Can any readers inform [him] and other readers which townships have active 'coordinating committees'?

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Government to Keep Tight Rein on Aid in Burma
Htet Aung
Irrawaddy
13 March 2007

Burma's ruling junta plans to tighten its control of international humanitarian assistance through the creation of government-run "coordination committees," according to Rangoon-based NGO sources.

The move will directly affect all humanitarian programs run by UN agencies and international and local NGOs across the country. A local NGO project manager in the former capital said the new committees would specially target the forthcoming implementation of the Three Diseases Fund, or 3D Fund.

There are currently about 70 international and local NGOs operating in Burma.

Some of the coordinating committees, according to another NGO staffer, have now formed at the township level, where many of the country's humanitarian projects are implemented. Such committees have previously been initiated principally on division and state levels.

The committee plan was initiated after the 3D Fund signed a memorandum of understanding with the UN Office for Project Services and Burma's Ministry of Health in October 2006, with the aim of combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.

Backed by the European Commission and selected EU countries, the fund aimed to fill the gap created by the withdrawal of the Global Fund last year over excessive restrictions by the government on staff that adversely affected the implementation of their projects.

According to new NGO guidelines issued by the government in February 2006, members of the new coordination committees would be drawn from junta-backed social organizations such as the Union Solidarity and Development Association, the Myanmar National Working Committee for Women Affairs and, on the township level, the Auxiliary Fire Brigades and the Veteran's Association.

NGO officials in Rangoon have expressed concern for the viability of their projects under tightening governmental controls.

The Burmese language version of the new NGO guidelines, which was not distributed to UN agencies and INGOs, clearly states that one of the duties of the township coordination committees is to monitor project teams and insure that their activities do not go beyond the stated scope of their mission.

The Rangoon-based Burmese language journal The Voice recently reported that 3D Fund-assisted projects would start to implement in April, with the participation of some 40 international and local NGOs.

While humanitarian workers in Rangoon say they do not want the government to interfere in their activities, Burma's main opposition party, the National League for Democracy, has said that all humanitarian projects should have some kind of independent oversight. "Assistance [in Burma] needs to avoid budget substitutions and must reach needy beneficiaries at the grassroots level," NLD Spokesperson Myint Thein said.

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