The Long-Term Ramifications of US Aid Cuts in Myanmar: The Social, Political and Humanitarian Consequences of Washington’s Retrenchment

There has been much international media coverage of the humanitarian impact of the Trump administration’s dismantling of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), particularly in the aftermath of the devastating magnitude 7.7 earthquake that hit Myanmar on the 28th March (Tan, 2025).

The short-term implications of America’s withdrawal of aid to Myanmar were clear for all to see with Washington taking days to send three USAID workers (all of whom were subsequently laid off while in the country) to assist in rescue and recovery operations in comparison to Beijing’s immediate deployment of more than 135 personnel to the disaster zone (Mcpherson, 2025). The longer-term consequences of the US retrenchment in Myanmar however remain more opaque, although no less significant, given that the United States has been the primary humanitarian donor to the country, providing between 25 and 40% of Myanmar’s humanitarian funding between 2019 and 2024. In a country beset by civil war, where the UN estimates that close to 20 million people will require humanitarian assistance this year alone, the impact of drastic cuts to both emergency aid as well as support for Burmese activists, journalists and teachers threatens to be devastating (Reliefweb, 2025).

The Cost

Amidst the ongoing civil war in Myanmar, the United States had, until very recently, played an essential role in funding humanitarian projects in the country that sought to save lives and uphold Burmese civil society. In 2024 alone, the United States supplied US$128.6 million of funding for humanitarian initiatives in the country as well as US$111 million in additional foreign assistance which supported education, agriculture and governance programmes in the war-torn state (Reliefweb, 2025).

The Trump administration’s foreign aid freeze and subsequent termination of thousands of USAID projects across the globe has been devastating for US-funded humanitarian programmes in Myanmar. Even health initiatives that had previously been exempted from the aid freeze on the grounds that they provided lifesaving care were closed down in March earlier this year with projects tackling the growing number of malaria, HIV and tuberculosis cases in Myanmar all facing drastic funding cuts as a result (Ibid). Such cuts could have significant regional repercussions too with the US reportedly considering slashing the US$301 million in aid it provided last year for the refugee camps just over the border in Bangladesh, where over a million Rohingya Muslims have fled as a result of the Burmese military’s allegedly genocidal campaigns (Ullah, 2025).

As well as critically undermining vital humanitarian programmes, the shuttering of USAID has also severely affected independent media organisations and pro-democracy activists in Myanmar with US$39 million of funding for these causes over the next three years abruptly withdrawn at a time when the junta continues to brutally repress domestic opponents (Ripon and Latifi, 2025).

Amongst the billions in USAID grants and contracts terminated by the Trump administration was more than US$268 million devoted to supporting independent media organisations across the world, an effort that in 2023 alone provided funding for 6,200 journalists, 707 non-state news outlets, and 279 civil-society groups in over 30 countries including Myanmar (Lamb and Ratcliffe, 2025).

With this support abruptly cut off, hundreds of independent journalists covering Myanmar have come under substantial financial pressure with outlets such as the Irrawaddy, who relied on American funding for around 35% of its budget, having to downsize their operations whilst others like ThanLwinKhet News face closure (Ibid).

US-funded education initiatives in Myanmar have also been drastically impacted by Washington’s aid freeze with US$30 million worth of USAID grants for schooling in the country cancelled for the year 2025 alone (Ripon and Latifi, 2025). The projects terminated include multi-year USAID contracts for organisations like Save The Children International, whose US$58 million 8-year contract to expand access to learning for children in the country was discontinued earlier this year (HRM, 2025).

Another recently-terminated US-funded education initiative – personally singled out by President Trump as a example of wasteful US foreign aid – is the USAID-Burma Diversity and Inclusion Scholarship Program, a US$45 million scheme that funded tuition and maintenance costs for students from Myanmar who are educated in neighbouring Southeast Asian states (Amnesty International, 2025). In a country that has been destabilised by years of civil war and in which only 26% of girls complete upper secondary education, the halting of these programmes will be far-reaching and have harmful knock-on effects for years to come (Ripon and Latifi, 2025).

On top of these seismic cuts, farmers in Myanmar who rely on American-funded NGOs also face uncertainty with US$36 million in agriculture grants for 2025 alone rescinded as part of the aid freeze; further threatening to worsen the food supply and humanitarian situation in the country (Ibid). For those organisations still operating in Myanmar the provision of direct assistance to farmers has also become significantly more difficult with Washington implementing a ban on multi-purpose cash transfers, despite the practice arguably being one of the most effective ways for NGOs to support communities (Min Aung et al, 2023).

