Shan State

Shan State has the largest number of children of all the country’s states and regions. About one third of its 5.8 million population at the 2014 census was 14 or younger.

It has many remote, hard-to-reach areas, and violent conflict between Ethnic Armed Organizations and the Myanmar Armed Forces adds to the challenges of service-delivery.

In northern Shan State, where fighting has increased, humanitarian access has become very difficult and the number of newly displaced people needing humanitarian assistance has grown throughout 2021.

In 2020, as COVID-19 spread, the UNICEF team in Shan State team played a key role in coordinating more than US$1 million of support funding for migrant social support initiatives. The team helped prepare a state-level response plan which drew together more than 40 agencies.

Key results in 2020

• Humanitarian aid: In northern Shan State, UNICEF and its partners continued to deliver humanitarian support to over 12,000 IDPs, including 4,800 children; and delivered essential WASH services to surrounding communities, including hard-to-reach areas.
• WASH: 53,715 members of vulnerable communities from remote areas in northern Shan State received emergency WASH assistance in eight townships, including non-Government-controlled regions.
• COVID-19: Information, education and communication materials were translated into at least 10 local ethnic languages in southern Shan State. Materials were also distributed in soft and hard copies to ethnic health organizations and ethnic community-based organizations.
• Social protection: The Mother and Child Cash Transfer programme supported more than 3,000 pregnant women and mothers.