Myanmar's Long Road to National Reconciliation (45 page)

Financial support for these domestic regional and national organizations has come from a number of private international donor agencies, many of which receive funding from European governments. Technical assistance is provided by visiting consultants and some locally-based international agencies. However, what is significantly lacking in the current context is more regular and intensive support for enhancing their organizational capacity and effectiveness.
⁹
With enhanced capacities to be more oriented towards relationships and change, and with a greater sensitivity to and awareness of process issues, these local organizations will more effectively facilitate the constructive change processes which are needed to address the issues of local and national reconciliation.

International and domestic relief and development agencies are having an increasingly positive impact on sustaining and improving the lives of Myanmar’s poor. Following from the discussion above, I want to suggest, however, that these development agencies could more effectively contribute to positive social change by more fully incorporating a change-oriented approach when they design development initiatives. Specifically, international development agencies should consider incorporating the following tactics as part of their approach.

1.   Intentionally design projects and initiatives to create engagement and encounter between individuals and groups that are
not
like-minded,
with the goal of facilitating the building of relationships and trust. The agencies should ask themselves how projects and initiatives can build social capital at the same time as they address sectoral and content issues, and should design measures for fostering these aims in the programme. For example, when a training workshop is conducted, does the international agency specifically invite a diverse group of participants and use the training workshop as an opportunity to build relationships as much as an opportunity to build knowledge and skills? Are the training sessions only one-off, or is there a series of training sessions offered, with follow-up opportunities? Another possibility is for the international agency to become a partner with two or more communities or organizations in designing and implementing a particular project, with the specific intention of building relationships and developing civil society.

2.   Explore partnerships with domestic organizations and groups that enhance the capacities of local organizations. At present the capacities of local organizations are relatively weak. International agencies should commit themselves to strengthening local capacities through cooperating in analysis of the local context, training, joint planning and implementation, and through consultations and mentoring of partner staff. Further, international agencies should encourage local organizations to use principles of inclusive processes in the design and implementation of initiatives, and to link with others in ways which cross established boundaries (such as ethnic and religious boundaries).

3.   Use the activities and conduct of the international agency, and its relationships with other agencies, to provide a model of sensitivity to principles of good process. Ask the questions — In its daily working, does the agency demonstrate dialogue and inclusive processes? Does it encourage and appreciate diversity? How does it address issues of destructive rigid hierarchy and client-patronage systems? And so on.

In-country programmes of international agencies are often driven by the pressures of their home offices and by requirements outlined in project agreements with donors. A change in approach as suggested here will
require country representatives to negotiate these issues with their home office and with donors. Additionally, home offices need to support policy approaches that will incorporate capacity-building for local change processes at the same time as focusing on sectoral improvements.

In addition to what implementing agencies can do in the design and implementation of their humanitarian assistance initiatives, the international donor community can have a significant influence in supporting the approach suggested above by setting their policy approaches and funding criteria to reflect this type of approach. Unfortunately, because of the fears of many donors — largely unfounded — that humanitarian assistance prolongs military rule in Myanmar, development assistance remains very small compared to what is needed.

The international donor community has an opportunity to encourage and support constructive social change in Myanmar. For some donor agencies, this will require a change in policy from only funding “basic humanitarian assistance” to funding support for longer-term social-change processes. In general, this type of policy change requires a greater investment and longer-term commitment than most donors have been willing to commit to up to now. The following is an initial list of possibilities that could be considered by international donors.

1.   Support initiatives that build the capacity of local individuals and groups, particularly through the use of international partner agencies based in Myanmar which can support intensive capacity-building efforts. At present there are a number of international agencies doing only direct implementation of projects, without contributing to the strengthening of civil society. On the other hand, there are numerous agencies that provide funding and occasional training sessions directly to local agencies although they have no on-going presence inside the country nor do they do any coordination with on-site international agencies.

