POVERTY: MYANMAR: Humanitarian cost of economic development

BANGKOK, 27 February 2012 (IRIN)

 Photo: Courtesy of Frankie Abreu
Construction underway for Dawei port

A development spree in Myanmar following recent political reforms may have hidden costs for rural dwellers, especially ethnic minorities, say analysts.
Speaking at a recent conference in Yangon on inclusive growth, former World Bank president and Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz warned that Myanmar risked becoming "a rich country with poor people", as quoted in local media.
In 2011, foreign investment in mining, oil, gas and hydropower in Myanmar totalled US$20 billion, according to the government.
And while a $3.6 billion project to construct a dam on the Irrawaddy River for a hydropower plant was suspended due to protests stemming from environmental and social concerns, including the projected displacement of thousands of villagers from the northern state of Kachin, a deepwater port project is going ahead, despite similar criticisms.
Saw Frankie Abreu, a coordinator with the local NGO Another Development for Burma, believes the multi-billion dollar project in the southeastern city of Dawei in Tanintharyi Region may displace tens of thousands of villagers and boost undocumented migration to Thailand.
The Burmese government has defended the proposed port, whose construction began late 2011, as a boon to the local economy, but community activists say the gains are coming at too high a cost.
While the government is creating four new villages to house the displaced, Saw Frankie Abreu criticized the plan as insufficient.
"We have seen the houses they are building. They are building one house for each family, but it is for... just four or five people. But villagers have more children than that. And also most of the time they are extended families, but the government is counting this as one family. So where will the others go?" Saw Frankie Abreu asked.
The displacement will "severely" affect the livelihoods of the ethnic minorities living in these villages who are unable to adapt to the new locations, said Khin Ohmar, coordinator of the Burma Partnership, a network of NGOs based in northern Thailand.
"The Mon and Karen people are the majority in this area. They depend on the orchards and farming, like growing betel nuts, for their livelihood. Their livelihoods depend entirely on the land they live on," Khin Ohmar told IRIN.
One of the villages under construction for the displaced from Dawei is 60km north in Bawa village.
"Bawa is a fishing community," said Saw Frankie Abreu, "while the Dawei people are farmers. The land in Bawa is not suitable for farming, so people are now thinking of moving, or are already moving to other places."
A number are trying neighbouring Thailand, said Khin Ohmar.
Win Kay Thi, a Burmese migrant worker from Dawei living in the southern Phang Nga Province of Thailand, told IRIN she would bring her mother and sister, who live in Dawei, to join her.
"I have settled in Thailand as a migrant worker for more than five years, so I understand the environment here. In [Myanmar], I don't know the place where my family is going and my family also doesn't know about the new situation [in Bawa], so I will bring them here," Win Kay Thi said.
"Others in the village are also talking about moving to Thailand," she added. "People in the area are very worried about their future. Right now buildings are mushrooming. They are accelerating the building."
The International Organization for Migration recently estimated 1.4 million unregistered Burmese workers and family members already in Thailand.
"When locals first heard about the project, grassroots people were very optimistic," Saw Frankie Abreu said. "They thought they would get job opportunities, maybe transportation would be better, maybe they can start taking local goods to markets in the city better. Then they started realizing the challenges."
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportID=94955

MALNUTRITION: MYANMAR: Rice harvests lost in Kachin conflict zones

KACHIN STATE, 6 January 2012 (IRIN) -
 Photo: Contributor/IRIN
Kot Nan worries about feeding her family

The annual harvest season in Myanmar's northern Kachin State has come and gone but much of the rice crop has not been harvested or was never planted after fighting between government forces and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) erupted on 9 June 2011 after a 17-year ceasefire was broken.
Traditionally, farmers transfer their rice seedlings in June with harvests in November and December before the winter sets in.
"This year's harvest was next year's investment, but now we have nothing for the future. We will have to cross the mountains and scavenge for wild vegetables so that we will have something to eat," says Kot Nan, 35.
"When the conflict started we were planting rice but the soldiers came into our village so we couldn't plant," the mother-of-two told IRIN at the main camp for internally displaced people (IDPs) outside Laiza, a border town between Myanmar and China.
There are more than 40,000 IDPs in Kachin State, local aid groups say, including an estimated 20,000 in camps around Laiza, controlled by the political wing of the KIA, the Kachin Independence Organization.
For many Kachin families, farming is the primary source of livelihood, with rice being the main crop, along with sugar cane and corn.

Impact
Bill Davies, a researcher with Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), says the food security issue is of major concern.
"The fighting starting when they were preparing the seedlings so some of them put the seeds right into the paddy in the hope that they would grow and others planted a lot later, which decreases the yield."
Davies led a fact-finding mission for PHR in the border areas of Kachin state last September, visiting six camps and four shelters for IDPs.
The group's findings were released in a report on 30 November.
"Not being able to plant 100 percent of their fields, planting it late, and also not transplanting it at the right time were the three main problems. A lot of people are worried that they were going to have a smaller crop yield than normal," Davies said.
Sporadic fighting has also restricted travel for civilians, including those farmers who were able to plant but could not return to their fields to tend their crops.
And while there are no official figures yet on the area's overall harvest shortfall for 2011, the impact on the population is already evident.
At a relief line in one of the main refugee camps near Laiza, 24-year-old Moo Pan breastfeeds her baby girl as she waits for food rations - almost seven months after fighting first erupted.
"We were forced to leave our village and we can't go back because government forces have taken over our houses and land," she said.
Compounding matters are reports that the Burmese army is regularly pillaging food and supplies from civilians in the area, a key finding of the PHR study.
With local supplies diminishing and the ability of local aid groups to provide assistance on the decline, the situation on the ground underscores the importance of further outside aid.
According to Human Rights Watch (HRW) at the end of December, the tens of thousands now displaced are in "great need of humanitarian assistance".


 Photo: Contributor/IRIN 
Workers tend a field near an IDP camp in central Kachin to supply food for the displaced

Access
But getting into the most-affected areas will only be the first step, Marcus Prior, spokesman for World Food Programme (WFP) Asia, told IRIN on 5 January.
"Even with improved access, WFP will need funding to provide the kind of assistance we think may be necessary in Kachin," he explained.
"Our operations across the country are facing significant shortfalls - right now WFP only has funds to guarantee food deliveries into February."
The UN food agency is able to reach about 15,000 of the displaced in Kachin State, but hopes that following a recent humanitarian convoy across the conflict line, the next convoy will include WFP food, Marcus said.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportID=94595