<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" version="2.0"><channel><title>IRIN - Asia</title><link>http://www.irinnews.org/</link><description>Updated everyday</description><language>en-gb</language><lastBuildDate>Fri, 17 May 2013 09:04:34 GMT</lastBuildDate><item><title>Challenges to improving health care in Pakistan</title><pubDate>Fri, 17 May 2013 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[<img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2013/201303281135270775t.jpg" />]]>LAHORE/DUBAI 17 May 2013 (IRIN) - Hamza Mazhar, a 35-year-old teacher from Pakistan’s eastern city of Lahore, says he never wants to see the inside of a government hospital again.</description><body><![CDATA[LAHORE/DUBAI 17 May 2013 (IRIN) - Hamza Mazhar, a 35-year-old teacher from Pakistan’s eastern city of Lahore, says he never wants to see the inside of a government hospital again.

“My mother was taken to the hospital with an upper respiratory tract infection in February this year and doctors said she needed care in the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit (ICU),” he told IRIN.

But the doctors in charge wanted the family to pay a bribe to get into the ICU, which had plenty of spare beds. They could not afford to pay. His mother was unable to get the treatment she needed and in March she died.

Health care in Pakistan is identified as one of the country’s most corrupt sectors, according to surveys by Transparency International; [ http://www.transparency.org.pk/documents/NCPS%202009/NCPS%202009%20%20Report.pdf ] general surveys suggest the majority of Pakistanis are unhappy with the health services they are offered. 

This is just one of the many challenges facing Pakistan’s health system, as identified in the first ever comprehensive assessment [ http://www.thelancet.com/themed/pakistan ] of the sector, published in the medical journal The Lancet and launched today in Islamabad. 

Entitled Health Transitions in Pakistan, the series of articles says Pakistan’s health sector lags behind 12 countries in the region with cultural, economic and geographic similarities.

Pakistan has no national health insurance system and 78 percent of the population pay health care expenses themselves. It is the only country in the world without a National Health Ministry.

The report authors say the recently elected government has a unique opportunity to push through reforms and take advantage of recent constitutional changes that devolve health care to the provinces.

The findings are not entirely negative. Progress has been made on all health indicators in the past 20 years. The rates of child deaths and maternal mortality have fallen, and the community-based Lady Health Workers programme is singled out for praise.

But improvements have been much slower coming than in other similar countries. IRIN picked out four major challenges from the health assessment.

1. Avoidably high child and maternal mortality

The assessment’s authors describe Pakistan’s progress towards meeting the Millennium Development Goals for reducing child and material mortality (4&5) as “unsatisfactory”. 

Pakistan, with its population of 180 million, has more child, foetal and maternal deaths than all but two of the world’s nations.

The report calls child survival “the most devastating and large-scale public health and humanitarian crisis Pakistan faces”.

An estimated 423,000 children under-five die each year, almost half of them new-born babies. Family planning options are also limited and nearly a million women attempt unsafe abortions each year.

Simple measures like training more nurses and midwives (currently outnumbered by doctors 2:1) could save more than 200,000 women and child lives in 2015, the report’s authors say.

2. Nutrition

A lack of adequate nutrition for children contributes to the high number of child and maternal deaths. Nearly 40 percent of children under-five are underweight [ http://www.fao.org/ag/agn/nutrition/pak_en.stm ] and more than half are affected by stunting. 

Poor nutrition weakens the body’s natural defence mechanisms.

But the report also says that malnutrition affects the Pakistani economy, with estimates that it costs the country 3 percent of GDP every year, particularly through reduced productivity in young adults.

3. “Lifestyle diseases”

In Pakistan, as more widely throughout south Asia, non-communicable diseases like cancer, diabetes and heart problems have replaced communicable diseases like malaria and diarrhoea in the past two decades as the leading causes of death and morbidity.

This general trend has not been matched by an adaptation in the Pakistani health system or government policy. Poor road safety, cheap cigarettes and high-levels of obesity (one in four adults) all lead to preventable deaths.

So-called “lifestyle diseases” could cost the country nearly US$300 million in 2025, according to the report’s authors.

They say the right government action, including higher excise taxes on cigarettes, new legislation, and information campaigns could cut the premature mortality rate from cardiovascular diseases, cancers, and respiratory diseases by 20 percent by 2025.

4. Low public spending

Humanitarian crises provoked by earthquakes, flooding and conflict over the past decade have mobilized large sums of money both internationally and within the country.

But corresponding sums have not been spent on underlying health services, which have the potential to save many more lives.

Public health spending has declined from 1.5 percent of GDP in the late 1980s to less than 1 percent, according to the report - equivalent to less than 4 percent of the government budget.

That has left Pakistanis with little support for medical costs, which are responsible for more than two-thirds of major economic shocks for poor families, according to the Ministry of Social Welfare and Special Education.

Rapid population growth [ http://www.irinnews.org/report/96969/Analysis-Tackling-Pakistan-s-population-time-bomb ] only makes what resources are spent on health care produce ever smaller results. 

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]]></body><link>http://www.irinnews.org/Report/98055/Challenges-to-improving-health-care-in-Pakistan</link><content:encoded><![CDATA[<table cellpadding="3"><tr><td valign="top"><img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2013/201303281135270775t.jpg"/></td><td valign="top">LAHORE/DUBAI 17 May 2013 (IRIN) - Hamza Mazhar, a 35-year-old teacher from Pakistan’s eastern city of Lahore, says he never wants to see the inside of a government hospital again.</td></tr></table>>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Evacuation volunteers fan out in Bangladesh</title><pubDate>Thu, 16 May 2013 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[<img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2013/201305160959430064t.jpg" />]]>DHAKA 16 May 2013 (IRIN) - Some 50,000 volunteers in coastal communities across southern Bangladesh are out and about warning people to move to higher ground ahead of Cyclone Mahasen. Hundreds of thousands of people have been evacuated so far.</description><body><![CDATA[DHAKA 16 May 2013 (IRIN) - Some 50,000 volunteers in coastal communities across southern Bangladesh are out and about warning people to move to higher ground ahead of Cyclone Mahasen. Hundreds of thousands of people have been evacuated so far. 

“We’ve been working here for the last couple of days,” Joydev Dutt, a Red Crescent volunteer from Barguna District, told IRIN. He has spent hours riding around on his bicycle in heavy rain with a megaphone hurled over his shoulder. “People are responding to our warning. Almost all people in this cyclone-prone area have been evacuated.” 

According to local government officials, 700,000 to 800,000 people have been evacuated in 13 coastal districts under the country’s Cyclone Preparedness Programme (CPP), operated jointly by the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society and the government. 

The programme operates an extensive telecommunications network, including radio comunication between volunteers and CPP headquarters in Dhaka. 

To receive meteorological storm warnings, each of the 3,291 unit team leaders is provided with a transistor radio. To disseminate warning signals within the community, each team, comprised of 15 volunteers, is given a megaphone, a hand siren, a flag, and a signal light, while team leaders also get a bicycle or motorcycle, depending on the terrain and remoteness of the area. 

Bangladesh Minister of Disaster Management and Relief Abul Hassan Mahmud Ali said the government had finalized all necessary preparations. 

“At least 3,770 shelters [ http://www.irinnews.org/Report/76490/BANGLADESH-Cyclone-shelters-save-lives-but-more-needed ] are ready to protect cyclone-affected people. The government also instructed the authorities concerned to prepare all primary schools in coastal areas to shelter affected people,” he said, adding that all public holidays for local government workers had been cancelled. 

The government has also prepared one medical team for every union (smallest administrative unit), two for every sub-district and five for every district, while 100 tons of food will be provided to each of the 13 districts at risk. Twenty-two naval ships are on standby to assist in the rescue operation, he said. 

The category-1 cyclone, with wind gusts of 85-90km per hour over the next 24-36 hours, is expected to hit just north of Chittagong, near the border with Myanmar, according to an update issued on 15 May [ http://reliefweb.int/report/myanmar/un-ocha-flash-update-5-cyclone-mahasen-bangladesh-and-myanmar ] by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). 

All port operations, as well as flights into Chittagong and Cox’s Bazaar have been cancelled. 

According to the latest estimates, more than four million people are living in high risk areas (districts of Chittagong and Cox’s Bazaar). 

Myanmar 

Evacuation efforts are also under way in neighbouring Myanmar’s Rakhine State, where more than 140,000 Muslim Rohingyas [ http://www.irinnews.org/report/96801/Briefing-Myanmar-s-Rohingya-crisis ] were displaced during two bouts of sectarian violence in 2012. 

“We are assisting the relocation in some areas by working with the communities and the state government to move vulnerable people to safer ground quickly, based on the principles of voluntariness and safety,” said Barbara Manzi, OCHA’s head of office in Sittwe. 

