MYANMAR: Donor aid begins to flow

Photo: Courtesy of UNDP Myanmar

Donors extend a programme working in areas like this one in Rakhine State, hit by a cyclone in October 2010

BANGKOK, 4 January 2012 (IRIN) – As the government of Myanmar continues to pledge political reform, donors are reassessing their giving in a country that has historically received among the lowest levels of per capita development aid of any developing country.

“Myanmar has been called an aid orphan in the past because its per capita assistance is so low,” London-based Myanmar analyst Ashley South told IRIN.

The country received close to US$5 per person in overseas development assistance in 2010, according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) – a 28 percent drop from 2009.

While careful not to draw any link between donor decisions and nascent political change, donor consortiums and NGOs in Myanmar are finding that attaining funds has become easier.

“More funding is available now,” said Andrew Kirkwood, funding director for the Livelihoods and Food Security Trust Fund (LIFT), a multi-donor association set up in 2009 to support food security in Shan, Kachin, Rakhine and Chin states.

In recent weeks LIFT donors signed grants of up to $130 million for 2012, a $30 million increase on the 2009 target, while extending operations until 2016, two years past the original planned exit.

“We are now able to increase our implementing partners and expand to more townships,” said Kirkwood.

But the increase can only cover so much of the country’s needs, he added. “Aid to Myanmar has always been low, and remains extremely low, despite the increase.”

In Chin State, eight out of 10 households are food insecure, according to the World Food Programme, while hundreds of thousands were internally displaced as of June 2011 and in need of assistance, according to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC). 

Access

The European Commission Humanitarian Office (ECHO), which distributes the European Union’s humanitarian aid, has earmarked $16.3 million for Myanmar’s poorest ethnic areas outside the economic hub of Yangon in 2012, according to Matthias Eick, ECHO spokesman for East and Southeast Asia.

“ECHO will in particular target areas not reachable by development assistance, or will complement such assistance where humanitarian needs exist.”

In 2010 it gave about $12.7 million, excluding aid for Cylcone Nargis recovery, according to the UN Financial Tracking Service. 

The government of Japan announced last November that it will start “working-level talks” which could lead to the resumption of full-fledged development aid. The country cut off new overseas development assistance in 2003, while it has continued to give humanitarian aid.

And while the UK and Australian governments – among Myanmar’s biggest bilateral donors – have increased aid in recent years, they still circumvent the Burmese government when carrying out projects.

The UK government, which has pledged $56.4 million in 2012, abides by the EU council decision on Burma, which “requires implementation to be through the UN, NGOs and through decentralized cooperation with local civilian administrations”.

But it has started considering ways to change how it gives aid, according to the UK 2011-2015 giving plan to Myanmar.

“In the event of a major improvement in government accountability and respect for human rights our choice of aid instruments would widen. Although we cannot anticipate significant political change over this Plan period, we are making some investment in preparing the ground for the day when we can consider alternative delivery options.”

Change

Recent political reforms by the first nominally civilian government in decades include the release of prisoners of conscience; allowing the formation of labour unions; and the passage of legislation which paved the way for the major opposition party, National League for Democracy, to participate in upcoming parliamentary elections.

“The new government has significantly improved its cooperation and dialogue with NGOs and civil society,” said Lynn Yoshikawa, the Asia advocate for the Washington DC-based NGO Refugees International. She added that humanitarian access to displaced people in conflict areas is now more likely.

For the first time since fighting broke out in parts of Kachin State last June, the government recently allowed UN agencies limited access in December. 

But despite the government’s pledge to reach peace with ethnic minority groups in the north, some researchers and residents say little has changed on the ground.

“Human rights abuses are still taking place in [the northern] Karenni State,” said a Karenni leader speaking from a refugee camp in Nan Soi in Thailand’s northern Mae Hong Son Province near the Burmese border.

Visiting Myanmar last November, UK International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell said: “I am making this unprecedented visit because there are tentative – but real – signs of progress in Burma, which I welcome. But my message is clear: we need urgent further progress.”

dm/pt/cb
source www.irinnews.org

PAKISTAN: Disabled by the 2005 quake and still out of school

Photo: Kamila Hyat/IRIN

Disabled children in the quake zone have to struggle to get to school

PESHAWAR,  – Jawad Khan, 15, spends most of his day at home in his village in the remote Battagram District of Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa Province (KP), sometimes glancing at a magazine, or occasionally helping his mother shell peas or cut up potatoes.

His three younger siblings spend their day in school, and Jawad, a top student in his grade till a year ago, assists them with revision and homework. He has himself refused to go to school for over a year as the new private school set up in the area lacks a ramp to accommodate his wheelchair.

