Charlotte Frantz (narrator): I'm Charlotte Frantz with UN News. Despite widespread suffering driven by escalating conflict, displacement and disasters. Myanmar's humanitarian emergency has become all but invisible to the world, the top UN official in the country has warned. Gwyn Lewis, the UN's interim resident and humanitarian coordinator for Myanmar issued the alert during a visit to UN Headquarters, where she has been urging Member States and diplomats to refocus attention on the crisis. She noted that 3.6 million people have been displaced, nearly 12 million faced severe food insecurity and one million of them already living in emergency conditions. Speaking to UN News' Vibhu Mishra, she called on the international community to increase support and funding to alleviate Myanmar's humanitarian crisis.  

Gwyn Lewis: The crisis in Myanmar is almost invisible, I think, because of the other crises around the world. There's really a sense in country that it's been forgotten, and one of the most, indicative aspects of that is the fact that the humanitarian for 2025 was only 15% funded, meaning the most critical humanitarian and assistance hasn't been provided to millions of people across the country. I'm here in New York to try and highlight the plight of the most vulnerable in Myanmar, but also to advocate for increased support and funding for 2026.

Vibhu Mishra: When we talk about the plight of the civilians in Myanmar. What is the current scale of humanitarian needs and what conditions are most critical?

Gwyn Lewis: The scale, and the severity and the complexity of the humanitarian crisis in Myanmar is very, very, very high. Just to give you a sense of some of the numbers, this and this year, we have about 3.6 million people who have been displaced, who have had to leave their homes. And very often that's due to the ongoing conflict, but also in March, there was a very large earthquake which impacted, thousands and thousands of people; and nearly 5,000 people were killed. And there's also been quite a severe monsoon flooding this year. that means that people are living in, unsafe very often overcrowded shelters. And they have challenges accessing health facilities, accessing food or clean water. that's really the priority of the humanitarian community, is to work with those families and trying to assist them., of the, there's 3.6 million people displaced, but there's also a very high number of people who are facing acute food insecurity across the country. Myanmar has a population of about 55 million people, but about 11.8 million people face severe food insecurity. And of those, about a million people are in emergency situation, meaning they really need urgent, urgent assistance because of the intensity of the conflict, because of the various humanitarian natural disasters that have happened. We have very high numbers of people that really need just basic assistance.

Vibhu Mishra: You are just on your way to joining the Myanmar office. One of the key challenges also for the civilians, what we read through many UN reports is the is the downward spiral of the economy. Basically, the resilience of the people is waning by the day. Do you hear concerns about this also?

Gwyn Lewis: No, that's very much the case. The economy is in a very difficult, place right now. What we what, because of the war has been going on for many years now. It means that the access to jobs have been severely curtailed. People have had to move from their homes; the agriculture and businesses have been left behind. And after many years, the economy really gets impacted. Inflation is very high. It's about 30% at the moment, meaning food prices have gone up significantly. And then when people don't have access to education services or health services, a social services, it also has an impact. And when I went, I spoke with quite a number of young people in Myanmar over the last couple of months since I've been there. And they all talk about the lack of employment, the lack of opportunity, the lack of hope that they feel for the future. One of the very heavy impacts of the conflict is a lot of young people are leaving the country. that also means that, a lot of their very, highly educated, skilled people who are leaving the country, which also has a very negative impact on the economy over time.

Vibhu Mishra: You briefly touched upon access but let me talk about access for humanitarian workers. What are the biggest challenges that humanitarians are facing today when it comes to accessing communities in need?

Gwyn Lewis: maybe something to explain about Myanmar is the complexity of the conflict is linked to the fact that there's many groups who are fighting and there's hundreds of ethnic armed groups. And that means that to move from A to B, you need a lot of coordination and an agreement with the military that's in place. The military that are in control of, about, 35-40% of the country and the other ethnic armed groups in order to move from A to B. because of those challenges, it means that there are times when we can't move because of the active conflict. Sometimes there's checkpoints, sometimes there's road closures. But there are also, other barriers like administrative barriers or delayed authorizations that really tend to slow things down. And when it's, politically sensitive. Right now, we're heading into the elections at the end of December, and we're also seeing that there's more and more restrictions, which means that some communities, particularly those that are in hard-to-reach areas, are isolated areas., we're really having a challenge bringing food, bringing clean water, bringing supplies. And it also means people themselves may not be able to get their kids to school or may not be able to access health services.

Vibhu Mishra:  You spoke about the funding shortage for 2025 and then looking on to 2026 as well. What does it mean in real terms if funding is not secured?

Gwyn Lewis: Well, we have very, very concrete examples, of millions of people not being able to access services. We were able to and do quite a lot of work despite the, very, very low financing. But we weren't able to deliver food to everybody. We wanted to. one statistic that really shocks me is about 31,000 children., facing acute malnutrition. We weren't able to reach some of those children would have died without assistance. About 800,000 children weren't able to access schools that we wanted to help. And millions, were not able to access protection services – the actual impact is very real and the statistics are really, frightening. But obviously like, everywhere behind those statistics are real people, families., where children haven't been able to go to school for two, three, four years now. People who are really ill, because they can't access medicine, vaccination for small children is a big issue. We're also seeing outbreaks of hepatitis and cholera. the implications of not having the humanitarian financing are very, very real.

Vibhu Mishra: And the ongoing political crisis, how is that intersecting with development and humanitarian needs?

Gwyn Lewis: the political crisis, is at the root of all of these challenges, because there isn't an agreement to stop the conflict. And so, the fighting continues. We are worried that the upcoming elections may create more access restrictions. That there may be more violence around the elections. And that also impacts civilians. Right now, the, aerial bombardments, the mining continues to give an example, about two people a day in Myanmar are killed with mines are unexploded ordnance. all of those different aspects, are part of, day to day, unfortunately, and really are shaping whether people can work, whether they can go to school, whether they can leave the country. Some families are very worried about their sons, in particular, being conscripted into the military. And the impact of that conflict in the political situation is affecting every single person in Myanmar.  

Vibhu Mishra: In your role as the resident coordinator ad interim, you work with all UN agencies on the ground, as well as agencies here at headquarters in Geneva. How do you see a comprehensive view in response to Myanmar take shape?  

Gwyn Lewis: I we have a very strong, UN Team in Myanmar. And I think there has been a huge amount of work done over the last year in really prioritizing the most urgent needs., we've had to do that because of the financial situation, but it's also been very important to do that because of the access challenges, to really prioritize those, those communities that are the hardest hit. And what we've seen is, a real effort to do that, but also really working with local partners, which has just been the backbone of the response. And that's something that we really want to, strengthen and, continue over the next two years where the local organization, ones that are on the frontline, that are working with their communities, that have been there throughout, that we're providing support to them that they can continue to assist those communities that they're working with. They know and the people they know what their needs are, and they can adapt to those needs. That's why some of the modalities we're choosing to use, for 2026, including cash assistance, are really important because they give people's dignity and the flexibility to be able to, support. But also address the most urgent needs.

Vibhu Mishra: Those were the questions I had. But before you leave, is there any one message you would like to leave our listeners with?

Gwyn Lewis: I think for me coming to, Myanmar, over the last couple of months, what has really struck me is not only the scale of the conflict and the humanitarian crisis, but how invisible it is for the rest of the world. We hear about other crises very regularly. And I think my, my appeal would be that we don't forget the people of Myanmar because the suffering is very deep and the war has been going on for many years now. as the UN in Myanmar, we really want to do what we can to support, but also to raise the profile and the support for Myanmar over the next year.

[This an automatically generated transcript and may contain inadvertent errors.]