According to government figures released on 15 May, more than 35,500 people have been relocated from Sittwe, Minby, Myauk U, Kyauktaw, Rathedaung, Myebon and Pauktaw (townships) since 13 May, in line with stage 1 of the government’s three-stage disaster preparedness plan. 

The internally displace persons (IDPs) are being relocated to higher ground and, where possible, will be temporarily housed in government buildings, schools and mosques. 

“There has been some resistance by local residents and IDPs,” Myanmar's presidential spokesman Ye Htut said. “However, it’s imperative for everyone in the community to work together on this.” 

Burmese authorities are now calling on ethnic Buddhist Rakhine and Muslim Rohingyas to set aside their differences and come together, given the potential for a humanitarian crisis. 

Earlier this week, one of several boats carrying IDPs from a flood-prone and exposed camp off the coast of Rakhine struck rocks and capsized. Fifty-eight people are missing, feared drowned, the government says. 

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]]></body><link>http://www.irinnews.org/Report/98046/Evacuation-volunteers-fan-out-in-Bangladesh</link><content:encoded><![CDATA[<table cellpadding="3"><tr><td valign="top"><img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2013/201305160959430064t.jpg"/></td><td valign="top">DHAKA 16 May 2013 (IRIN) - Some 50,000 volunteers in coastal communities across southern Bangladesh are out and about warning people to move to higher ground ahead of Cyclone Mahasen. Hundreds of thousands of people have been evacuated so far.</td></tr></table>>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Landmine casualties rising in Kachin, Myanmar</title><pubDate>Wed, 15 May 2013 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[<img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2013/201305150926290145t.jpg" />]]>LAIZA 15 May 2013 (IRIN) - Former rebel fighter Lahpai Hkam has been in pain every day since a landmine destroyed his lower right leg during a battle with government soldiers 18 months ago in Myanmar’s northern Kachin State.</description><body><![CDATA[LAIZA 15 May 2013 (IRIN) - Former rebel fighter Lahpai Hkam has been in pain every day since a landmine destroyed his lower right leg during a battle with government soldiers 18 months ago in Myanmar’s northern Kachin State. 

“The artificial leg that I was given last year doesn't fit properly and it rubs on my stump causing a lot of pain,” he said in a hospital in Laiza, the de facto capital of the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), the political wing of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), which has been fighting for greater autonomy from the Burmese government for the past six decades. 

According to rebel Kachin surgeon Brang Sawng, such stories are common and the number of landmine injuries is on the rise. 

“More than 45 soldiers who have had amputations because of landmines over the last two years urgently need prosthetics and replacements,” said Sawng. “The number one injury is caused by landmines, with both Burmese troops and Kachin soldiers mistakenly stepping on their own mines.” 

While neither side has published any official figures on civilian landmine casualties, media reports and information from NGOs indicate there were at least 381 landmine casualties, including 84 deaths in 2011. However, international experts say the real number could be significantly higher. 

"No armed group - neither the army nor any ethnic armed group [in Myanmar] - provides any public information on casualties, especially civilian ones. This is not unusual,” Yeshua Moser-Puangsuwan, a researcher with the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) [ http://www.icbl.org/intro.php ], told IRIN. 

Many observers fear a rise in civilian casualties - and prosthetics are not the only thing in short supply. 

“For many of the operations we need blood transfusions, but we have no emergency blood bank or reserve so we are forced to operate without blood replacement,” the doctor Brang Sawng explained outside the recovery room of Laiza’s main military hospital. 

According to a recent report [ http://www.hrw.org/reports/2012/03/20/untold-miseries ] by Human Rights Watch (HRW), both government troops and the KIA still use landmines. 

“These are weapons that will continue to maim and kill for years to come and I would be surprised if both sides are capable of mapping and following where they actually placed these mines,” said Phil Robertson, deputy director of HRW’s Asia division. “The answer is for both sides to cease using anti-personal landmines.” 

Off limits 

The collapse of a 17-year-old ceasefire between the Burmese government and the KIA in June 2011 [ http://www.irinnews.org/report/95616/MYANMAR-Kachin-conflict-continues-one-year-on ], has left more than 80,000 displaced. 

For Kachin farmers like Naw Tarong, who fled his home more than a year ago with his wife and three children, leaving behind crops and cattle, the chances of returning home soon look remote. 

“We cannot return home because KIA soldiers have planted landmines around our village to keep the Burmese out, and they have warned us not to go back yet,” Naw Tarong said, adding that some of his cattle had stepped on them and been killed. 

ICBL’s Moser-Puangsuwan said many civilians (mainly subsistence farmers) set off the mines while returning to their fields or foraging in the forest. “Combatants in Myanmar/Burma do not generally mark their mined areas… A deadly hazard exists.” 

Currently, Myanmar has no specific policy to support landmine victims during treatment and rehabilitation, and emergency services in conflict areas are “extremely limited”, according to a 2012 Landmine Monitor report [ http://www.the-monitor.org/custom/index.php/region_profiles/print_theme/2027 ].

As of 1 October 2012, 160 countries (over 80 percent of the world’s governments) have ratified or acceded to the Mine Ban Treaty, and 111 have signed or ratified the Convention on Cluster Munitions. Myanmar [ http://www.the-monitor.org/custom/index.php/region_profiles/print_profile/536 ] has signed up to neither. 

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]]></body><link>http://www.irinnews.org/Report/98040/Landmine-casualties-rising-in-Kachin-Myanmar</link><content:encoded><![CDATA[<table cellpadding="3"><tr><td valign="top"><img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2013/201305150926290145t.jpg"/></td><td valign="top">LAIZA 15 May 2013 (IRIN) - Former rebel fighter Lahpai Hkam has been in pain every day since a landmine destroyed his lower right leg during a battle with government soldiers 18 months ago in Myanmar’s northern Kachin State.</td></tr></table>>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Rohingya evacuation under way in Myanmar</title><pubDate>Tue, 14 May 2013 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[<img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2013/201305020948390988t.jpg" />]]>BANGKOK 14 May 2013 (IRIN) - The government of Myanmar has launched a large-scale effort to relocate to higher ground tens of thousands of Rohingya internally displaced persons (IDPs) ahead of Cyclone Mahasen, says the UN.</description><body><![CDATA[BANGKOK 14 May 2013 (IRIN) - The government of Myanmar has launched a large-scale effort to relocate to higher ground tens of thousands of Rohingya internally displaced persons (IDPs) ahead of Cyclone Mahasen, says the UN. 

“At this point, we are all working against the clock,” Kirsten Mildren, a spokeswoman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told IRIN on 14 May in Bangkok. “Thirteen thousand have already been moved. It’s estimated another 25,000 will be moved today.” 

Mahasen [ http://www.irinnews.org/Report/98024/Bangladesh-Myanmar-brace-for-Cyclone-Mahasen ] is expected to make landfall on 16 May, striking Bangladesh, Myanmar's western Rakhine State, and parts of India. Millions could be affected. 

“It’s really hard at this stage to second-guess the storm path or what its intensity will be when it hits land. It’s changing all the time,” said Mildren. “Needless to say we need to prepare for any possibility.” 

Under Stage 1 of the government’s three-stage disaster preparedness plan, provisions to move upwards of 38,000 persons at risk (IDPs and non IDPs) began on 13 May in the northern Rakhine townships of Sittwe, Pauktaw, Khauktaw, as well as rural areas where many are living in makeshift shelters. 

From there, the displaced are relocated to higher ground and where possible, temporarily housed in government buildings, schools, and mosques. 

In the event the storm increases in severity, Stage 2 of the government’s plan will be activated - including the relocation of more than 100,000 IDPs, as well as non-IDPs living in high risk areas. 

“All options, including staying with host families, are being considered,” Mildren said, noting that UN staff are on the ground and monitoring the evacuation to ensure people are fully informed of what is happening, are allowed to take some of their belongings with them, and that families stay together. 

Most locations are within 60 minutes’ walk from their current locations. In areas where the distances are further, the government is providing transport. 

“It’s a massive logistics operation,” she said. 

Calls for swift action 

Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has issued an urgent call for the Burmese government to step up its evacuation of the Rohingyas [ http://www.irinnews.org/report/96801/Briefing-Myanmar-s-Rohingya-crisis ], who were displaced by two waves of sectarian violence in 2012. 

Violence between Buddhists and Muslims in June and October 2012 left 167 dead and hundreds injured. At least 140,000 were displaced, says the government, with more than 10,000 homes and businesses burned or destroyed. 

“If the government fails to evacuate those at risk, any disaster that will result will not be natural, but man-made,” warned Brad Adams, HRW’s Asia director. 

Oxfam has echoed the need for swift action. 