Jawad lost both legs after he was trapped for over two hours under the rubble of his public school during the devastating quake of 2005 which killed at least 73,000 people in parts of KP (then known as the North West Frontier Province) and Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

That school is still to be built, and Jawad says he “feels too embarrassed” to be carried into his classroom. To add to his problems, his wheelchair, donated soon after his legs were amputated when he was nine, has also virtually fallen apart. “My family cannot afford a new one,” he told IRIN.

According to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the 2005 quake left 23,000 children disabled. UNICEF itself is building “child friendly” schools across the quake zone, complete with facilities for the disabled, and last year opened 16 more such schools.

“At the Child Friendly Schools UNICEF is building, we try to mainstream disabled children. Ramps are provided when needed, but issues like access to schools for children in remote areas are huge ones,” Jan Madad, an education specialist at UNICEF, told IRIN.

But the 165 schools UNICEF has agreed to build cannot cater for the needs of all the quake-affected children.

According to the Earthquake Relief and Rehabilitation Authority, set up by the government immediately after the quake, 5,751 educational institutions damaged or destroyed by the quake needed to be reconstructed. Some 73 percent had been completed by the start of September 2011. Work continues on others, but this still means many children have lacked access to school. Some still do, while for the disabled it is sometimes impossible to go back to inaccessible classrooms.

Difficult terrain

Apart from school design, the terrain where the quake struck affects this. Ali Khan, now 12, lives in the Allai administrative unit of Battagram District. With his legs damaged during the quake, he can only hobble about on crutches. But the 4km walk down a steep mountain path to the school nearest his village is too arduous for him to make.

Ali, who once dreamt of becoming an engineer, told IRIN: “This is fate. I have to live with it, and I just help my father the best I can around our farm. This is all that is left for me know.”

Scattered across the quake zone, other children are in a similar situation. The 5km distance along a rickety path in her village near Bagh in Kashmir cannot be negotiated in the wheelchair used by Asma Sharif, 13, and she receives only occasional lessons at home from her uncle. “He is too busy to help any more, but at least I have kept up some of the studies I had begun before the quake,” Asma told IRIN from Bagh.

Zahoor Uddin, a doctor at the Islamabad-based Hashoo Foundation NGO, which has worked with quake victims since 2005, told IRIN: “The problems are exacerbated because wheelchairs wear out quickly in that terrain, and the victims have no funds to replace them.” In some cases he said tutors had been arranged for children unable to reach school.

Carried to school

The problems for many children are acute. “I have a nine-year-old pupil, Gul Muhammad, who is carried to school on his father’s back. His friends help him to the toilet, and the hard chairs are uncomfortable for him as he has a back problem. I feel sorry to see him and wish our school had better facilities,” said Alimuddin Ali, 35, a school teacher in Battagram.

He told IRIN he knew of disabled children in other villages with no access to school – either because of distance or the way schools were designed.

“I have read of education by radio in some areas of the world for children in remote communities. Perhaps we can use FM radio to offer them broadcasted lessons,” he suggested.

“The thing is these children need to go to schools. Radio can’t help them. My son is growing, I am getting older, and I worry about how long I can carry him to school,” said Gul’s father, Hakim Uddin.

kh/eo/cb
source www.irinnews.org

Africa Energy Indaba is pleased to announce that Dr. Christoph Frei,
Secretary General of the World Energy Council will be delivering the closing
keynote address at the upcoming Africa Energy Indaba scheduled to take place from 21 -23 February 2012 at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg.

The Africa Energy Indaba is an annual energy conference held in South Africa
that brings together  – under one roof – Africa’s leading energy experts,
government officials, financers and other relevant energy stakeholders to
talk on energy projects, challenges and opportunities in Africa.

The World Energy Council formally recognises Africa Energy Indaba as the
council’s African Regional Meeting, an event renowned as a leading energy
gathering in the region which aims to facilitate interaction between energy
leaders to plan the energy future and landscape of the continent.

Dr. Frei commented “Africa shares many of the global concerns of the energy
leaders’ community. While there is no single silver bullet solution to
respond to the varied nature of Africa’s energy challenges, the Africa
Energy Indaba is an important forum to help leaders address the Energy
Trilemma.”

This is well aligned with the objectives of the World Energy Council -as the
principal impartial energy policy forum promoting an affordable, stable and
environmentally sensitive energy system for the greatest benefit of all.

“We are looking forward to welcoming Dr. Frei to this very important event
and are pleased to be aligned with such a well-respected global organisation
represented by 3000 members from governments, the private sector, NGO’s and other energy stakeholders from over 90 countries , 20 of which are African states,” says Liz Hart, Managing Director of Africa Energy Indaba.

The World EnergyCouncil informs global, regional and national energy strategies by hosting high level events, publishing authoritative studies and working through its extensive member network to facilitate the Energy
Leaders’ dialogue.

ENDS

Prepared by: Siyenza Management