Access is there, donors should respond generously, says Holmes

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.

Photo: International Federation

The reconstruction and longer-term economic revival could take up to three years

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?

Photo: Contributor/IRIN

Food assistance being offloaded in Labutta, southern Myanmar. Thousands of survivors of Cyclone Nargis will need food assistance for the next six months

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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