“Oxfam welcomes the steps being taken by the government to ensure all affected communities including those displaced by ethnic conflict are relocated to safe places, but swifter action is needed to ensure people are moved before the storm hits,” said Jane Lonsdale, acting country director for Oxfam in Myanmar. “It is essential that humanitarian principles are adhered to in moving all affected populations safely to suitable locations and that no one is left out.” 

According to OCHA, identifying suitable relocation sites is the biggest challenge for the government. The situation is particularly acute in 13 camps in Sittwe (40,000 people), Pauktaw (20,000 people), and Myebon (3,900) where there are sizeable risks of flooding. Another 5,000 IDPs are not in appropriate shelters to withstand the rains. 

On 13 May a boat said to be evacuating up to 200 Rohingya Muslims capsized off the west coast of Myanmar - though it is not clear whether this was part of the official evacuation operation. 

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]]></body><link>http://www.irinnews.org/Report/98034/Rohingya-evacuation-under-way-in-Myanmar</link><content:encoded><![CDATA[<table cellpadding="3"><tr><td valign="top"><img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2013/201305020948390988t.jpg"/></td><td valign="top">BANGKOK 14 May 2013 (IRIN) - The government of Myanmar has launched a large-scale effort to relocate to higher ground tens of thousands of Rohingya internally displaced persons (IDPs) ahead of Cyclone Mahasen, says the UN.</td></tr></table>>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Bangladesh, Myanmar brace for Cyclone Mahasen</title><pubDate>Mon, 13 May 2013 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[<img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2013/201305130811540320t.jpg" />]]>BANGKOK 13 May 2013 (IRIN) - Bangladesh and Myanmar are bracing for Cyclone Mahasen, a storm which could affect millions in the region, the UN has warned.</description><body><![CDATA[BANGKOK 13 May 2013 (IRIN) - Bangladesh and Myanmar are bracing for Cyclone Mahasen, a storm which could affect millions in the region, the UN has warned. 

“We are fully prepared and coordination systems are in place,” Mohammad Abdul Wazed, additional secretary of the Bangladesh Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief, told IRIN on 13 May from Dhaka, noting that local disaster management committees at district and sub-district level had already been activated. 

“Starting yesterday, we have been broadcasting storm warnings every 30 minutes,” said Myanmar's presidential spokesman Ye Htut. “As a precautionary effort, some people in low-lying areas of Rakhine State have already relocated.” 

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), a red storm alert remains in effect for Mahasen, also known as tropical Cyclone O1B, just east-northeast of Sri Lanka, now moving northwards across the Bay of Bengal towards both countries. 

Set to reach land on 16 May, the storm is expected to strike just south of the Bangladesh port city of Chittagong, but could, depending upon its final trajectory, bring life-threatening conditions for millions of people in northeast India, Bangladesh and Myanmar’s Rakhine State, OCHA warned on 12 May [ http://reliefweb.int/report/myanmar/bangladesh-myanmar-tropical-cyclone-mahasen-ocha-flash-update-2-12-may-2013 ].

Bangladesh 

Over the past week, parts of northeast India and Bangladesh have received 6-12 inches of rainfall so additional heavy rain will likely produce widespread flooding and possible mudslides. In the coastal Bangladesh city of Chittagong, a city of 2.5 million people, more than 15 inches of rain were recorded in the past eight days. 

Currently, the cyclone alert signal remains at Level 3 (out of 6), whereby fishermen are advised to return from sea. Once Level 4 is reached, a meeting of the cyclone preparedness committee (headed by the secretary of the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief and made up of representatives of government, Red Cross and civil society) takes place, at which point plans for evacuations will be made, Wazed explained. 

“We think Level 4 may be announced today,” he said, adding that he was awaiting word from the Bangladesh Meteorology Department. 

To date, the Department of Disaster Management has initiated preparations covering: vulnerability and risk analysis - with regular monitoring of the cyclone’s trajectory; pre-positioning of emergency relief items; information management; local level preparedness; and resource mobilization. 

Currently, humanitarian agencies in Bangladesh are revising their contingency plans for all 13 districts in the cyclone belt, including the pre-positioning of stocks in areas deemed most vulnerable. 

Myanmar 

The Burmese government is taking similar action. The Met Office is warning of heavy rain in the central region, especially in the townships of Magway, Sagaing and Mandalay, with a risk of landslides and flooding if the cyclone passes through coastal areas of western Rakhine State. 

On 15 May, rain and a thunderstorm have been predicted in the morning, followed by increasing wind and rain, as well as flash flooding later in the day. 

Aid workers are particularly concerned about the 140,000 mostly Rohingya [ http://www.irinnews.org/report/96801/Briefing-Myanmar-s-Rohingya-crisis ] internally displaced persons (IDPs) living in makeshift camps in Rakhine, many of them in low-lying coastal areas susceptible to tidal surges. 

“The potential impact of the cyclone could vastly increase this risk,” said Jane Lonsdale, acting country director for Oxfam in Myanmar. “It is vital that the government takes swift action to ensure all communities, including those that are currently displaced, are in safe locations in preparation for the potential impact,” she said - a call the government has already begun to heed. 

“The government has been very proactive and assigned responsibility to the Rakhine State Government who immediately activated the emergency response committee at state and township levels, and activated their Disaster Reduction Plan which includes relocation and evacuation plans. They have developed a three-stage action process, depending on the severity of the storm, with the third stage being evacuation of a large number of IDPs using military assets,” said Kirsten Mildren, a spokeswoman for OCHA in Bangkok. 

In March, UN agencies and NGOs in Rakhine developed a Preparedness Plan [ http://reliefweb.int/report/myanmar/inter-agency-preparednesscontingency-plan-rakhine-state-myanmar-march-2013 ] for the country’s annual rainy season, which includes contingencies for storms such as this. The plan identifies the immediate shelter needs of 69,000 people living in the most vulnerable low-lying areas as the top priority: They live in flood-prone camps and/or tents and makeshift shelters which will not withstand the rains. 

According to experts, cyclones that have hit Bangladesh and Myanmar in the past have proven particularly deadly. In 2008, Tropical Cyclone Nargis [ http://www.irinnews.org/Report/92616/MYANMAR-Three-years-later-still-no-shelter ] left more than 100,000 dead in southern Myanmar, while in 1991, Cyclone Marian [ http://www.irinnews.org/report/96555/BANGLADESH-Cyclone-shelters-for-livestock-too ] killed more than 100,000 in Bangladesh. 

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]]></body><link>http://www.irinnews.org/Report/98024/Bangladesh-Myanmar-brace-for-Cyclone-Mahasen</link><content:encoded><![CDATA[<table cellpadding="3"><tr><td valign="top"><img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2013/201305130811540320t.jpg"/></td><td valign="top">BANGKOK 13 May 2013 (IRIN) - Bangladesh and Myanmar are bracing for Cyclone Mahasen, a storm which could affect millions in the region, the UN has warned.</td></tr></table>>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Marshalling smartphones, gravediggers to fight dengue in Pakistan</title><pubDate>Fri, 10 May 2013 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[<img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2013/201305091306350487t.jpg" />]]>LAHORE 10 May 2013 (IRIN) - On the frontline in the fight against dengue fever in Lahore, Pakistan’s second largest city, the authorities have a sharp eye for spare car tyres.</description><body><![CDATA[LAHORE 10 May 2013 (IRIN) - On the frontline in the fight against dengue fever in Lahore, Pakistan’s second largest city, the authorities have a sharp eye for spare car tyres.

“When the police show up, we will throw all these tyres into the basement,” said Rohil Ayub, 18, who runs a downtown repair shop.

“The police fine us a lot, thousands of rupees every time,” he said.

Every few days, police inspectors fine anyone who leaves tyres outside - a nuisance, complain the owners of the hundreds of repair shops in the area but essential, health experts say, for combating dengue, a potentially fatal haemorrhagic fever without a vaccine.

Response

In a four-month outbreak [ http://www.irinnews.org/Report/93793/PAKISTAN-Dengue-deaths-mount ] in 2011, the mosquito-borne virus infected 21,000 in Pakistan, 85 percent of them in Lahore, leading to 352 deaths.

At the time, a range of rapidly deployed measures, including using smartphone technology, fumigation and the tracing of larvae breeding grounds, were set in motion by the provincial government to help prevent a worse crisis and keep deaths in the hundreds.

“No one expected this kind of political commitment,” said Qutbuddin Kakar, who oversees programmes to combat malaria and dengue in Pakistan for the World Health Organization (WHO). “In this part of the world, at least, we had not seen this kind of response before.”

The anticipated 1,000-plus deaths did not occur, and since then, dengue fever cases have dropped - 200 in the province (Punjab) last year, without any reported deaths.

So, what was done right, and what do the authorities need to do to make sure solutions are long-term?

The tactics developed to prevent another dengue outbreak were first developed in 2011: information campaigns, data-sharing, and destroying mosquito larvae sites.

