Burma Campaign

Cross border aid is needed to reach the most vulnerable people in eastern Burma

Changes to Australia's aid policy are needed in order to reach the most vulnerable people in eastern Burma.

Military attacks targeting villagers and systematic human rights violations have caused a humanitarian crisis in eastern Burma where one in five children die before their fifth birthday. Currently there are half a million extremely vulnerable people living in Burma's civil war zone as internally displaced people (IDPs).

These populations are in dire need of essential services, such as medical assistance and basic health provisions, food aid and education.

These communities cannot be reached via Rangoon based aid because of severe restrictions imposed on humanitarian assistance by the military regime. However, these extremely vulnerable populations can be reached via cross-border aid.

Australia is committed to the Principles and Good Practices of Humanitarian Donorship, which states that assistance should be directed towards the greatest need.

Australia needs to join the USA, UK, Norway, Spain, Denmark, Ireland and Canada in funding cross-border aid activities which support civil society organisations working in essential service delivery and grassroots programs.

The benefits of cross border aid

Border based civil society organisations including; women's groups, health organisations, youth groups, education organisations, are democratic in their processes and have adopted international standards of transparency, which has meant that many enjoy funding from the international programs listed above.

However this funding is not sufficient enough to meet the needs. And there are many people who will be at risk of dying in Burma's eastern border states of treatable and avoidable illness because of policies such as the one AusAID is committed to which do not allow for cross border funding.

We call on the the government to:

1. Examine AusAID's Burma policy and their spending priorities;
2. Investigate if Australia has provided cross-border assistance at other times and what was the criteria used to deem this acceptable; and
3. Raise questions in parliament regarding Australia's aid to Burma

Aid to conflict-affected populations in Eastern Burma

Communities in these conflict zones have organized themselves to provide health care, education and community development in the absence of aid from the Burmese military regime (SPDC) and Rangoon-based UN and INGO agencies.

Given the unstable and unpredictable political situation in Burma, these programs are currently the only and most appropriate way to access well over half a million conflict-affected people in the ethnic states of Eastern Burma.

The interventions of these community organisations often mean the difference between life and death. In the absence of peace, support for these programs is the only way to bring increased health and food security to these populations, which allows them to remain in their country and not flee as refugees.

Cross border aid is the most effective form of aid into Burmese communities most at need, the following are the reasons why

• Cross-border programs are community-run and therefore strategic and sustainable

  Cross-border programs are implemented by communities themselves inside Burma. It is only due to the current conflict that they are forced to be supplied from neighbouring countries. Support and capacity building of these community-based programs is the most sustainable form of assistance, and is laying the foundation for development of a future peaceful Burma.

• Aid provided cross-border to community-run programs is highly cost-effective

  The health and education programs run by communities in Eastern Burma are low-cost; the majority of funds go towards medical or education supplies and focus especially on reducing childhood and maternal mortality and combating infectious diseases, particularly malaria. These interventions are amongst the most cost-effective in public health.

• Cross-border health programs are a key component of any efforts to combat infectious disease in Burma

  Malaria infection and mortality rates in Eastern Burma are among the highest in the country, a problem not confined by international borders. Official treatment and control programs are non-existent or inaccessible, and international assistance, including the 3 Disease Fund, is barred from the most severely affected communities in Eastern Burma. Cross-border efforts combating major infectious diseases, including malaria and vaccine-preventable illnesses, have consistently demonstrated that this is effective and sustainable.

• Donors can simultaneously support aid cross-border and through Rangoon

  It is a misconception that providing aid cross-border will lead to repercussions by the Burmese regime against programs funded through Rangoon. Donors such as the USA, Norway, Denmark and Britain are currently supporting cross-border programs, and this has not had any negative impacts on their programs through Rangoon. In fact, providing aid both via Rangoon and via neighbouring countries enables donors to access a greater area of the country, and assess and address needs more holistically.

• Many governments are funding cross-border programs, but there remains an urgent need for support

  As many governments provide funding for cross-border programs, including Canada, USA, Denmark, Norway, Spain, Ireland and UK, there is a misconception that IDP programming in Eastern Burma is "well-funded." Aid per capita figures in the refugee camps in Thailand are sometimes cited as evidence of this. However, these figures do not include the IDPs. Cross-border programs in Eastern Burma do not receive sufficient funding. For example, in 2009 the Backpack Health Worker Program that provides primary medical care and community health education to over 160,000 people in Eastern Burma has so far not managed to raise even half of its Au$1.1 million needs.

• Cross-border aid programs have well-developed monitoring mechanisms

  The community based organizations running cross-border programs have extensive internal monitoring mechanisms. For example, health programs conduct regular detailed reviews of medical case log books to ensure that treatment is in accordance with internationally recognized medical protocols. Extensive community surveys are also carried out to assess program impacts and prioritize needs.

  At the same time, donor agencies based in Thailand can send local staff to directly monitor programs across the border, and can also organize independent evaluations of cross border programs.

• Providing support to community-based programs via the border reduces risks faced by these communities in their daily lives

  The health indicators of Eastern Burma are on par with health disasters in countries such as Sierra Leone, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo; these extremely high death rates are largely driven by widespread human rights abuses committed by the Burmese military.

  Support for community programs in these areas is improving health and food security and thus saving lives. It is therefore reducing rather than increasing the risks faced by these people.

• Cross-border aid programs benefit Thailand

  Aid given to conflict-affected populations in Eastern Burma enables them to continue surviving in or near their home communities without having to flee to Thailand. It is therefore in Thailand's interests to allow such aid to be delivered to these people so that they will not become refugees.

  Furthermore, the community-run health programs in Eastern Burma form the front-line against infectious disease for Thailand.

Important Reports

Published May 2009 by the International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law School, Crimes in Burma examines more than 15 years of the documentation produced by the United Nations of human rights abuses in Burma. On the basis of its review of the UN's own documentation, the report calls for the UN Security Council to establish a Commission of Inquiry into potential war crimes and crimes against humanity in Burma.

Village Agency: Rural Rights and Resistance in a Militarized Karen State, released by the Karen Human Rights Group in November 2008, documents the success of villagers in Karen State and elsewhere in rural Burma in resisting abuse and transforming their own lives for the better. The report argues for the inclusion of villagers in the political processes that affect them.

In September 2006 the Back Pack Health Worker Team released Chronic Emergency: Health and Human Rights in Eastern Burma. This report documents the devastation of public health for internally displaced persons (IDPs) living in the eastern areas of Burma, and directly links this devastation to human rights abuses by the Burmese military junta.

In 2002 the Shan Women's Action Network and Shan Human Rights Network jointly released the License to Rape Report, which documents the Burmese military regime's systematic use of sexual violence in Shan State.

Burma Campaign News

Background Information