USAID cuts hinder Myanmar earthquake response

The deadly earthquake that rippled through Myanmar and neighboring countries on Friday is the first large-scale natural disaster to have taken place since the USAID cuts dismantled a huge proportion of international aid work. Experts said the shift in typical emergency response from the United States has impeded rescue attempts and cost lives that otherwise could have been saved. “You could have had a team on the ground very quickly in Mandalay [the epicentre],” said Phil Robertson, director of Asia Human Rights and Labour Advocates Consultancy, explaining that the first 72 hours after any disaster are critical to finding survivors. “Certainly you would have seen more people being brought out of buildings [and] you would have seen more people receive lifesaving medication and assistance.” The 7.7 magnitude earthquake hit Myanmar on the afternoon of March 28 local time, claiming the lives of over 1,700 people. That number is expected to rise to upwards of 10,000 as many remain missing, trapped beneath the rubble of damaged and destroyed buildings. “The fact that people are trying to dig survivors out of collapsed buildings in Mandalay and Sagaing with their hands and with hand tools gives you an idea of what we’re dealing with,” said Robertson. Today, the threat of aftershocks looms with people seeking shelter in monasteries, football fields, and other open spaces while health facilities are reportedly already at capacity and communications are down. Even before the quake, the United Nations estimated that 19.9 million people in Myanmar — where aid access has been restricted for four years by the governing military junta — required humanitarian support. The earthquake is likely to have tipped that number higher as people report a loss of homes and places to work and damage to basic infrastructure such as water pipes and electricity. Maung Maung Khin, who lives in Shan state and used a pseudonym for security reasons, told Save the Children that his area has an acute water shortage and over 1,200 houses have been destroyed or damaged. “The immediate need for local people in Shan State is urgent medical assistance, especially for shocked children and the elderly,” he said. In an unprecedented move, Myanmar’s military leader, Min Aung Hlaing, has asked for international aid, indicating the severity of the situation. Many have met that call, including the governments of the United Kingdom, Thailand, and the European Union, alongside international NGOs such as Save the Children, Water Mission, and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. But experts believe the recent dismantling of USAID, a historical leader in emergency response, has only served to slow down relief efforts. The U.S. State Department imposed a 90-day freeze on all USAID projects in January and has since canceled the majority of them, putting a significant portion of staff on leave. “USAID is traditionally on the front line of the U.S. government’s response to a humanitarian disaster such as the Myanmar earthquake, but with Trump having largely dismantled the agency, he has crippled Washington’s ability to respond to people in desperate need of humanitarian aid,” Kenneth Roth, visiting professor at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs and former Human Rights Watch executive director, told Devex in an email. “[This] will impede efforts to provide humanitarian relief to the survivors of the devastating earthquake in Myanmar.” Over the weekend, the U.S. Embassy in Myanmar announced the U.S. would be providing $2 million to Myanmar-based humanitarian assistance organizations, while State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said the USAID Disaster Assistance Response Teams, or DARTs, would be deployed to the country. DARTs are fast-acting teams of trained experts deployed to respond to emergency contexts, such as the 2020 hurricane in Central America and the 2023 Turkey earthquake. This USAID initiative is among the many impacted by the cuts, and while DARTs would have typically been in Myanmar within hours, according to Reuters, the teams are unable to operate at capacity with core USAID coordination staff gone. Bruce did not specify when such a team would reach Myanmar. Regardless, “the leaders are now the laggards,” said Robertson, and if the U.S. had not made cuts, “it would’ve been pre-positioned to move much quicker.” Instead, Chinese, Indian, Singaporean, Thai, and Russian rescue teams arrived in the country first. “But there's no coordination,” said Robertson, who attributed that role typically to the U.S. “[DARTs] were coordinating assistance and provisions from various different other partners and they're not there anymore,” he said. “Other governments will have a hard time filling that void because the U.S., as the world’s largest economy, traditionally played a central role in responding to humanitarian crises,” agreed Roth. Aid donors will also need to negotiate the volatile political situation in the country in order to get help to those who need it. Online, Myanmar citizens expressed concerns that the military will “weaponize” or “misuse” aid against civilians. The military forcibly seized Myanmar from a democratic government in 2021, imprisoning its leaders and launching a campaign of violence across the country. Thus began a wave of violence as ethnic armed groups and other resistance forces rose up and the military sought to squash any dissent — including that it perceived from aid agencies. In 2023, it brought a new law forbidding NGOs from supplying resources to those they deemed enemies, forcing many to go underground and face the risk of arrest or retreat from the country. The fear is that a similar approach will be taken to any earthquake aid directly given to the junta. “Any aid they can get their hands on, they’re going to deliver to areas that are loyal to them, that are under their control,” said Robertson, urging those providing aid instead to do so via local humanitarian groups on the ground who can ensure those most in need receive support. Catherine Russell, UNICEF’s executive director, called for a “safe, rapid and unhindered humanitarian access to affected areas.” Jeremy Stoner, interim Asia regional director at Save the Children, urged the public to donate to aid agencies able to support locally given the current challenging times many of these organizations are going through amid global funding cuts. It’ll then be up to international humanitarians at this time to push for aid to reach where it’s most needed, said Robertson. “[They] need to grow a backbone and be prepared to fight with the Myanmar military to ensure that the humanitarian assistance gets where it’s needed.”