Hundreds of government entomologists regularly visit cemeteries, public parks, and gardens, testing for aedes mosquitoes and larvae in any sources of water.

The results they collect are processed on site by specially-designed Android based applications on their smartphones, and uploaded to a centralized dengue prevention centre.

There, analysts match the entomological data with reports from hospitals showing where dengue patients are being treated. Based on the findings, a team is sent to fumigate areas where aedes mosquitos seem to be breeding and infecting people, or to identify and remove sources of standing water.

The key season for infections comes with monsoon rains, when the aedes aegyptus and aedes albopictus mosquitoes, which can carry the virus, begin to appear.

Chronology of an outbreak

In August 2011 heavy monsoon rain dumped 13 inches in a week, leaving parts of Lahore with large bodies of standing water, and raising immediate concerns about disease.

By mid-October, the provincial government in Punjab reported that more than 11,000 dengue cases were recorded by the provincial government.

“It was an exponential increase in number, and it really frightened the government,” said Faran Naru, a consultant hired by the provincial government to tackle the problem. “And the issue was resonating in the media... so it created a panic in the public which had to be contained.”

Most people infected with dengue recovered on their own, said Naru, but once media outlets began reporting on the extent of the outbreak, thousands showed up at hospitals and laboratories to get tested.

An initial team of 70 entomologists conducted 12,000 spot-checks to track where aedes mosquitos were present. By mid-October, this data had been mapped, along with the locations of 11,000 reported dengue patients.

The results surprised the scientists. The worst affected areas were some of the wealthiest neighbourhoods of Lahore: Model Town, Race Course, Mozang, and Gulberg.

“I saw that in Model Town there is a big park, and in Race Course there are two of Lahore's biggest parks… and I believe lots of breeding was happening there and mosquitoes were leaving from there and infecting people,” said Naru.

The mosquitoes need fresh water to lay their eggs, and the large puddles in Lahore's biggest public parks proved to be ideal homes.

Another hotspot was the Mozang neighbourhood, home to one of Pakistan's largest graveyards. The 150-acre area was found to be a major breeding ground for mosquitos. Gravediggers had dug large pits to hold water, which they used to soften the dirt when digging.

“It's fresh water,” said Naur, “from the tap, and there were 70 pits, and all of those were infected, full of larvae.”

Back in the hospital, dengue patients were separated into special areas for treatment. The home of each dengue patient was fumigated, along with 12 surrounding houses, three in each direction.

Sanitation workers unclogged sewers and drains in an effort to clear areas of rainwater; and parks, gardens, and cemeteries were also sprayed. Thousands of Mosquitofish and Garden Carp - fish species known to attack mosquito larvae - were also released into ponds and ditch canals.

Within a few weeks, entomologists detected far fewer aedes mosquitoes, and the prevalence of dengue cases rapidly decreased.

A public awareness campaign also helped - with city residents encouraged to use mosquito repellent and bednets, and schoolchildren instructed to wear long-sleeved clothing, despite the monsoon heat.

Lessons learned?

There have only been two cases of dengue fever reported in the province so far this year, suggesting the anti-dengue measures have had an impact.

But the disease tends to come in 2-4 year cycles, and public health officials worry that if the lessons learned from the 2011 outbreak are not institutionalized, future governments might not handle subsequent outbreaks as well.

In March, an interim government took over in Pakistan to oversee national and provincial elections.

“We must see if the government is able to plan long-term for dengue. This was just a short-term response,” said Kakar from WHO.  He says the teams of entomologists and fumigators, and funding resources devoted to surveillance and data transmission, need to continue to work every season.

He also says Pakistan could devote the same kinds of resources to other mosquito-carried diseases like malaria.  

Pakistan sees more than 300,000 cases of malaria every year according to WHO, a figure that would inevitably drop with a successful long-term anti-mosquito campaign.

“So far,” he said, “a negligible amount is spent on malaria eradication in Pakistan. We should expect that all vector-borne diseases - malaria, dengue... should be brought together under one programme.”

Kakar says malaria is mostly restricted to rural parts of Pakistan, where healthcare facilities are so bad that it is difficult to even get an accurate count of how many people are dying from the disease.

He said if the government provided good sources of water, in both cities and rural areas, he would expect a major impact on mosquitoes, whether they carry malaria or dengue.

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]]></body><link>http://www.irinnews.org/Report/98010/Marshalling-smartphones-gravediggers-to-fight-dengue-in-Pakistan</link><content:encoded><![CDATA[<table cellpadding="3"><tr><td valign="top"><img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2013/201305091306350487t.jpg"/></td><td valign="top">LAHORE 10 May 2013 (IRIN) - On the frontline in the fight against dengue fever in Lahore, Pakistan’s second largest city, the authorities have a sharp eye for spare car tyres.</td></tr></table>>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Analysis: Getting governments to cough up for DRR</title><pubDate>Thu, 09 May 2013 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[<img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2013/201301091116460112t.jpg" />]]>AQABA 09 May 2013 (IRIN) - Investing in preparation for potential disasters is a “no brainer”, Elizabeth Longworth, director of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR), told a recent disaster risk reduction (DRR) conference in Aqaba, Jordan.</description><body><![CDATA[AQABA 09 May 2013 (IRIN) - Investing in preparation for potential disasters is a “no brainer”, Elizabeth Longworth, director of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR), told a recent disaster risk reduction (DRR) conference in Aqaba, Jordan.

And yet a report [ https://ochanet.unocha.org/p/Documents/WEB%20Humanitarianism%20in%20the%20Network%20Age%20vF%20single.pdf ] published last month by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said DRR funding accounts for only 3 percent of humanitarian aid and just 1 percent of all other development assistance.

Last year (seen as a relatively quiet year by natural disaster experts), the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED) [ http://cred01.epid.ucl.ac.be/f/CredCrunch31.pdf ] recorded 310 natural disasters, leading to 9,930 deaths affecting 106 million people.

In total in the last three years, disasters have caused more than US$300 billion of recorded damage [ http://www.irinnews.org/Report/97655/Tallying-natural-disaster-related-losses ].

So, if the scale of the damage is not in dispute, why is DRR not better resourced? Has the funding argument not yet been won?

Improving funding

“Funding is a challenge,” said Jordan Ryan, director of the Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery at the UN Development Programme (UNDP).

“DRR doesn’t always get sufficient funding. Sometimes the donors don’t put a priority on disaster risk. They don’t always come through. So, I think we need even more attention.”

But natural disaster experts are emphatic that DRR funding is fundamentally a good investment. Estimates vary about how much can be saved, but the most conservative figures say that every $1 spent on DRR is worth $4 later on.

One example of the difference preparation can make is in what is now Bangladesh where in 1970 the Bhola cyclone killed up to 500,000 people. Nearly four decades later when another destructive storm hit (Cyclone Aila, 2009), early warning systems, hundreds of cyclone shelters, and disaster volunteer networks helped keep the country’s death toll below 200.

When natural hazards meet unprepared communities, populations are left extremely vulnerable, as seen when Cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar in 2008, a country without early warning systems or storm shelters.

Perceptions of the importance of disaster preparedness vary from country to country.

“In Japan people understand this is money well spent,” Kimio Takeya, visiting senior adviser for the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), told IRIN, saying the country had been buffeted by earthquakes, typhoons and floods in the last 50 years: “Everything hit Japan.”

This follows a clear pattern. Governments find it difficult to appreciate risk and the need for risk reduction, until disaster strikes.

Changing perceptions

“I suppose that if we had won the argument [about DRR funding], we wouldn’t be making the case for increased donor commitment anymore as much as we do, so I guess the simple answer is no, we haven’t won it yet. But I do also believe that it is changing,” said Jo Scheuer, team leader for DRR and recovery at UNDP.

“The recent events, including in Japan and US, have shown clearly that they disasters affect everybody. It is an increasing risk that we are facing, particularly in terms of climate change, and if you look at the global discussions around also humanitarian aid and the resilience debate, there is a clear movement - I would say a political will - to move away from just responding to humanitarian crises or disasters, to actually building resilience.”

For donors, agencies like UNDP make the argument that DRR spending can be a means of reducing the long-term emergency humanitarian aid needed annually to deal with each new natural disaster.

“Donors are now increasingly putting money into preparedness and resilience, so that there aren’t only these millions of dollars that are for response, but that you can actually prepare countries beforehand for building their resilience, particularly in urban cities, where there’s growing infrastructure and the risk of massive potential economic damage,” Aditi Banerjee, disaster risk management specialist in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region at the World Bank, told IRIN.

But beyond donors, experts say there needs to be a change of attitude in governments, which find it difficult to reallocate funds from areas like health and education to DRR.

“Of course it is very difficult to convince the political leaders or the people to spend money before the disaster. This needs something like far-sightedness,” said Takeya.

