NGOs to DfID: Be more inclusive in Myanmar

International relief organizations working in Myanmar welcomed last week’s call from British lawmakers for the U.K. Department for International Development to increase bilateral aid to £100 million ($166 million) — but are concerned the aid has not been inclusive enough and fear certain funding decisions could exacerbate ethnic tensions in the country. The MPs’ inquiry concluded that support for development and democracy in Myanmar should be rapidly scaled up — even if results may be unpredictable — and said the United Kingdom should push harder for political reform in the former military state. But Cord, a peacebuilding nongovernmental organization, noted the recommendations are overly focused on working with the central government and pay insufficient attention to rural voices. The role of the U.K. and other donors is also being called into question over the national census to begin later this month, the first carried out in Myanmar in over 30 years. That process — largely funded by international partners (£10 million in U.K. aid, alongside contributions from the United Nations, Germany and Australia) — is “fraught with danger,” according to the International Crisis Group, which has called on donors to amend the “ill-thought-out” process “urgently.” READ: UN-led census triggers ethnic sensitivities in Myanmar And if big aid packages become the norm, said Brad Adams, executive director for Asia at Human Rights Watch, they could remove the incentive for the Myanmar government to continue reforms. “DfID are being strategic … they have their eyes on the ball right now,” explained Adams, adding that the problem may come in the future, when we risk creating a “see-no-evil aid industry complex” as in Cambodia, where 20 years of aid has reaped only modest progress on reform. Meeting real needs The U.K.’s aid priorities — education, parliamentary support and peacekeeping — suggested by the U.K. House of Commons' International Development Committee were well received by implementers. In particular, the proposed upscaling of funding for education — to date negligible — was mentioned by ActionAid Myanmar Country Director Shihab Uddin Ahamad, who noted that decades without investment has left the education system trapped in a “vicious cycle,” and suggested that increased levels of teacher training is the “best strategy” for the sector. But support for infrastructure would also be needed, and DfID “should encourage the Myanmar government to invest in that,” he added. Parliamentary support is “critically important,” said David Mathieson, Myanmar specialist at Human Rights Watch. “There are hundreds of parliamentarians with no capacity whatsoever to handle the reality [of party politics],” he said. Not only are their living standards “atrocious,” but — unlike their western counterparts who can draw on government-funded aides, a research service and assistants — Myanmar’s parliamentarians struggle just to get reports printed and to access the Internet, never mind understand how the parliamentary system works. DfID already pays for specialists to advise on negotiations and hosts senior Myanmar officials and some leaders of the armed ethnic minority groups in the U.K. The IDC, however, wants even more effort put into peacekeeping “as opportunities arise” and in particular to support the inclusion of women in those processes. On the latter, new legislation is set to make gender equality a legally binding consideration across all U.K. aid programs. Lilianne Fan, a researcher at the Overseas Development Institute in London, welcomed the attention given to the complex and fragile peace process as “one of the most important areas where DfID could scale up … If the peace process fails, other reforms will be threatened.” Cord CEO Brian Wakley said he was “impressed” by the committee’s focus on governance and peacekeeping and the fact that the report “doesn’t shy away from” contentious issues such as interfaith dialogue or working with marginalized groups. But the lack of emphasis on rural livelihoods — in a country where 70 percent of the population depends on agriculture — was disappointing, according to Wakley: “The focus seems to be on the extractive industries for building wealth,” he explained, a sector that poses “a high risk for peaceful development.” Development or reform? DfID achieved good results in Myanmar through its health program, earning a positive review from independent evaluators last year. Although that's fine for now, democratic reforms must be enacted for aid to be really “transformational,” according to Sir Malcolm Bruce, who led the IDC report. But without consensus, how can this be achieved? The difficulty of operating in Myanmar was again underlined when authorities recently ordered Médecins Sans Frontières to cease operations in Rakhine state, claiming the French medical group was biased in favor of the Rohingya ethnic minority. While the IDC report said any increase in U.K. aid should be revoked if reforms stall, Mark Farmaner, head of pressure group Burma Campaign U.K., argued this approach was not logical: “The government ... is already… taking a harder line,” said Farmaner, citing recent arrests of journalists and ongoing human rights violations highlighted in the U.N. special rapporteur’s latest report on the situation. “And they’re doing this because they’re confident they can get