaving WASH services and supplies to affected people through local partnerships and integrated with health and nutrition, education and child protection sectors; local procurement, direct distribution and cash transfer modalities to maximize reach to affected communities.
Child Protection – Provision of integrated packages of lifesaving child protection services; capacity building to monitor, report and respond to grave violations against children in armed conflict; continuation of dialogue with parties to conflict to prevent and address grave violations.
Social Protection – Expansion of disability screening and identification, in collaboration with organisations of persons with disabilities and community networks; humanitarian cash in the form of maternal and child cash transfers and linking recipients to other services; data and evidence generation to support vulnerability and needs assessments.
Education – Support with the continued access of crisis affected children to safe learning through complementary learning opportunities tailored to school age children, including preprimary school aged children, and for those who were out of the formal system even before the current crisis.
Cross-sectoral – Integration of initiatives to ensure protection from sexual exploitation and abuse into programmes and partnerships; strengthening existing community feedback mechanisms, focusing on the most marginalised communities, to ensure accountability to affected populations; capacity building of staff and standard reporting; leveraging digital innovations and social media channels to ensure two-way communication with communities.
Key advantage of partnering with UNICEF
Five key assets give UNICEF a real comparative advantage over other organisations when it comes to being there for every child.
Taking the work to scale – UNICEF has been helping children and families for more than 70 years in Myanmar – and is now one of the few humanitarian organisations left in the country with the scale, reach and breadth of expertise to provide emergency aid to the hidden victims of this complex humanitarian crisis – Myanmar’s children. UNICEF Myanmar maintains its nationwide focus, maximising the coverage of its seven field offices in all conflict-affected states and regions.
Leading and pioneering – Our reliable long-term presence in the country and our convening power with our partners and networks gives us the deep insights that are needed to understand the root causes of problems and to find effective solutions. In Myanmar, UNICEF leads five inter-agency clusters and areas of responsibility: WASH, Education, Nutrition, Child Protection and Mine Action.
Meeting needs throughout childhood and adolescence – At each step of the journey UNICEF is there, ensuring that children are healthy, protected, receiving a nutritious diet, and – critically – that they are attending primary and secondary school with adequate water and sanitation facilities, so they can finally break the onerous chain of cyclical poverty.
Before, during, and after an emergency – Our teams are first responders, building the effective systems, relationships, and plans that we need to protect children. And when emergencies do strike, our experts are in place and can use their preexisting skills, equipment, global supply chain and relationships to make an impact wherever it matters most. Sadly, when a crisis ends, the suffering of children does not. We can stay long after the emergency - or as long as children need us.
Expert staff – We are immensely proud of our staff, all of whom have deep expertise and a network of trusted contacts and relationships, including everyone from technical staff to our most senior representatives.
UNICEF is also committed to delivering timely and high-quality donor reports, offering support for donor recognition efforts. This commitment aims to ensure accountability and transparency, providing clear visibility into the allocation of received funds. Additionally, it serves to spotlight our valued partners' contributions and their impactful partnerships with UNICEF.
With Your Support, Together We Can Save Lives
In 2024, UNICEF aims to reach 3.1 million people, including 2.1 million children; 1.6 million women and girls, including 1 million girls; and over 402,000 people with disabilities, including over 207,000 children with disabilities.
UNICEF is 100 per cent voluntary funded. That means we rely on our partners to help us fulfil our critical mandate. In 2023, the Humanitarian Action for Children (HAC) was grossly underfunded, with about 80 percent deficit, when the needs of children and communities, and our response to them, were greater. This means that UNICEF’s ability to deliver on our mandate for all children at scale is at risk.
Increased, predictable and flexible funding is urgently needed for UNICEF and its partners to respond to escalating needs in Myanmar and reach people with critical assistance.
For 2024, UNICEF is appealing for US$208.3 million to provide life-saving humanitarian assistance to 3.1 million people, including 2.1 million children. This funding will enable the most vulnerable children and families to access ifesaving services.
Sector | 2024 Needs (US$) |
| Health (including public health emergencies) | 16,750,000 |
| Nutrition | 18,010,388 |
| Child Protection, GBViE1 and PSEA2 | 33,155,892 |
| Education | 55,871,200 |
| WASH | 35,880,000 |
| Social Protection | 8,195,000 |
| Cross-sectoral (HCT3, SBC4, RCCE5 and AAP6) | 29,242,348 |
| Cluster and Field Coordination | 11,221,000 |
| Total | 208,285,828 |
- Gender-based Violence in Emergencies
- Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse
- Humanitarian Cash Transfers
- Social and Behaviour Change
- Risk Communication and Community Engagement
- Accountability to Affected Populations