He has been looking at the impact of DRR spending on GDP growth. “We are modelling and trying to calculate and analyse for each country. There’s a definite positive pattern - we can show the evidence that… your GDP growth will go down without DRR investment,” he said.

Convincing governments that they are not yet spending what they should on DRR is crucial, said Longworth.

“The sustainability of DRR is when budget-holders, whether they be governments, local governments, or other entities actually start re-orientating their budget allocations to DRR, and that’s why we’re putting so much attention on the economic case. It is absolutely well established now that the scale of economic losses from disasters justifies significantly more investment in reducing risks.”

More data, a growing awareness of the link between the scale of a disaster and preparedness, and international initiatives like the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA), agreed in January 2005 just after the Indian Ocean tsunami, have helped change perceptions about DRR.

For Banerjee at the World Bank, even in the MENA region, which has been less affected by natural disasters than others, thinking is clearly changing.

“To me this shift has been the most intense in MENA, because MENA is not typically a region that is like Asia or Latin America that is hit by a disaster every few months. It’s hit by big disasters but over time, which is why sometimes the institutional memory is forgotten. But in the five years that I’ve been here there’s been so much more dialogue on this.”

Using climate funds

One potential source of funding for DRR projects that garnered a lot of interest from delegates at March’s first DRR conference in the Arab world [ http://www.irinnews.org/Report/97941/Arab-cities-aim-to-build-resilience-to-natural-disasters ] is climate change resource streams.

“This is already happening. If you look at some of the projects, programmes, entities that have been funded from the various existing financial instruments related to climate change adaptation, many of those activities are actually classic DRR activities - from early warning systems to agricultural livelihood measures and so on,” said Scheuer.

The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is in charge of three climate funds: the Adaptation Fund, the Least Developed Countries Fund, and the Special Climate Change Fund, set up under the Kyoto Protocol to offset the negative effects of climate change in the developed world.

The first two projects [ http://irinnews.org/Report/90571/CLIMATE-CHANGE-Adaptation-Fund-starts-delivering ] under the Adaptation Fund were to help handle rising sea levels in Senegal, and water management in Honduras.

Another recent US$7.6 million project in northern Pakistan funded by the Adaptation Fund is to help communities better prepare for sudden glacial lake flooding.

“If it’s rising sea levels, or depleted water table, when you address it, you are reducing the risk, you’re also anticipating what’s coming in terms of global warming,” said Longworth.

Several Pacific countries are drawing up joint strategies at a national level to tackle DRR and climate change adaptation together.

“The issue here is not that you get a transfer from the climate pots into the disaster pots of money. The issue is that programmatically and substantively speaking, we make sure that we have the synergies between those two funding streams,” said Scheuer.

“It doesn’t matter where the money comes from; it matters that we address the issue of risk and build resilience,” he said.

But preparedness is not all about big money - much DRR work, experts stress, can be relatively cheap things like training volunteers, teaching basic first aid techniques, and making better use of tools like mobile phones that many people already have.

Sometimes it can even just be a question of remembering former ways of living that were more resilient in terms of natural hazards.

In Japan, flood prone areas in traditional communities normally had an elevated building somewhere in the area that people could escape to, with second floors commonly storing a boat to help residents escape.

Build back better

In reality, it is very difficult for governments to grasp the value of DRR until they have been the victim of a major disaster.

In the case of Algeria, it was only after the Boumerdès earthquake of 2003 and the deaths of around 3,500 people that the government beefed up regulations for the construction of schools and hospitals, according to Hichem Imouche from the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The same thing happened after the 1923 Great Kanto earthquake, which levelled most of Tokyo. Building regulations were strengthened again in Japan after the Great Hanshin earthquake near the city of Kobe in 1995; rubber blocks were placed under bridges and earthquake proof shelters constructed.

“Once disaster happens it is of course a bad situation but it is a chance to revise the way of thinking,” said Takeya.

No doubt the debate will move forward when DRR experts and officials meet on 19-23 May for the Fourth Session of the Global Platform for DRR [ http://www.preventionweb.net/globalplatform/2013/ ] in Geneva, Switzerland.

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]]></body><link>http://www.irinnews.org/Report/98003/Analysis-Getting-governments-to-cough-up-for-DRR</link><content:encoded><![CDATA[<table cellpadding="3"><tr><td valign="top"><img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2013/201301091116460112t.jpg"/></td><td valign="top">AQABA 09 May 2013 (IRIN) - Investing in preparation for potential disasters is a “no brainer”, Elizabeth Longworth, director of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR), told a recent disaster risk reduction (DRR) conference in Aqaba, Jordan.</td></tr></table>>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Beating wild weather in Sri Lanka</title><pubDate>Thu, 09 May 2013 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[<img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2012/201212281137270069t.jpg" />]]>COLOMBO 09 May 2013 (IRIN) - Planners in Sri Lanka should do more to mitigate the effects of extreme weather in order to help those most likely to be affected, experts say.</description><body><![CDATA[COLOMBO 09 May 2013 (IRIN) - Planners in Sri Lanka should do more to mitigate the effects of extreme weather in order to help those most likely to be affected, experts say.

According to Sri Lanka’s Disaster Management Centre (DMC) [ http://www.dmc.gov.lk/index_english.htm ], in 2012, 1.2 million people were affected by drought and over half a million by floods, while in early 2011, floods affected over a million and displaced more than 200,000 - a trend expected to increase in the future.

“There is nothing to indicate that this trend will slow down. All the signs are that it will increase,” Bob McKerrow, head of delegation for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) in Sri Lanka, told IRIN.

In 2012 [ http://www.irinnews.org/Report/97146/SRI-LANKA-Back-to-back-disasters-compound-north-s-difficulties ], the island nation experienced two dramatic back-to-back weather events. Between January and October, the island’s Northern, Eastern, Southern and North Western regions suffered a severe drought. A mid-year forecast by the Socioeconomic and Planning Centre of the Department of Agriculture released in August 2012, when the drought was at its worst, warned of a loss of around 23 percent of the seasonal paddy harvest due by September.

The drought was only broken by the onset of heavy rains in the first week of November, made worse by Cyclone Nilam which struck Sri Lanka and southern India on 1 November, killing 45 people, temporarily displacing 80,000 and resulting in damage to over 10,000 houses, DMC reported.

According to an assessment by the ministries of economic development and disaster management, and the World Food Programme (WFP) in January, around 20 percent of the island’s main paddy harvest of around 2.6 million tons was lost to the floods. Of the 550,000 people affected by the floods, some 172,000 - 31 percent of surveyed flood-affected households - were severely food insecure, while 44 percent were borderline food insecure, the report said.

Sixty-seven percent of the surveyed flood-affected people had also been affected by the drought, the report noted.

Migration up

At the same time, Sri Lankan officials report that with extreme weather events increasing in frequency, people are increasingly migrating to cities in the hope of securing a stable income.

“We have seen that when the harvests fail, the migration to nearby cities increases with people looking for temporary income,” Sarath Lal Kumara, DMC deputy director explained.

Regional experts say the situation in Sri Lanka is not dissimilar to what is happening elsewhere in the region.

“If one asks, ‘is displacement by weather-related events a serious issue in South Asia?’, then the answer is `yes’,” Bart W. Édes, director of the poverty reduction, gender and social development division at the Asian Development Bank (ADB), told IRIN, noting the risk of increased migration.

“Combined with large and growing populations living in vulnerable areas - and a forecasted increase in extreme weather events - South Asia is likely to confront continued environmentally driven displacement and migration,” he said.

Need to build resilience

IFRC’s McKerrow said humanitarian agencies should look at increasing community resilience against natural disasters as a core requirement when carrying out projects in vulnerable areas.

The SLRC is currently building around 20,000 new houses in Sri Lanka’s former northern conflict zone, the same region hit by severe drought and multiple floods in 2012.

“Wherever we build houses, we now look at two main things - either to control flood water or to provide water where there is not enough,” McKerrow said. He said the requests for such work had come from beneficiary surveys.

Kumara, the DMC deputy director, also noted that preventing victims of natural disasters from abandoning their homes was increasingly featuring in policy discussions among government and humanitarian agencies.

ADB’s Édes said policy planners should look to increase income generation opportunities, as well as build safety and early warning capacities in vulnerable regions.

“The aim should not be to stop human mobility, but rather to reduce the number of situations where people move because environmental factors force them to.”

