IRIN
MYANMAR: Access is there, donors should respond generously, says Holmes
25 July 2008


YANGON, 25 July 2008 (IRIN) - Following a three-day mission to Myanmar, 
the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency 
Relief Coordinator John Holmes says he hopes for stronger donor response 
in the wake of the Post Nargis Joint Assessment Report (PONJA) report 
released in Singapore on 22 July.

"There's every reason for the donors to now respond generously," he told 
IRIN in Yangon.

Nearly 140,000 people were killed or left missing after Cyclone Nargis 
hit the Ayeyarwady Delta on 2 and 3 May, affecting some 2.4 million 
people.

Q: Almost three months since Cyclone Nargis struck the country, where 
are we now in the relief and recovery effort?

A: The relief effort will need to go on for another six to nine months 
because people still need a supply of food until they can feed 
themselves. They need further help with water and sanitation and shelter 
and there is a continuing need obviously for medical help too and 
monitoring to make sure there are no disease outbreaks. Together with 
that, we need to be conducting early recovery activities. Things like 
agriculture to make sure the farmers can plant and they have the seeds 
and fertilisers and the ability to plough. The fishermen will need boats 
and nets and so on to restart their activities. There is a whole range 
of activity there under the humanitarian label which we need to continue 
for some months to come.

Q: As of today, the Myanmar flash appeal for victims of the disaster has 
been covered by just 40 percent. Why the shortfall?

A: The initial appeal was for US$201 million and we have just about $200 
million now. We issued a revised appeal two weeks ago for $480 million. 
We've already had some good news. The British have produced some more 
money. Australia announced an extra $30 million two days ago. Other 
donors I have spoken to are looking positively on helping more. I'm 
reasonably confident that we will get more resources. I don't know if we 
will get the whole $480 million. It's very unusual to get everything you 
appeal for but what the donors wanted when we first had the pledging 
conference in Yangon on 25 May was access for international relief 
workers to the delta and a proper assessment of needs. Access is there. 
International aid workers are working in the delta in a reasonably 
normal way and we now have the Post-Nargis Joint Assessment of both the 
relief needs and of course the longer-term recovery and reconstruction 
needs. There's every reason for the donors to now respond generously.

Q: What steps need to be taken to address that?

A: I have been talking to the donors both publicly and privately. I have 
encouraged them to think that any concerns they may have had about 
access, monitoring, the basis of the needs, have been met and dealt 
with. Therefore, this is now a normal international relief operation 
where the needs of the people are still great and [will be] for some 
time to come. There's every reason to respond generously. That's the 
conversation we've been having and I'm reasonably confident we can 
generate a good proportion of the resources we now need, as long as the 
cooperation with the government goes on as constructively as it has in 
the past two months.

Q: Initially, access for aid workers to the delta was largely 
restricted. How would you describe the situation now with the government 
in terms of cooperation?

A: I think the situation now is much better than two months ago. There 
are hundreds of international relief workers working in the delta now 
from NGOs and UN agencies. There are no problems getting visas. You 
still have to get permission from the government to travel to the 
affected area and that sometimes takes a few days and there can be 
bureaucratic hiccups with that. It's not absolutely perfect. It's not as 
easy as we would like. But essentially the access is there. The 
important thing is that that access should remain there for the 
remaining period of the response.

Q: Are you confident that access will continue?

A: I am reasonably confident. There is no reason to suppose it will 
change now. But that's one of the reasons I wanted to come here, to 
discuss with the government the need to maintain that. I think the 
tripartite coordination mechanism, involving ASEAN [Association of 
Southeast Asian Nations], as well as the UN and the government, has been 
very effective in resolving problems.

There have been problems and there will be problems no doubt in the 
future. But we have been able to discuss them frankly and resolve them. 
That's very good. We need to continue doing that. The tripartite core 
group is going to continue its work I think for at least another year. 
That's what the ASEAN foreign ministers decided in Singapore. That was a 
very welcome decision from our point of view. So there is every reason 
to suppose that this kind of flexibility and access will continue.

Q: How important is ASEAN in the overall effort?

A: I think the role of ASEAN has been to provide a bridge if you like 
between the Myanmar government and the international community more 
widely. They have provided a level of comfort to both sides. I think the 
role of ASEAN has been very positive, very important. We're very glad 
that it is going to continue for another year and we will want to go on 
working with ASEAN in the humanitarian area in other ways as well, maybe 
through other disasters. I think it has been a unique cooperation 
between the UN and a regional organisation for a natural disaster. There 
are lessons we can apply to other areas of the world as well.


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