2.   Most domestic organizations are in their infancy in terms of organizational development and in terms of their capacities to analyze, plan, and implement initiatives. Closer and more intense
partnerships are required to build the capacities of domestic organizations. International donors should require these types of partnerships as part of their funding criteria.

3.   Encourage international development agencies to support existing platforms of initiative in innovative ways that build social capital and develop greater capacities. In particular, look for opportunities that can involve young people and provide non-formal educational opportunities. For example, various local organizations have undertaken initiatives to train young high-school graduates as volunteer teachers for remote communities. Small amounts of private funding have supported these initiatives. If additional funding were available, these initiatives could be expanded and could add additional components which build significantly greater individual, organizational, and community capacities.

4.   Create greater opportunities for exposure, training, and education to be provided inside the country, as well as opportunities for students to travel abroad for higher education. Up to now, most major donors have only supported international educational opportunities for individuals who have fled Myanmar and have little chance of returning and contributing to positive changes in the country. This policy approach is very short-sighted. Instead, what is needed is support for significant increases in training and education — specifically focused on individuals who can make a difference inside the country — that will build capacity for civil society development and the strengthening of domestic institutions.

International funding for humanitarian assistance in Myanmar has shown a gradual increase in recent years. It appears that the international assistance community in Myanmar has been an effective advocate for the idea that the “humanitarian emergency” is worsening, with particular concern about a growing HIV/AIDS problem. While there can be no doubt that there is a humanitarian emergency in Myanmar, an equally strong case must be made for the need to resource greater capacities to facilitate constructive social change processes. If this is not done, the effort to address the “humanitarian emergency” will continue to require a larger and larger financial bandage, with no prospects for changing the underlying dynamics that contribute to it.

In recent years many pleas have been made for support to address a number of worrying humanitarian needs in Myanmar. Among these needs are such problems as the plight of former subsistence opium farmers who have had their crops eradicated; continuing health needs, including high malaria mortality, high malnutrition rates, alcohol abuse, and growing concerns regarding the spread of TB and HIV; poor education access and declining educational performance; high unemployment and under-employment; human trafficking; destructive logging practices, depletion of soil fertility and environmental degradation; and many others. While there is an urgent need to address these issues, the need for the international community to engage in supporting positive processes of change that encourage and support diverse groups in Myanmar to enter into genuine dialogue to address the issues dividing them is equally urgent. Working together on issues of humanitarian development provides opportunities for encounter and engagement between individuals and groups who would not normally come together. Dialogue is not a separate process from humanitarian assistance. Neither is dialogue a process reserved for relatively highlevel political discussions. Instead, relationship-building and dialogue needs to be part and parcel of the humanitarian assistance enterprise in Myanmar. While supporting initiatives which save lives, the international community can also be contributing to the process of reconciliation.

¹
   David Plotz, “Democracy — Faster, Better, Smarter”,
Slate Magazine,
25 April 2003, p. 2.

²
   Alice Ackermann, “Reconciliation as a Peace-building Process in Postwar Europe: The Franco-German Case”,
Peace and Change,
Vol. 19, No. 3 (1994), p. 232.

³
   Ashutosh Varshney,
Ethnic Conflict and Civic Life
(New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2002).

⁴
   Allister Sparks,
Tomorrow is Another Country: The Inside Story of South Africa’s Road to Change
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995).

⁵
   Ibid., p. 81.

⁶
   John Paul Lederach,
Building Peace: Sustainable Reconciliation in Divided Societies
(Washington, D.C.: United States Institute of Peace Press, 1997).

⁷
   Whether these small community organizations contribute significantly to the building of civil society and social capital, however, remains a question.

⁸
   Another recently registered domestic organization is the Lawkahta Sariya Foundation.

⁹
   For the past two years Hope International Development Agency has been based in Myanmar, focusing on enhancing the organizational effectiveness of domestic organizations that are committed to facilitating understanding and constructive change processes. A few other international agencies devote some limited resources to this endeavour, but the international community has yet to embrace this need and to make the necessary commitment to addressing it.