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]]></body><link>http://www.irinnews.org/Report/98008/Beating-wild-weather-in-Sri-Lanka</link><content:encoded><![CDATA[<table cellpadding="3"><tr><td valign="top"><img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2012/201212281137270069t.jpg"/></td><td valign="top">COLOMBO 09 May 2013 (IRIN) - Planners in Sri Lanka should do more to mitigate the effects of extreme weather in order to help those most likely to be affected, experts say.</td></tr></table>>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Analysis: The plight of LGBTI asylum seekers, refugees</title><pubDate>Tue, 07 May 2013 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[<img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2013/201305070711300235t.jpg" />]]>KATHMANDU 07 May 2013 (IRIN) - Refugees and asylum seekers face a host of challenges when crossing borders, but the obstacles are particularly pronounced for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or intersex (LGBTI) persons, say experts.</description><body><![CDATA[KATHMANDU 07 May 2013 (IRIN) - Refugees and asylum seekers face a host of challenges when crossing borders, but the obstacles are particularly pronounced for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or intersex (LGBTI) persons, say experts.

“LGBTI asylum seekers and refugees face a range of threats, risks and vulnerabilities throughout the displacement cycle,” Volker Türk, director of international protection at the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), told IRIN from Geneva.

“And while the world has come a long way since first recognizing asylum claims based on sexual orientation and gender identity in the 1980s, residual factors ranging from criminalization to disbelief result in LGBTI people suffering at the hands of a variety of actors as they flee oppression and seek safety,” he said.

A new edition of the Forced Migration Review (FMR) released on 29 April [ http://www.fmreview.org/sogi/ ] highlights many of the remaining challenges for LGBTI migrants and asylum seekers.

According to UNHCR, targeting people based on real or perceived sexual orientation and gender identity for persecution, discrimination, and harassment can stem from the belief that they are encouraging unwanted or unnatural social change [ http://www.unhcr.org/505c18af9.html ].

LGBTI people leave home for the same reasons as everyone else: to flee war, persecution, and oppression; to seek stability, education, employment, and freedom. In situations of upheaval or conflict, sexual and gender minorities have become targets for scapegoating [ http://www.hias.org/uploaded/file/Invisible-in-the-City_full-report.pdf ] or “moral cleansing” campaigns [ http://www.hrw.org/news/2006/01/11/nepal-police-sexual-cleansing-drive ], compounding the inherent vulnerability created by unrest, activists say.

LGBTI persecution

LGBTI people experience torture, violence, discrimination, and persecution in countries around the world, sometimes deliberately carried out by the state and often conducted with impunity.

Homosexual acts are punishable with the death penalty in five countries (Iran, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Yemen), as well as some parts of Nigeria and Somalia, the International Lesbian and Gay Association [ http://old.ilga.org/Statehomophobia/ILGA_State_Sponsored_Homophobia_2012.pdf ], the oldest and only membership-based LGBTI organization in the world, reported in 2012.

According to research by Human Rights Watch [ http://www.hrw.org/reports/2010/12/15/we-are-buried-generation ], gay Iranians [ http://www.irinnews.org/Report/25296/IRAN-IRAN-Activists-condemn-execution-of-gay-teens ] are fleeing, frequently to Turkey, due to the state-sponsored persecution they face at home, while thousands of LGBTI people have sought international protection in Europe in recent years on the basis of their sexual orientation and gender identity [ http://www.rechten.vu.nl/nl/Images/Fleeing%20Homophobia%20report%20EN_tcm22-232205.pdf ].

And while few countries keep LGBTI-specific data, Norway and Belgium [ http://www.rechten.vu.nl/nl/Images/Fleeing%20Homophobia%20report%20EN_tcm22-232205.pdf ], which both track asylum decisions based on sexual orientation and gender identity, have shown a steady uptick in recent years.

From 2008-2010, LGBTI asylum decisions in Belgium increased from 226-522. During the same period in Norway they increased from 3-26.

But information about abuses against LGBTI people - called “Country of Origin Information” (COI) in the asylum process - can be scant in hostile countries, argued Christian Pangilinan, a Tanzania-based refugee lawyer cited in the Forced Migration Review [ http://www.fmreview.org/sogi/pangilinan ].

For transgender people, COI can mislead agencies, such as in Iran where authorities “allow transsexual surgery as a forced method of preventing homosexuality rather than supporting trans identities,” according to a gender expert’s FMR chapter [ http://www.fmreview.org/sogi/bach ].

Crossing borders of geography and identity

The multiple document checks migrants might encounter can be particularly difficult for transgender or gender-variant people. While international standards for travel documents officially recognize three genders - marked M, F, or X - [ http://www.icao.int/Security/mrtd/Pages/default.aspx ] only a handful of countries have incorporated the third category [ http://www.law.emory.edu/fileadmin/journals/eilr/26/26.1/Bochenek_Knight.pdf ], meaning that high-security travel environments, such as airports or emergency residential camps, can threaten humiliation or exclusion to people whose gender identity or expression is different from what is indicated by their documents [ http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1926681 ] [ http://www.worldwewant2015.org/node/283239 ].

Sexuality and gender are nuanced personal matters. According to research by psychologists [ http://www.fmreview.org/sogi/shidlo-ahola ], some individuals may have had limited experience expressing or experiencing his or her deeply-felt sexual orientation or gender identity, and may outwardly appear very different than how he or she feels - to the extent of even being in a heterosexual relationship.

With the asylum process taking increasingly extended periods of time [ http://www.unhcr.org/4381c5832.pdf ], some may start the migration or asylum process with one identity, and change over time, complicating the matter both personally and administratively and exposing the individual to further discrimination or ill-treatment [ http://www.rechten.vu.nl/nl/Images/Fleeing%20Homophobia%20report%20EN_tcm22-232205.pdf ].

UNHCR’s guidelines for claims to refugee status based on sexual orientation and gender identity take the progressive step of acknowledging that “sexual orientation and gender identity are broad concepts which create space for self-identification” which may“continue to evolve across a person’s lifetime” [ http://www.refworld.org/docid/50348afc2.html ]. Nonetheless, according to UN Office of Drugs and Crime guidelines, discriminatory attitudes regarding sexual orientation and gender identity can mean the credibility of LGBTI people is dismissed by authorities [ http://www.unodc.org/documents/justice-and-prison-reform/Prisoners-with-special-needs.pdf ].

"That no one should be compelled to hide, change or renounce his or her identity in order to avoid persecution is a central tenet of refugee law, and this applies to sexual orientation and gender identity on equal footing with other claims,” UNHCR’s Türk told IRIN.

“There is no space for decision-makers determining refugee status to expect them to conceal who they are."

Safety and security

“There is harassment in the camp against us, sometimes beatings,”said Yoman Rai, a 19-year-old Bhutanese refugee living in a camp in Nepal. “We have a protection unit and complaint mechanism, but we are still facing problems,” he said, adding that just last month a transgender woman was beaten by other people in the camp.

Security in refugee camps is complicated and contingent on numerous, unpredictable factors. For members of the LGBTI community, vulnerabilities are exacerbated. Sexual abuse is common, but often goes unreported because the right questions are not being asked, and because survivors of sexual violence are reluctant to report [ http://www.refworld.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/rwmain?docid=5006aa262 ] events that will “out” them to legal authorities.

Explained Rai: “Many Bhutanese are not `out’ to anyone except for the outreach workers because they still believe being LGBTI will put them in danger and negatively affect their resettlement process,” [ http://www.irinnews.org/Report/91459/NEPAL-Resettlement-of-Bhutanese-refugees-gathers-momentum ] adding that the outreach educators’ network was operated by a Nepalese LGBTI rights NGO.

Emergency shelter settings -such as relief camps or refugee housing- pose specific challenges for transgender people. Access to male-female gender-segregated facilities, such as dormitories or bathrooms, can be perilous [ http://www.odihpn.org/humanitarian-exchange-magazine/issue-55/making-disaster-risk-reduction-and-relief-programmes-lgbtiinclusive-examples-from-nepal ]. New research is exploring how immigration detention centres can respect and protect LGBTI residents, a US-based prisons expert explained in FMR [ http://www.fmreview.org/sogi/fialho ].

For LGBTI migrants who end up in urban areas, research has shown that cities can be unwelcoming and unfamiliar and access to basic social services limited by scant local resources, exclusion of foreigners, or limitations to access including finances, language, and cultural barriers. [ http://www.hias.org/uploaded/file/Invisible-in-the-City_full-report.pdf ]

“The single most threatening factor for these migrants is isolation,”said Neil Grungras, executive director of the Organization for Refugee Asylum and Migration (ORAM) [ http://www.oraminternational.org/ ], a leading advocacy group for refugees fleeing persecution due to sexual orientation or gender identity.

With UNHCR data showing the average major refugee situation lasting 17 years, these circumstances can impinge on a significant portion of an individual’s life [ http://www.unhcr.org/4444afcb0.pdf ].

Migrant populations are generally more at-risk for HIV due to disruption and displacement [ http://www.unhcr.org/4ef3056d9.html ], and according to UNAIDS are often overlooked in host-country HIV policies [ http://www.unaids.org/en/media/unaids/contentassets/dataimport/pub/briefingnote/2007/policy_brief_refugees.pdf ].

