HOUSE OF THE WEEK
Warm single-storey house in Thingangyun
UNCOMPLICATED suburban living sums up this single-level house in Thingangyun township. The house is not overly spacious but there is a nice garden and lawn as compensation. more
Third Nargis review launched
(Volume 26, No. 510)
A carpenter builds a house in Pyinsalu, in the Ayeyarwady delta in April 2009. About 84 percent of households still consider their shelter to be worse than before Cyclone Nargis, a new report has found. Pic: AFP
THE Tripartite Core Group (TCG) last week used the launch of the third Periodic Review (PR3) at the Chatrium Hotel in Yangon on February 9 to call for more funding for Nargis recovery programs.
“With unresolved challenges remaining in almost every economic sector, geographic area or demographic group as indicated in the report, it is imperative to accelerate support from the international community to address those outstanding gaps,” said Dr William Sabandar, special envoy of the ASEAN secretary general for post-Nargis recovery in Myanmar.
The report underscored improvements in child mortality, child nutrition, and the availability of health care and access to clean water. More than 90 percent of the surveyed households reported that health personnel and medical supplies were available in health care facilities all or some of the time.
The data was collected between October 22 and November 17 of last year, and covered 1400 households in 30 townships in Ayeyarwady and Yangon Divisions.
“The periodic review continues the TCG effort in community monitoring. It provides a set of credible data, a critical tool for humanitarian actors in their medium- to long-term recovery programming,” U Kyaw Thu, TCG chairman and chairman of the Civil Service Selection and Training Board, said in a press statement.
According to UN Resident Humanitarian Coordinator Mr Bishow Parajuli, shelter and livelihoods are the largest concerns for the humanitarian community working in the cyclone-affected areas. As of last month, more than 100,000 households are still vulnerable due to lack of adequate shelter assistance.
“It is a very good report, which shows shelter is a huge concern – as expected – and there is still very little funding. The rains will be coming soon, so there is a huge need for donors in that sector.” Mr Parajuli told The Myanmar Times.
The report also indicated that special effort is needed in the livelihoods sector to restore household self-reliance, as well as to build on improvements made since the first periodic review, launched a year ago.
Another implication of the report’s findings shows options for income earning appear to have shrunk, impacting households’ ability to source investment capital. Should livelihood-related needs go unmet, according to the report, a prolonged recovery could increase the likelihood of another crisis, including loss of land to lenders, chronic under-employment and economic stagnation.
The Post-Nargis Joint Assessment, released in July 2008, concluded it would take months for livelihoods to recover, and PR3 shows that many households have yet to achieve that goal. A number of reports and experts have arrived at similar conclusions – the lack of credit and investment capital in delta communities is undermining people’s abilities to rebuild businesses and access capital for rebuilding investments. Landlessness, characterising about half of all the surveyed households, is a critical danger for an economy largely dependent on agricultural output.
Another important source of income for delta residents is fishing. The report found that while external assistance had provided boats, livelihoods related to boat ownership were far below pre-Nargis levels in the key coastal areas.
“The periodic review clearly demonstrates that the recovery process is moving forward, but also that much more needs to be done. Continued cooperation from all parties remains vital,” Mr Parajuli said in a press statement.
