UNFPA, the United Nations Reproductive Health Fund, is the lead UN agency for delivering a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every birth is safe, and every young person’s potential is fulfilled. UNFPA is the lead UN agency for sexual and reproductive health and gender-based violence interventions in Myanmar, with field offices in six locations, including Kachin, Northern Shan and Kayin. The field offices support the integrated service delivery of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR), including HIV, and Gender Based Violence (GBV) prevention and response programming across humanitarian, development and peacebuilding nexus. The work is to support strengthened service delivery, greater coverage as well as leveraging social norm change at the community level, to give effect to evidence based policy and law development to achieve women’s human rights at the national level.

Due to the current political unrest in Myanmar, there have been a reduced access to a public healthcare system with most women and girls seeking SRH service and other life-saving services from private facilities. Understandably, accessing such services from the private clinics and hospitals increases associated costs and financial barriers. With increased out-of-pocket expenditure at these facilities, there is an increased need for affordable quality services within the community to ensure continued access to quality SRH services including and not limited to life-saving services.

In Kachin, there is an added burden of access to limited facilities who can provide quality SRH services. As of May 2021, less than 10 private hospitals are able to provide services for the entire population of Kachin State. For a state-wide population of more than 1.7 million (2014 Census data), the facilities to population ratio is disproportionate without access to a functioning public health system and certainly insufficient to meet the SRH needs of the community.