“It is critical that refugee organizations identify what the best ways of offering protection are, such as providing access to safe shelter, requesting expedited resettlement, and, if possible, working with the police and refugee communities to address specific threats of violence,” said Duncan Breen, a senior associate in the refugee protection programme at Human Rights First.

Evolving frameworks

Recent UN reports [ http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=40743#.UX8oC7Xkvzw ] and statements [ http://www.iglhrc.org/content/un-ban-ki-moon-condemns-homophobic-laws ] demonstrate increased international attention to the human rights of LGBTI people.

On the programme level, agencies have begun to adjust to include considerations of sexual orientation and gender identity.

For example, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) is implementing a “safe space” project for refugees at its four US Refugee Admissions Program Resettlement Support Centers.

Jennifer Rumbach, IOM resettlement support centre manager for South Asia, told IRIN the programme is designed to help LGBTI refugees at “every step along the way - whether during counselling, interviews, orientations, travel, or post-arrival…

“Disclosing sexual orientation and gender identity overseas works to the refugees’ benefit because it ensures we can provide appropriate and respectful services, ask questions that are critical to their resettlement experience, and try to get them any special help they need while they wait to be resettled,” she explained.

But ORAM’s Grungras warned:“We have to be extra careful to talk with refugees and migrants on their own terms - to understand them as they understand themselves, and not label them as“LGBTI” just because it fits our programmes.”

In spite of challenges such as a dearth of respectful terms used in some languages referring to sexual and gender minorities, IOM’s programmes also attempt to engage with local terminology.

“While it's important for staff to understand sexual orientation and gender identity terms used by the international community, we make special efforts to use relevant and respectful local terminology in our signs, handouts and interview and counselling scripts,” said Rumbach.

Supporting and protecting LGBTI people as they migrate requires nuance, sensitivity, and an appreciation of evolving identities, legal frameworks, and programmatic potential.

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]]></body><link>http://www.irinnews.org/Report/97989/Analysis-The-plight-of-LGBTI-asylum-seekers-refugees</link><content:encoded><![CDATA[<table cellpadding="3"><tr><td valign="top"><img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2013/201305070711300235t.jpg"/></td><td valign="top">KATHMANDU 07 May 2013 (IRIN) - Refugees and asylum seekers face a host of challenges when crossing borders, but the obstacles are particularly pronounced for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or intersex (LGBTI) persons, say experts.</td></tr></table>>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Calamity planning - Bangladesh role-plays quake response</title><pubDate>Tue, 07 May 2013 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[<img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2013/201304301153410896t.jpg" />]]>DHAKA 07 May 2013 (IRIN) - As Bangladesh armed forces retrieve bodies from the country’s worst ever industrial disaster, a garment factory collapse killing over 700, contingency planning is taking place for something worse - a long-predicted earthquake striking the mega-capital of Dhaka.</description><body><![CDATA[DHAKA 07 May 2013 (IRIN) - As Bangladesh armed forces retrieve bodies from the country’s worst ever industrial disaster [ http://www.irinnews.org/Report/97945/Lessons-from-Bangladesh-garment-factory-collapse ], a garment factory collapse killing over 700, contingency planning is taking place for something worse - a long-predicted earthquake [ http://www.irinnews.org/Report/94920/BANGLADESH-Dhaka-ill-prepared-for-quakes ] striking the mega-capital of Dhaka.

“We can’t have people just showing up with a shovel,” said Pete DeFelice, a disaster response exercise designer for the US Pacific Command [ http://www.pacom.mil/ ] (US armed forces stationed in Hawaii to promote regional security and disaster response in the Asia-Pacific), which is co-hosting a planning workshop from 5-14 May with the Bangladesh Armed Forces.

Government officers, armed forces and humanitarian organizations working in Bangladesh and other parts of the Asia-Pacific who may be among the first responders post-quake, are being presented with the following scenario: a 7.1 Richter scale earthquake 25km northwest of Dhaka, along the Modhupur Fault.

Loose sediment holding together much of the city caves in, leads to the collapse of 100,000 buildings [ http://www.irinnews.org/Report/97987/Analysis-Wake-up-call-for-Bangladesh-s-building-industry ]; ATMs are ransacked, looting begins, mobile phone communications are down, and most of the city's hospitals and 1,000 clinics are damaged or destroyed.

Some 400,000 people have gathered at national sports stadiums (with another 150,000 camped out in front of the national parliament); 100,000 are pronounced dead in the earliest days; railway tracks throughout the city have buckled, twisted or are torn from their rail beds. The capital’s international airport cannot accept fixed-wing aircraft; none of the electronic navigation aids work and a nearby military airfield is closed due to cracks in the runway. Seaports are operating at half-capacity, and “tortuous, single lane detours” have reduced traffic by 95 percent.

The government declares a national state of calamity during the first 72 hours.

The workshop’s goal

The goal of the workshop, co-facilitated by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, is to improve disaster relief coordination; lay out a “real estate” plan plotting humanitarian relief during such a mega-disaster; discuss forming a regional disaster coordination centre for South Asia (along the lines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance on disaster management) [ http://ahacentre.org/ ]; and answer questions on how foreign militaries can support the country as well as how the government can request international assistance.

While the country has a general National Disaster Management Plan, extending to the year 2015 [ http://www.preventionweb.net/english/professional/policies/v.php?id=9472 ], and drafted its first earthquake contingency plan in 2009, these plans are largely “stove-pipe” plans developed by one ministry which are poorly disseminated and understood, DeFelice said.

In December 2009 the government created an inter-ministerial, multi-agency Earthquake Preparedness and Awareness Committee - enshrined in the country’s 2010 Standing Orders on Disaster [ http://www.dmb.gov.bd/reports/SOD_rev_30210%20updated%20on%2004.02.10.pdf ] - that was meant to meet twice a year to review preparedness and awareness.

As of 2013, the committee is still not operational.

On the workshop agenda is the need to boost airport and seaport capabilities to handle humanitarian relief. David Eisenberry, a major and air logistics expert with the US Air Force, said previous US military simulations of a Bangladesh quake left questions unanswered.

“People look to air power to get the job done, especially in the first part of the disaster response. How will the country schedule aircraft? How to distribute relief with few planes? How to manage air space?”

Civil-military relations

World Vision’s national coordinator for humanitarian emergency affairs in Bangladesh, Farhana Islam, said Bangladesh’s military would be key in an earthquake response. “We [NGOs] are more equipped to respond to rural disasters, but in recent years, it is the military here that has taken the lead and has the expertise to handle the growing number of urban crises.” [ http://www.irinnews.org/In-Depth/97199/102/ ]

Col J.M. Emdadul Islam with the Bangladesh Armed Forces told IRIN even though the military has led annual earthquake simulation exercises in Dhaka since 2010, “preparation has no limit” and handling disaster relief in the densely populated mega-city would be, at best, “complicated”.

Four large earthquakes (measuring at least 8.0 on the Richter scale) have struck Bangladesh since 1897, with the most recent in 1950.

The US Pacific Command’s DeFelice acknowledged the challenges of bringing together NGOs and armed forces. “The military folks are trained to solve problems on their own. We are here to help the military stay in its own lane and not to occupy every lane [in disaster relief].”

Thirty-one countries participate in the Multinational Planning Augmentation Team, which was established in 2000 by the US Pacific Command to improve multi-nation military [ https://community.apan.org/mpat/m/references/114858.aspx ] operations and coordination with aid groups to respond to crises in the Asia-Pacific.

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]]></body><link>http://www.irinnews.org/Report/97990/Calamity-planning-Bangladesh-role-plays-quake-response</link><content:encoded><![CDATA[<table cellpadding="3"><tr><td valign="top"><img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2013/201304301153410896t.jpg"/></td><td valign="top">DHAKA 07 May 2013 (IRIN) - As Bangladesh armed forces retrieve bodies from the country’s worst ever industrial disaster, a garment factory collapse killing over 700, contingency planning is taking place for something worse - a long-predicted earthquake striking the mega-capital of Dhaka.</td></tr></table>>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Analysis: Southeast Asia’s human trafficking conundrum</title><pubDate>Mon, 06 May 2013 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[<img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2009/200906030258010070t.jpg" />]]>JAKARTA 06 May 2013 (IRIN) - Tens of thousands of people are vulnerable to being trafficked in Southeast Asia, with governments struggling to understand and respond collectively to the problem, say experts and government officials.</description><body><![CDATA[JAKARTA 06 May 2013 (IRIN) - Tens of thousands of people are vulnerable to being trafficked in Southeast Asia, with governments struggling to understand and respond collectively to the problem, say experts and government officials.

A 2012 UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) report on human trafficking [ http://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/glotip/Trafficking_in_Persons_2012_web.pdf ] recorded more than 10,000 cases of trafficking in persons in South Asia, East Asia and the Pacific between 2007-2010, but it is unclear what the situation is today.