away with it … IDC hopes that [Myanmar President] Thein Sein is a reformer — but hope isn’t a strategy.” ActionAid’s Ahamad disagreed, saying waiting for reforms to come first would only slow down the process, while the ODI’s Fan noted: “The reforms are real, but so are ongoing human rights problems. One does not exclude the other.” Ultimately, it may be less about which comes first, than acting on all fronts at the same time — and remaining sufficiently flexible to respond to issues as they arise, in what the ICG has called a “highly volatile” phase in the country’s transition. In this, DfID may hold the advantage: its aid is “flexible compared with that of many other donors, most of whose [assistance] is very tight,” according to ActionAid. Under the agency’s Accelerated Reform Program set up in 2012, the U.K. is able to respond as opportunities arise to “catalyze reform.” The program has an available budget of £15 million until 2015, including £5 million for peacebuilding and actions to tackle intercommunal violence. The IDC recommended the U.K. “be willing to criticize” the Myanmar government. Whether officials will do so on the record remains to be seen, but the U.K.’s strong historic ties and extensive experience of working in Myanmar should certainly play in its favor. DfID is “one of the best donors” thanks to its willingness to listen and its contacts on the ground, thanks to long-term engagement in the country, said Mathieson, who has himself been working in the country for 15 years. DfID’s experience sets the agency apart from the “dramatic influx” of aid workers in recent years who don’t know the situation. And according to Fan, “the U.K. is seen by Myanmar as a key donor and international partner … Burmese citizens hold the U.K. in great esteem as well.” Choosing sides? DfID’s approach so far has been to support reformers within the Myanmar government, with almost all funding still channelled through U.N. agencies and international and local NGOs. But direct assistance to the central government is now at least an option after European Union restrictions were lifted almost a year ago, while Minister of State for International Development Alan Duncan told MPs that the U.K. may take this step “once we think we are dealing with a government that is able to administer money effectively and in a trustworthy manner.” In the meantime, NGOs remain cautious about being seen to choose “sides.” “Working with reformers inside the government … is very high risk,” said Wakley. “But if you don’t do it, the risk is much more severe of working around them.” Not engaging with the government often leads to outright failure, he said, also calling for a more inclusive approach: “If we’re taking a high risk approach with the government [of Myanmar], we should do likewise with lower level, indigenous civil society groups.” While Burma Campaign UK called DfID “very cautious and very conservative” in deliberately avoiding those groups who may be critical of the central government, ActionAid justified the agency’s choice of partners in more practical terms. Grassroots organizations have mushroomed in recent years but most are severely lacking in core capacities such as financial and human resources management. While DfID should avoid creating any sort of “parallel system,” Ahmad said, it does need a different strategy to “ensure different groups are able to participate in the process.” The Women’s League of Burma wrote to the IDC that “DfID’s dependence on NGOs based in populous urban centers risks contributing to the uneven development process, strengthening already powerful elites at the expense of those who most need their support,” while Christian Aid claimed the reluctance of donors to provide “meaningful support” to local organizations was compounding an already restrictive environment for civil society. More aid, more donors Increasing aid to Myanmar would fit a pattern of ever-greater engagement in the strategically-located, resource-rich “donor darling.” From £8.8 million in 2007, the U.K.’s aid budget was first quadrupled and then doubled again to reach £62 million in 2013. Hitting £100 million still won’t be enough, said Wakley, and that figure may well be doubled again before long. The European Commission, meanwhile, has said that its aid to the country is likely to be increased to around €90 million ($125 million) annually for the period 2014-2020. Coordination will then become increasingly important. That goes for international NGOs — like ActionAid, which has grown from a one-person office in 2007 to 230 country staff (including 15 expats) today — as well as for donor agencies, some of which, including Japan, India and China, “do not want to attend coordination meetings at all,” according to ActionAid. READ: Room for improvement on aid coordination in Myanmar The IDC’s call for DfID to do more on this — by pushing small organizations to contribute through multi-donor funds and larger donors to join coordination meetings — was welcomed by Wakley. Some of Cord’s local partners spend 10 weeks a year just meeting with various donors, he said. “It’s good to see [the IDC] holding northern donors to account.” Read more development aid news online, and subscribe to The Development Newswire to receive top international development headlines from the world’s leading donors, news sources and opinion leaders — emailed to you FREE every business day.