Hardships to Come

In 2025, USAID was projected to deliver US$259 million of aid to Myanmar with around US$172 million (72%) allocated to humanitarian aid and social programmes with another US$44 million (29%) for democracy, free press and human rights initiatives (HRM, 2025). If the termination of this assistance is continued throughout Trump’s second term, Myanmar is set to lose close to US$1.06 billion in American financial aid by 2029; deepening the humanitarian crisis in the country and weakening US soft power across the region (Ibid).

The policy-shift in Washington could also have an impact on the battlefield too with the aid cuts undermining certain anti-junta armed groups, such as the pro-democracy National Unity Government (NUG) and the ethnic armed organisations like the Karen National Union (KNU), which are heavily depend on American “technical, financial, humanitarian and political assistance” (Michaels, 2025).

The full repercussions of the withdrawal of US aid funding to Myanmar remain unknown, although the potential long-term humanitarian ramifications for the Burmese people are enormous and threaten to compound the suffering already caused by years of unrelenting civil war (Thazin Aung, 2025). Ensuring that the world does not lose sight of the crisis continues to be paramount, even as the ability of those in Myanmar to freely document and share their experiences becomes increasingly difficult.

Bibliography

Amnesty International. (2025). Myanmar: Life-saving education funding must be restored following USAID cuts. [online] 8 May. Available at: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2025/05/myanmar-life-saving-education-funding-must-be-restored-following-usaid-cuts/

Aung, M.M., Gerin, R. and Reed, M. (2023). Myanmar junta’s confiscation of food, medicine leaves Kayah state residents at risk. Radio Free Asia. [online] 21 Feb. Available at: https://www.rfa.org/english/news/myanmar/roadway-checkpoints-02212023165344.html

Aung, S.M.T. (2025). Trump’s Aid Cuts Could Devastate Myanmar More Than Anyone Expects. Fulcrum. [online] 11 Feb. Available at: https://fulcrum.sg/trumps-aid-cuts-could-devastate-myanmar-more-than-anyone-expects/

Human Rights Myanmar. (2025). America cuts $1.1 billion for Myanmar, abandoning democracy and rights. [online] 4 Mar. Available at: https://humanrightsmyanmar.org/america-cuts-1-1-billion-for-myanmar-abandoning-democracy-and-rights/

Lamb, K. and Ratcliffe, R. (2025). ‘We have nothing now’: Myanmar’s exiled media face existential crisis after Trump severs aid. The Guardian. [online] 23 Feb. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/feb/24/donald-trump-usaid-funding-cuts-myanmar-impact-journalists

Mcpherson, P. (2025). U.S. aid team fired while in Myanmar earthquake zone, ex-official says. Reuters. [online] 5 Apr. Available at: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/usaid-team-fired-while-myanmar-earthquake-zone-ex-official-says-2025-04-05/

Michaels, M. (2025). Crossing the Rubicon: Are Myanmar’s ethnic armies prepared to go all in? The International Institute of Strategic Studies. [online] Feb. Available at: https://myanmar.iiss.org/updates/2025-02

Reliefweb. (2025). Myanmar: Implications of the US funding freeze and cuts on humanitarian response and health needs. United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. [online] 21 Mar. Available at: https://reliefweb.int/report/myanmar/myanmar-implications-us-funding-freeze-and-cuts-humanitarian-response-and-health-needs-21-march-2025

Ripon, T.R. and Latifi, A.M. (2025). For Myanmar’s war victims and Rohingya refugees, US aid cuts are disastrous. The New Humanitarian. [online] 27 Feb. Available at: https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/news-feature/2025/02/27/myanmar-war-victims-rohingya-refugees-us-aid-cuts

Tan, R. (2025). Trump’s USAID cuts cripple American response to Myanmar earthquake. The Washington Post. [online] 31 Mar. Available at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/03/31/myanmar-earthquake-thailand-usaid-trump/

Ullah, R. (US Aid Freeze Devastates Some of the World’s Most Vulnerable: Rohingya Refugees. The Diplomat. [online] 18 Feb. Available at: https://thediplomat.com/2025/02/us-aid-freeze-devastates-some-of-the-worlds-most-vulnerable-rohingya-refugees/