Following a decade of political and economic opening, the military coup in February 2021 has plunged Myanmar into a deep political, social, economic, and humanitarian crisis. In various parts of the country, armed resistance troops are fighting an asymmetric conflict against the military. The escalating violence exacerbates existing conflicts and has had a catastrophic impact on the civilian population: it has led to massive human rights violations and large-scale internal displacement across the country. Household income has significantly decreased due to increased unemployment, inflation, and the depreciation of the national currency. The position of women in the labour market has been further eroded.
As a consequence, poverty across the country has more than doubled since the coup. Food insecurity has increased, with roughly a quarter of the population facing acute food insecurity in 2023. The civic space has drastically narrowed, with limited media freedom, restricted rights to peaceful assembly, and deliberate legal and operational constraints on opposition parties and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs). Unsustainable and unregulated exploitation of natural resources and ecosystems is increasingly contributing to environmental degradation. The Rohingya crisis since 2017 remains unresolved, leaving over a million refugees in camps in Bangladesh with no prospects for a safe return to Rakhine State.
