The following is a Burmese to English translation of an opinion editorial in the Irrawaddy last week by Phyu Phyu Tin. The [him] moderator respects her courage and work on care of people living with HIV.
He trusts that she now knows that the Three Diseases Fund has never given funding to the Union Solidarity and Development Association and Myanmar Maternal and Child Welfare Association. The facts on all Three Disease Fund grants are available for all to read at:
http://www.3dfund.org/cbogrants
http://www.3dfund.org/round1grants
http://3dfund.org/files/grantStatus_Y1&2_1.xls
The Round 3 grants have just been announced by the Three Diseases Fund: http://3dfund.org/round3grants
TB - PSI, Merlin, AHRN, Direct grant for TB drugs (through WHO)
Malaria - PSI, CESVI, WHO, AFXB
HIV and AIDS - MDM, IUATLD, Ratana Metta, Burnet, Pyi Gyi Khin, Alliance, WHO
Though Ratana Metta, PGK, and to a certain extent AFXB can be characterised as local NGOs, they are certainly not mushrooms.
[him] moderator
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(Humanitarian) Aid, effective?
Phyu Phyu Thin
21, November 2009
Irrawaddy News (in Myanmar version)
I was shocked to a large extent by the news of Mr.Omar's, President of Sudan, order to expel 13 INGOs including those working for HIV/AIDS out of the country.
I have no idea how reliable his accusations to NGOs of making a mess in the country's politics are. I was rather thinking how much trouble patients under treatment can get into.
We also have NGOs in our country. The military government has also allowed NGOs restrictedly to operate within the country. After Nargis in May 2008, local NGOs, in other words opportunistic NGOs, appeared just like mushrooms growing on the ground. Some people may not be pleased with my wordings of 'mushrooms growing on the ground'. They may even want to rebuke me for that usage while, considering 56 millions population in the country, there are only a handful of NGOs in the country.
I must say I'm wrong for saying that. I have to say this because they fail to meet the real need. They cannot reach out the remote areas. Limitation might be a reason, I guess. But it has to be said that there are lots of NGO in Yangon.
Another fact I can think of is the understanding between donors and actors.
The fund comes from an International group called 3D Fund helping to fight against TB, Malaria and HIV/AIDS.
3D Fund is a group which will help Myanmar for 5 years for the three diseases. It has planned to spend US$ 100 million for that. The fund's report says it will spend US$ 630,000 for this year.
The fact that the 3D Fund came to Myanmar with a wrong policy has paved the ways for many LNGOs to appear. Their wrong policy seemed to push our LNGOs to a wrong track. This is how I conceive 3D Fund.
Their general policy is that they will support through a medium as they cannot support themselves. And they will support all the organizations as medium, except the political organizations like ours. I'm not criticizing for not supporting us. We are in a position that we cannot accept their aids even if they want to.
According to the agreement between the officials and NGOs, they cannot support politics- and government-related organizations. But, it is found out that they are helping controversial groups like Union Solidarity and Development Association and Myanmar Maternal and Child Welfare Association.
Regarding this sort of aids, it is valuable indeed that the comment Daw Aung San Suu Kyi once made that the aids should be provided after considering who would be monitoring and whether it was tolerable for that monitoring.
3D Fund supports NGOs. Cash flows in but the general public even don't know what NGOs are doing. It is questionable how effective they are.
3D Fund will be successful only when they coordinate with those who are working effectively. Some of those actors are not even receiving support.
On the other hand, the fund will not be effective if the authorities make too much control. For HIV, it will only be successful when effectively operated nationwide. It is also essential for the authorities to allow NGOs to operate freely.
Another international organization helping to reduce the impact of the three diseases like 3D Fund, Global Fund, phased out of the country for the reason of strict scrutiny and limitations by the government.
Recently, there was an announcement by Global Fund that it's going to support US$ 110 million to Myanmar coming year. We have to welcome them for providing necessary assistance. But, there should be strategic plans that all the fund certainly goes to those in need of it.
If we provide what is unnecessary, it will be like "those who are given but receive not".
To give an example, an NGO offered tailoring training to my patients. I just let them go thinking that it's good to gain a vocational training. After the training, they received some certain skills. But, when I asked the trainers where the sewing machines are to start practically in life, they said "we can't help it. We just hired the sewing machines even for the training". I can't do anything but making a sigh.
The training was provided to 35 people. My idea is just give the training to 5 people and then provide the machines together. If we ask why they give training to too many people, the answer is to impress donors. So, NGOs give training and spend money but no one knows if it is really effective for the public.
There was a seminar on helping HIV/AIDS recently by spending K 240 millions on it. That amount of money was just wasted before the project has even started. I feel too bad for it.
They can make a seminar at a cheap place instead of an expensive hotel. They can just serve a cup of tea instead of expensive food. Then, the expense can be very little and the rest of money can be used when the project starts. It can be more effective for patients. We don't need to make it too grand to be international standard.
It's just a very obvious case. There are cases we can't see. Neither patients nor donors might know it.
I just would like to say that it is just very wrong to treat a social worker like a hero in Myanmar. I also would like to warn the donors to be very careful when they provide assistance.
http://www.irrawaddy.org/bur/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2172:2009-11-21-12-12-47&catid=14:2008-10-21-07-40-03&Itemid=32
