The U.N.-ASEAN co-hosted aid conference in Yangon Sunday saw 500 representatives from 52 countries meet to discuss the needs of the country and what countries are prepared to offer in terms of assistance. Most reports coming out of Yangon report more hope being offered than actual Euros, Yen, and Dollars. The progress made seems to be more in the 2 steps forward, one step back variety, as many governments appear to be in a “wait and see” mode.
New donations were reported from Sweden, China and a few other countries, but many governments are waiting to see what becomes of the promises of increased access for aid workers traveling to and from the Irrawaddy Delta. The promise of increased access extracted by U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Friday has so far been kept, according to initial reports coming out of Yangon. However on Sunday it appeared as if increased visa issuance for aid workers may not be completely unhindered.
While commenting that the country would welcome aid without any strings attached, General Thein Sein, who holds the post of Prime Minister, made some remarks that seemed to put some conditions on visa entry. “For those groups who are interested in rehabilitation and reconstruction, my government is ready to accept them, in accordance with our priorities and the extent of work that needs to be done,” Thein Sein said. “We will consider allowing them if they wish to engage in rehabilitation and reconstruction work.”
New donations were reported from Sweden, China and a few other countries, but many governments are waiting to see what becomes of the promises of increased access for aid workers traveling to and from the Irrawaddy Delta before increasing on previously made commitments. The promise of increased access extracted by U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Friday has so far been kept, according to initial reports coming out of Yangon. However, on Sunday it appeared as if increased visa issuance for aid workers may not be completely unhindered. While commenting that the country would welcome aid without any strings attached, General Thein Sein, who holds the post of Prime Minister, made some remarks that seemed to put some conditions on visa entry. “For those groups who are interested in rehabilitation and reconstruction, my government is ready to accept them, in accordance with our priorities and the extent of work that needs to be done,” Thein Sein said. “We will consider allowing them if they wish to engage in rehabilitation and reconstruction work.”
The tone of other comments coming out of the conference, however, seemed to be hopeful. Evidently the heated and accusatory rhetoric that was employed in the first weeks of the crisis has been found to be less than effective. The past few days have seen more results with a more Asian-styled consensus building diplomacy, brought out in part by the first visit to Myanmar in nearly four decades by a Secretary General of the United Nations (the last visit was likely by Burma’s own U Thant, the Secretary General from 1961-71).
Both Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the eloquent Surin Pitsuwan, former Thai Foreign Minister and currently the Secretary General of ASEAN’s secretariat, played a role in setting a positive, consensus-building tone in Yangon so that issues of face and the blame game did not interrupt efforts to save lives in the Delta. Hopefully the progress of the past few days will lead to a continuing spirit of goodwill. As Dr. Surin remarked, “I don’t think we have any doubt that there will be a lot of goodwill coming through. But again it will depend on how we carry out this goodwill, or administer this goodwill, with the cooperation of Myanmarese authorities. We expect no obstacles,” he said.
Certainly the problems that the people of Myanmar face are enormous in their scale and number. The outreach from countries around the world has been encouraging. The Myanmar government presented a detailed picture of what it estimates the damages to be, down to counting the 1,250,194 chickens and 136,804 buffaloes that were apparently lost in the storm.
But it is hard to see how the current strategies being employed will produce the roughly $11 billion that the government says is needed to rebuild. Even the U.N.’s own appeal for $201 million to fund U.N. related relief activities had, as of Sunday, resulted in donations of only $57 million or 28% of the estimated relief requirements.
As evidenced by the earthquake in China this month, the global needs for humanitarian assistance are great. The 17 U.N. humanitarian appeals made for financial donations for crises in Asia, African, South America, and Eastern Europe in the last 6 months have raised only 34% of the $5.7 billion in estimated need. For example, the largest aid appeal, the Sudan Work Plan 2008 launched in December 2007 has received only 39% of a need totaling $1.9 billion (in Sudan, 2 million people live in refugee camps).
So, while the needs in Myanmar are great, the need for building donor confidence and goodwill are great as well. Myanmar is blessed with economically vibrant and growing neighbors in a region that is one of the worlds fastest growing economically. If the government opens up and embraces the goodwill of its neighbors and the world we can only imagine that this goodwill will multiply, to the great benefit of those suffering in the monsoon rains today.
Tags: ASEAN, Burma, Cyclone Nargis, Myanmar, United Nations, Yangon
