Event Summary
On 11 September 2025, the Swedish government announced its decision to phase out all development assistance to Myanmar by June 30, 2026. This strategic reallocation aims to prioritize increased support for Ukraine, including a planned military aid boost to USD 4.2 billion annually for 2026-2027 and a minimum of USD 1 billion in annual civilian support from 2026-2028. The deteriorating conditions for development cooperation following the 2021 failed coup in Myanmar also influenced the decision. While humanitarian aid will continue, development funding through Sweden’s aid agency, SIDA, will be capped at USD 18 million in 2025 and USD 15 million in 2026 before full termination. This move eliminates a critical lifeline for Myanmar’s pro-democracy movement, directly cutting USD 2.65 million in annual support for independent media and human rights groups, threatening their survival and accelerating a collapse of independent reporting and rights monitoring.
The withdrawal of Swedish development aid removes a critical source of international solidarity and financial lifeline for civil society actors at a critical moment where CSOs are operating under extreme repression and in dire need of support. Survival of independent journalism and rights monitoring is threatened at a time when civic space is rapidly closing.
Civil society groups have expressed concern that the decision undermines international solidarity and risks weakening efforts to document rights abuses under military rule. The Human Rights Myanmar noted that this decision sends a deeply demoralizing signal to civil society, journalists, and human rights defenders, that principled, long-term support for their struggle is unreliable and subject to shifting donor priorities, thereby eroding solidarity in ways that may prove even more damaging than the loss of funding itself.