Major challenges

DFID: Working to reduce poverty in Burma

Poverty | HIV/AIDS | Education | Conflict | Cyclone Nargis

Burma is rich in natural resources, yet it is one of the poorest countries in Asia. A third of the population, about 16.5 million people, live on less than 16 pence a day.

Ethnic nationalities are among the poorest and most socially excluded. In Chin State for example it is estimated that about 70% of people live below the poverty line.

In the border areas of eastern Burma, more than five decades of political unrest and armed conflict has displaced an estimated 500,000 people, severely disrupting their livelihoods.

About 140,000 live as refugees in camps in Thailand.

DFID Burma works with the international development community to:

• address humanitarian needs – particularly in health, education and rural growth
• help build the foundations for democracy and for long-term poverty reduction
• provide humanitarian support for conflict-affected populations.

DFID’s total aid to Burma in 2008/09 exceeded £57 million (£12.5 million for long-term development and humanitarian assistance and £45 million for emergency relief following Cyclone Nargis.)

Douglas Alexander MP, Secretary of State for International Development, decided in March 2009 to increase our long-term assistance to Burma by £10 million in each of the financial years 2009/10 and 2010/11.

This was on top of a doubling of our programme for Burma which he announced in October 2007. DFID’s total budget for assistance to Burma in financial year 2009/10 is now £25 million, rising to £28 million in 2010/11.

The Burmese people still get far less international aid per head than those in other countries with similar levels of poverty.

We are therefore encouraging other donors to scale up their aid to Burma too.

Working within the European Common Position on Burma, we channel our aid through UN agencies and non-governmental organisations rather than through the Burmese central government. 
 

Poverty and rural growth

Around 70% of the Burmese population depends on agriculture. The impact of Cyclone Nargis - which devastated Burma’s Irrawaddy Delta in May 2009 - and the global economic crisis have severely affected rural agricultural livelihoods.

Prices for agricultural products have slumped and there is no credit for already indebted farmers to buy seeds or fertilisers, or pay labourers to work the land.

Chin State (in north-western Burma) has also been affected by food shortages after a plague of rats ate crops.

The revival of rural markets and sustainable reductions in poverty will in the longer term depend on changes in government policy and its implementation.

But we are making a difference to people’s lives directly.

Between 2004 and 2008 a rural livelihoods programme, 50% funded by DFID, made available low-cost, high-quality, footpumps to 30,000 poor farmers.

These pumps enabled the farmers to irrigate their vegetable plots during the dry season and earn, on average, more than £200 extra per year.

In response to the food shortage in Chin State, DFID provided most of the funding for emergency aid provided through the UN Development Programme (UNDP), World Food Programme (WFP) and their local partners, which benefited nearly 88,000 people.

We are continuing to help improve the livelihoods of farming communities through a new multi-donor effort, the Livelihoods and Food Security Trust Fund (LIFT).

LIFT will focus first on the Irrawaddy Delta area devastated by the cyclone in May 2008, but will also reach vulnerable communities in other parts of the country.

It will, for example, support the development of small enterprises, improve access to affordable credit and agricultural products including seeds and fertilisers.  

Health and HIV/AIDS

Malaria, HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis (TB) are major causes of death and illness in Burma, but public health expenditure is only 0.5% of gross domestic product (GDP). Most poor people rely on informal, private health-care providers and, as a result, often receive poor-quality or ineffective treatment.

DFID has allocated £30.1 million to the multi-donor Three Diseases Fund, which supports the work of the UN, non-governmental organisations and local-level public health staff fighting HIV/AIDS, malaria and TB.

In its first two years of operation (2007 and 2008) the Three Diseases Fund has:

• Distributed over 30 million condoms.
• Protected 638,000 people from malaria through bed nets or mosquito spraying.
• Supported drug distribution to over 129,000 TB patients.
• Reached more than 440,000 people with HIV prevention activities.
• Provided antiretroviral treatment to 6,804 people living with HIV.

Education

Education in Burma is also severely under-funded. Half of Burma’s 20 million children do not complete primary school, which has to be funded by parents and their communities.

DFID is supporting pre-school and basic primary education in Burma through UNICEF and Save the Children.

Since 2007, UNICEF’s education fund - 30% financed by DFID - has supplied education materials for more than 700,000 children in 2,440 primary schools, reducing the cost of education for poor families.

It has also paid for repairs to 1,100 primary schools and improved sanitation facilities in over 3,000 schools. 

Conflict

Burma has experienced over 60 years of civil conflict, which has led to the displacement of large numbers of people, many of whom now live as refugees in Thailand or in highly vulnerable circumstances inside Burma.

Even in areas where ceasefires have been agreed between the Burmese government and ethnic armed groups, poverty levels remain high.

DFID is spending about 20% of its programme (excluding cyclone relief) on the approximately 5% of the population in areas affected by conflict.

This aid includes funding for refugees and internally displaced people through the Thailand Burma Border Consortium, International Rescue Committee,  and community-based groups in Thailand and Burma.

It also includes funding for Health Unlimited for healthcare work in Shan and Kachin States, across the border from China.