UNDP'S PROGRAM IN BURMA - LINKING BASIC HUMAN

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 RANGOON 000043

SIPDIS

STATE FOR EAP, DRL AND IO
USCINCPAC FOR FPA

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/08/2013
TAGS: EAID PHUM BM UNDP NGO
SUBJECT: UNDP'S PROGRAM IN BURMA - LINKING BASIC HUMAN
NEEDS AND BASIC HUMAN RIGHTS

Classified By: COM Carmen Martinez. Reason: 1.5 (d),


1. (C) Summary: UNDP will be seeking a more flexible mandate
for its operations in Burma at the January 21 meeting in New
York. The USG should support that request, but should also
demand that UNDP and other UN agencies play a more active
role in regard to human rights monitoring and protection on a
day-to-day basis in Burma. End Summary.


2. (U) UNDP has scheduled a meeting in New York on January 21
to review UNDP's program in Burma. The centerpiece of that
meeting will be an independent evaluation done in May and
June, 2002 on UNDP's programs here. That assessment
basically concluded that UNDP's projects in Burma are being
carried out in accordance with the instructions of the
Governing Council and the Executive Board. The report also
concluded that UNDP's projects are having a significant
positive impact on the intended beneficiaries. According to
the report, UNDP's projects addressed all the critical areas
mandated by the Executive Board, with a strong emphasis on
the poorest segments of Burma's rural population. Moreover,
most of the projects exceeded their goals and targets and all
were delivered within budget. Among the most notable
accomplishments were the establishment of "self care"
facilities in 3700 villages involving over 370,000 women; the
development of water and sanitation programs in 2400
villages; the establishment of micro-credit schemes in 11
townships; the creation of over 1000 community self-reliance
groups covering more than three-quarters of the target
households; and improvements in food production with the
result that 80 percent of the villages within UNDP's program
area are now self-sufficient in food


3. (U) For all this success, however, the assessment also
notes that UNDP's programs now reach only a small percentage
(about 4 percent) of Burma's rural population. The impact of
projects has also been undermined by the macro-economic
policy environment within which they are implemented. In
addition, little has been done to deal with the devastating
impact that economic shocks and natural disasters can have on
vulnerable rural populations. Finally, but most seriously,
the sustainability of all of all of UNDP's projects is
questionable. Most are now being implemented through ad hoc
structures with few, if any links, to national institutions,
such as the national health and education services. As a
result, there is a real question as to how many will survive,
if and when UNDP funding is cut off. The assessment traces
several of these problems -- particularly the problems
regarding sustainability -- to UNDP's current mandate, which
directs UNDP to allocate its resources in Burma only "to
programs which meet humanitarian and basic human needs
through projects which have a sustainable impact at the grass
roots level in the areas of primary health care, the
environment, HIV/AIDS, education and food security" and
recommends that UNDP expand that mandate to bring it in line
with that of other UN agencies in Burma.


4. (C) We basically agree with the assessment. For all its
good work, UNDP's program in Burma has basically become a
high-cost, low-impact program that is not adequately serving
the needs of either donors or its intended recipients. If
UNDP continues as it has to date, it will only ensure that
its programs reach only a fraction of the rural population
with activities whose impact and sustainability will both be
strictly limited. To act efficiently and effectively on
behalf of Burma's poor, UNDP needs to be able to work on a
larger scale with local government officials and national
institutions, including representatives of social and
economic service ministries, such as the Ministries of
Health, Education and Agriculture. Such latitude to work
with the GOB's economic and social service ministries will
not contribute to the repressive powers of the regime, but
will ensure that the social and economic programs that UNDP
is seeking to establish in Burma will have the institutional
underpinnings to ensure their durability. It will also bring
UNDP's mandate in line with the mandates of other UN
agencies, like UNICEF (one of Aung San Suu Kyi's favorite
organizations),which already works closely and productively
with Burma's Health and Education Ministries. That
collaboration has not compromised UNICEF's programs in any
sense, but has allowed it to support programs of major
importance, such as the eradication of polio, which can only
be done on a nationwide basis. Similar flexibility in regard
to the implementation of UNDP's program would allow similar
results in regard to both the scope and impact of UNDP's
rural development programs.


5. (C) That flexibility, however, should be combined with
additional responsibilities. If UNDP is to be granted more
flexibility to develop more effective and more valuable
programs, then the USG should also demand that it play a more
effective and forthright role in providing for not only basic
human needs, but also basic human rights in Burma. Right
now, of all the UN agencies in Burma, only the ILO and UNHCR
have joined with ICRC in consistently bringing human rights
violations to the attention of the GOB. While several others
(notably UNICEF and UNDP) have established relatively
widespread programs in Burma (e.g. for UNDP, in Burma's Dry
Zone, the Irrawaddy Delta, Shan State and remote border areas
of Chin, Kachin and Rakhine States),none have yet been
willing to play an effective monitoring, protection and
advocacy role on human rights issues. In some cases, this
has led to severe criticism of UNDP's programs by groups --
such as Aung San Suu Kyi's National league for Democracy --
which have accused to the UN of turning a blind eye to the
regime's abuses. This neglect of human rights issues by the
UN agencies has also left day-to-day reporting on human
rights issues in the hands of politically motivated groups,
often based in Thailand, of varying credibility. The net
result has been a situation which benefits no one, least of
all the UN agencies.


6. (C) In recent months, the GOB has shown an increased
willingness to allow human rights monitoring in sensitive
areas throughout Burma by the ILO, the ICRC and UNHCR. The
UN, and particularly UNDP, which provides leadership for all
UN agencies here, should take advantage of this new
flexibility to lay down markers regarding its overriding
interest in protecting the basic human rights of Burma's
rural poor. We have discussed this with UNDP's outgoing
resident coordinator and he believes, as we do, that such
human rights monitoring and advocacy work is necessary, and
can be done effectively by UNDP and the other UN agencies,
given adequate support and direction from the Governing
Council and the Executive Board.


7. (C) In short, we are convinced that UNDP needs a more
flexible mandate in order to do their job properly in Burma.
They should be able to discuss macro-economic issues of key
importance to rural populations with the relevant
authorities. They should also be able to work with the
Burmese social and economic ministries in exactly the fashion
that other UN agencies already do. However, we are equally
convinced that there is scope and need for greater action in
regard to the protection of human rights in all the areas
where the UN is active in Burma. From that perspective, we
recommend that the US delegate to the upcoming UNDP meeting
discuss with UN staff and other Executive Board members the
possibility of coupling any plans to increase the flexibility
of UNDP's mandate in Burma with an expanded mandate in regard
to human rights monitoring and protection activities among
Burma's rural population. The UN, as a body, has already
recognized its responsibility for human rights in Burma by
the appointment of a Special Rapporteur. However, it needs
to develop the capacity to carry out those responsibilities
at a grass roots level on a day-to-day basis. Making the
protection of human rights an integral part of UNDP's mandate
in Burma will help meet that need.
Martinez