UNICEF IN BURMA

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 RANGOON 000555 SIPDIS SENSITIVE STATE PASS USAID/GH -- D. GIBB STATE FOR EAP/BCLTV AND IO/EDA -- W. SWANEY BANGKOK FOR USAID E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: EAID ECON PREL SOCI BM NGO SUBJECT: UNICEF IN BURMA REF: A. STATE 76373 ¶B. RANGOON 22 AND PREVIOUS ¶C. 04 RANGOON 158 ¶1. (SBU) Summary: UNICEF is effective in most of its core programs in Burma, and is planning to expand and refocus its activities in the next five years. Though some criticisms remain, particularly dealing with UNICEF's administrative laxness and close cooperation with the GOB, the country director is saying the right things about tightening up the ship and improving the quality and assessments of ongoing efforts. Relations between the embassy and UNICEF are good. End summary. Plans for the Future ¶2. (U) Per reftel request Chief of Mission (COM) met on April 28 with UNICEF Burma country representative Carroll Long and her deputy Elke Wisch to discuss the agency's new country program and to clarify some embassy concerns prior to the executive board meeting. ¶3. (SBU) The country rep laid out her vision for the immediate future of UNICEF in Burma. She highlighted the broad objective of expanding at least basic immunization programs beyond the 61 townships in which UNICEF now operates while at the same time improving monitoring and evaluation and the skills of the primarily local staff tasked with carrying out the agency's directives in remote regions. Specifically, she mentioned the importance of auditing the unverified operating assumption that 80 percent of Burma's children were immunized against the "Basic Seven" childhood diseases. Also, she stressed the importance of doing more community-based data collection to reduce dependence on GOB assertions and unreliable government data. On capacity building, Ms. Long indicated UNICEF would focus on getting more local and expatriate trainers and experts to work with both UNICEF staff and also technical-level GOB staff. She said that because the quality of child protection in Burma was currently so low, this type of training was essential -- especially in rural areas. UNICEF Burma was trying to get the budget to hire additional expatriate staff for more remote programs. ¶4. (SBU) Ms. Long also pointed out a few specific new directions UNICEF programs would take in the next five years. Most notably, according to the country rep, is an expanded child protection component that will focus on building a functioning juvenile justice system (in conjunction with ICRC),reaching out to orphans and "vulnerable children," and fighting child exploitation (especially trafficking, child labor, child prostitution, and child soldiers). Other changes will be a redirecting of UNICEF's HIV/AIDs work to deal more intensively with mother-child transmission and AIDs orphans (both growing problems in Burma); expanding existing childhood development programs (from the current peri-urban focus to more remote regions); and, putting more into making education affordable (to reduce dropouts). Is UNICEF Too Close to the GOB? ¶5. (SBU) Responding to the COM's observation that some view UNICEF as too close with the GOB (a common criticism of UNICEF, see ref C),Ms. Long pointed out that to carry out the type of structural changes they hope to achieve in GOB-controlled areas like basic healthcare and education, "you have to work with anybody who can help you get to kids, even if they're otherwise reprehensible." She said there have been positive results to UNICEF's efforts to build trust in key ministries. She noted, for example, that the Ministry of Education has refused to work with any other UN agency or international NGO on curriculum in public schools. UNICEF, Ms. Long pointed out, has been able to get HIV/AIDs and domestic violence components added to school curricula in the townships in which UNICEF operates. Ms. Long stressed that UNICEF has a wide array of NGO partners with whom the agency works without any GOB interference and cooperates well with the UN Country Team. ¶6. (SBU) The UNICEF rep said that her agency's ties to the GOB at the working level did not do it much good when dealing with the designated UNICEF "focal point," the Minister for Development and National Planning, U Soe Tha. She said that relations with him were quite poor and it was difficult for UNICEF to get necessary meetings with the Minister to seek his approval for planned changes and additions to UNICEF's mandate. This bad situation had become even worse since former Prime Minister Khin Nyunt was ousted in October 2004. She did not seem to think these poor ties at the policymaking level would hurt UNICEF's new country plan, however. Regular Ties to NLD, Improving Ties to Embassy ¶7. (SBU) Ms. Long volunteered that UNICEF had been taking monthly meetings with the NLD's Central Executive Committee (CEC) to explain the agency's activities and plans. She said the CEC had not raised any objections to UNICEF's new country plan and indeed had urged the agency to do as much as possible to build the country's decrepit education system. In the past, imprisoned NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi (ASSK) had been a vocal proponent of a particular UNICEF childhood development project in suburban Rangoon. ¶8. (SBU) (Note: U Lwin, NLD Secretary and spokesman, had a slightly different take. He told us on May 3 that UNICEF had only met twice with a member of the CEC (once to discuss Global Fund issues and once to describe the new country plan) since the current country representative took office. No UNICEF official has been to the NLD headquarters during this time period. He also said that during the country plan briefing the NLD had been in a "listening mode" and he did not recall endorsing any component of the plan. He admitted that ASSK had always been the primary point of contact with the UN agencies, and thus NLD-UN ties have been weaker since she was imprisoned in May 2003. End note.) ¶9. (SBU) COM asked if UNICEF would be amenable to more bilateral and informal visits of embassy staff to UNICEF project sites. Though UNICEF's regular diplomatic group trips have been informative (ref C),UNICEF officials have been less willing to arrange informal visits to project sites by individual emboffs during up-country travel -- perhaps fearing a negative GOB reaction. Ms. Long agreed with the COM's suggestion and said she would work to set up such visits in the future. Comment: On the Right Track? ¶10. (SBU) UNICEF has been effective in many of its programs here. There are some outstanding concerns over UNICEF's activities here; particularly problems of oversensitivity to GOB criticism, administrative laxness, and a lack, thus far, of a true results-oriented assessment process. However, while the country rep is optimistic, she is not naive in her dealings with the GOB, and is saying the right things about improving the quality of UNICEF's programs and the auditing mechanism that will help ensure efficiency. Likewise, over the last year there has been a significant changeover in the administration in UNICEF's Burma HQ -- a change for the better one senior UNICEF official claimed. End comment. Martinez