New report: Strengthening local resilience for Myanmar’s federal democratic future

30 September 2025

PRESS RELEASE

30 September 2025

New report: Strengthening local resilience for Myanmar’s federal democratic future

International community must increase support to local civil society groups

Myanmar civil society groups are holding up the sky. In the face of the illegal military junta’s ongoing terror campaign against the people, civil society groups are not only saving lives and meeting emergency humanitarian needs on the ground, but also laying the foundations of an inclusive, federal democratic future.

Today, 18 civil society organizations (CSOs) from Burma/Myanmar released a new report, “Our Shared Responsibility”: How Civil Society is Strengthening Local Resilience for a Federal Democratic Burma/Myanmar. The report documents the diverse and multifaceted ways in which Myanmar civil society groups are strengthening the resilience of local communities to resist injustice, protect human rights, implement sustainable solutions for addressing the humanitarian crisis, and build an inclusive, rights-respecting Myanmar. Through these efforts, Myanmar civil society groups are bridging the human rights and humanitarian crisis of today with Myanmar’s federal democratic future.

The research informing this report was conducted entirely before the Sagaing earthquake on 28 March 2025. However, the earthquake’s massive devastation—alongside the Myanmar civil society’s people-to-people solidarity response—has underscored the report’s urgent findings, amplifying the need for international support to be firmly aligned with, and accountable to, the people of Myanmar.

Drawing on in-depth qualitative research with 28 civil society groups across Myanmar, the report highlights how civil society groups—including CSOs, community-based organizations (CBOs), CSO/CBO networks, and groups of human rights defenders and local humanitarian responders—are:

Delivering tailored lifesaving humanitarian aid—including food, cash, health care, and shelter—that directly responds to the needs of Myanmar’s most vulnerable communities and is based on deep community trust, often in areas under attack by the junta and inaccessible to international agencies;
Promoting sustainable community initiatives, from agriculture and vocational training to small-scale infrastructure and community health care—promoting greater self-reliance, food security, social cohesion, psychosocial well-being, and sustainable livelihoods; and
Advancing bottom-up federalism and human rights, including by protecting human rights defenders; empowering women and youth to meaningfully participate in their communities, especially in political decision-making and bottom-up governance; and supporting institution building to establish an inclusive federal democracy.

The report sheds the light on the invaluable work of Myanmar civil society groups, as well as the immense challenges they face and their strong resilience and commitment in continuing to operate to the fullest extent possible to meet the dire needs of the people on the ground. They do this work equipped with decades of experience, expertise, in-depth understanding of the ground situation, extensive local networks, and quick adaptability. They are driven by people-to-people solidarity and a strong sense of shared responsibility to local communities, with whom many groups have worked for decades.

Myanmar civil society groups and communities demonstrate unwavering resistance born of resilience. Together, through their multifaceted efforts across the country, they are bolstering the people’s capacity and capability to resist injustice, pursue long-term sustainable solutions for the country, and build a future Myanmar they want to see.

The authors urge the international community to immediately cut all ties with the junta; impose effective targeted sanctions, including a global arms and aviation fuel embargo, on the junta and its suppliers; advance justice and accountability for atrocity crimes under international law; and provide sustained, flexible funding to Myanmar civil society groups through trusted border-based channels.

It is time for the international community to stand with the people of Myanmar and unequivocally support their efforts to save lives, end military tyranny, and build a peaceful, just, and inclusive federal democracy.

Naw Poe Dah, Burmese Women’s Union, said: “Amid displacement, disasters, constant bombings, and the junta’s atrocity crimes, Myanmar’s civil society shows what true resilience and solidarity look like. Therefore, we need the international community to recognize Myanmar civil society’s efforts and provide unwavering support because we are the backbone of laying the foundation of a federal democracy in Burma/Myanmar.”

Naw Cherry, Karen Peace Support Network, said: “As the struggle for democracy and human rights in Myanmar continues, the only way forward is for the international community to cut all ties with this military junta that has been trying to silence the people’s voices for too long. At the same time, the international community must also provide flexible support to local civil society groups to fortify the Myanmar people’s ongoing efforts to build a peaceful, inclusive federal democracy. Supporting and trusting Myanmar’s civil society groups is essential, as they sustain the nationwide grassroots movement for democracy and empower the people to stand up for their rights.”

Khin Ohmar, Progressive Voice, said: “Myanmar’s civil society groups are strengthening local resilience and driving change through interconnected efforts that reinforce one another, advancing the people’s collective goals of federal democracy, sustainable peace, and stability with the guarantee of human security. To truly support this invaluable work, the international community must act urgently and decisively to hold the junta accountable for its atrocity crimes under international law and incapacitate the junta from waging its terror campaign against civilians, particularly conducting airstrikes. The world must stand with the people of Myanmar—not with this criminal junta that is terrorizing them.”

Download the full paper here.

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