"Nobody has been able to convincingly demonstrate the scale of the problem, let alone come up with clear ways of how to address it," Sverre Molland, a lecturer at the Australian National University in Canberra who specializes in human trafficking, told IRIN. 

"After all these years, we are still debating what trafficking actually is," he said, noting efforts to combat it were suffering from donor fatigue because of a lack of tangible results.

The 2000 UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons [ http://www.uncjin.org/Documents/Conventions/dcatoc/final_documents_2/convention_%20traff_eng.pdf ] defines human trafficking as "the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons by means of. coercion, abduction, fraud or deception. for the purpose of exploitation". Child trafficking is defined as the "recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of a child for the purpose of exploitation". 

In 2011, 16-year-old Evi* left her remote village in Indonesia's Banten Province in the hope of making more money to help her family.

"My auntie introduced me to a broker who forged my travel documents so I could work," she said. "The broker then took me to a recruitment agency in Jakarta. I just wanted to earn more money. I thought God would protect me."

The agency [ http://www.irinnews.org/Report/88967/INDONESIA-Families-struggle-as-more-women-work-overseas ] arranged for Evi's travel to Jordan and placement as a domestic worker in Amman, but she soon found she was being exploited by her employer.

"I was allowed to sleep for about two hours a day, sometimes less," said Evi. "I had to take care of four children and clean the house. The mother and auntie of the children often beat me with sandals or punched me for no reason, and sometimes my nose bled."

In 2012, having endured physical abuse for over a year, her employer began to withhold her pay, and Evi attempted suicide by drinking a glass of kerosene.

"My employer found me unconscious and allowed me to rest, but the next day, they made me work again," she said.

Later, Evi ran away from her employer and roamed the streets of Amman looking for work until a local shopkeeper took her to a police station. Jordanian police then took her to the Indonesian Embassy, which arranged for her repatriation to a shelter for trafficked children in Jakarta, where she is recovering.

Regional cooperation

Cooperation between the 10 member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to tackle human trafficking has resulted in high-level initiatives and memorandums of understanding (MoUs).

"The MoUs should facilitate the exchanging of information and evidence between governments," said Sean Looney, operations, monitoring and evaluation manager at SISHA [ http://www.sisha.org/ ], an anti-trafficking and exploitation NGO in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. 

"But in practice this does not happen at all. In a lot of human trafficking cases there's no resolution because there's no cooperation, despite the fact that agreements are in place."

According to Looney, cooperation was also hindered by a lack of trust between Cambodia and Thailand, and Cambodia and Vietnam, due in part to past conflicts.

Martin Reeve, a UNODC regional adviser on trafficking in Bangkok, said law enforcement agencies across the region were still developing.

"Securing a human trafficking conviction is at the best of times a difficult process," he said. "Intelligence-led policing is immature or non-existent, so the offenders arrested are less likely to be those organizing the trafficking, and police-to-police cooperation remains weak."

All ASEAN governments are part of the Bali Process on People Smuggling, Trafficking in Persons and Related Transnational Crime [ http://www.baliprocess.net ], a non-binding, voluntary forum co-chaired by the governments of Indonesia and Australia, which began in 2002.

Febrian Ruddyard, director of international security and disarmament at the Indonesian Foreign Ministry, said the Process had only recently begun to address trafficking in persons because not all countries had strong national legislation in place.

To date, all ASEAN governments have passed anti-trafficking legislation with the exception of Laos and Singapore.

Indonesia and Australia have faced challenges in encouraging members of the Bali Process to take practical action to address human trafficking, Ruddyard said.

"Many member countries are interested in the Process but attracting funding from them [for projects] is difficult, not only because the issue is still a low priority in some countries but also because the Process is non-binding," he said.

Ruddyard cited last year's creation of a regional support office in Bangkok to implement practical arrangements to combat trafficking, and a plan to use the Jakarta Centre for Law Enforcement Cooperation in Indonesia to train law enforcers across the region to better deal with human trafficking cases, as achievements of the Process.

A local problem

Part of the problem lies at the local level.

Ahmed Sofian, national coordinator of ECPAT Indonesia [ http://www.ecpat.net/ei/Ecpat_directory.asp?id=78&groupID=3 ], an NGO based in Jakarta working to end the commercial sexual exploitation of children, said there was little effort made by local law enforcement officials in Indonesia to deal with trafficking.

"There are economic benefits for those living close to the brothels that children are trafficked to," said Sofian. "Locals will gravitate to the area to sell food or provide security, and local police officers - often on low salaries - will ask for protection money from the owners of the brothels."

"This is why it's so difficult to eliminate trafficking," Sofian went on. "There's a local economy that grows up around it, and if the local government attempts to close these brothels, the police will become angry."

Jonhar Johan, an official at the Indonesian Women Empowerment and Child Protection Ministry, agreed, saying local implementation was a problem. 

Of Indonesia's 497 districts, only 88 have anti-trafficking task forces.

"We need the commitment of district governments and police, but generally it is lacking," he said. "The districts need to. develop their own task forces."

Johan also said that even when trafficking victims were identified and returned home by the authorities, they remained vulnerable to being re-trafficked.

"We offer them financial help so they can start up small businesses when they return home, but when we visit them to formalize this, we find they've gone," he said. "Many victims are poor and they see the economic gain from working abroad, so maybe they leave home again because of the money. Traffickers like these kinds of people."

According to SISHA's Looney, while the Cambodian police's anti-human trafficking and juvenile protection division tackled human trafficking, at the district level police were hamstrung by a lack of funds.

"The police have to use their own money for fuel to go to interview victims, bring victims to court and feed the victims [while they are in police custody]," he said. "They don't have access to basic operational costs, and it's unclear whether that's down to ineptitude, a lack of funds, or whether funds are being siphoned off elsewhere."

SISHA was financially supporting police investigations into human trafficking and offering guidance on conducting criminal investigations, said Looney.

"Many local police officers are just looking for support so they can do their jobs. The average police officer wants to tackle the problem and help victims, but practical requirements make it difficult for them," he said.

Increasing complexity

International Organization of Migration (IOM) Indonesia chief of mission Denis Nihill said the changing nature of human trafficking made it more difficult to tackle.

"There's been a lot of work done on the Greater Mekong Region for many years on trafficking, but it's become more complex, as it's now inextricably woven with labour migration, which is a much more difficult nut to crack because it is less easy to detect than trafficking linked to the sex industry."

Nihill also pointed to the difficulties of tackling internal trafficking, which IOM's 2011 counter trafficking report [ http://www.iom.int/files/live/sites/iom/files/What-We-Do/docs/Annual_Report_2011_Counter_Trafficking.pdf ] highlighted as particularly problematic in Indonesia.

"For cross border trafficking, people must pass through the hands of several government agencies, but internally trafficked people need not come to the attention of any officials, so in many ways it's a more alarming situation," he said.

The US Department of the State's 2012 Trafficking in Persons Report [ http://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/2012/index.htm ] categorizes most ASEAN countries as Tier 2, meaning they do not fully comply with minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking, but are making significant efforts to do so.

*not her real name

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]]></body><link>http://www.irinnews.org/Report/97979/Analysis-Southeast-Asia-s-human-trafficking-conundrum</link><content:encoded><![CDATA[<table cellpadding="3"><tr><td valign="top"><img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2009/200906030258010070t.jpg"/></td><td valign="top">JAKARTA 06 May 2013 (IRIN) - Tens of thousands of people are vulnerable to being trafficked in Southeast Asia, with governments struggling to understand and respond collectively to the problem, say experts and government officials.</td></tr></table>>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Analysis: “Wake-up call” for Bangladesh’s building industry</title><pubDate>Mon, 06 May 2013 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[<img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2013/201304301155150667t.jpg" />]]>DHAKA 06 May 2013 (IRIN) - Corpses are still being recovered from Bangladesh’s worst industrial disaster ever - a factory building collapse on 24 April that killed at least 600 workers near the capital. Government experts are scrambling to prevent a repeat.</description><body><![CDATA[DHAKA 06 May 2013 (IRIN) - Corpses are still being recovered from Bangladesh’s worst industrial disaster ever - a factory building collapse on 24 April that killed at least 600 workers near the capital. Government experts are scrambling to prevent a repeat.  

“This is a wake-up call for us because a lot of construction is going on in Dhaka [the capital] and other cities, so we are definitely trying to find out the solution,” said Abdus Salam, a senior research engineer in the government’s Housing and Building Research Institute (HBRI). 

One government explanation for the accident is that shoddy construction combined with vibrations from inappropriately placed heavy machinery brought down the eight-story building, known as Rana Plaza, filled with hundreds of textile workers.  

An early damage assessment (still unpublished) by NGO Asian Disaster Preparedness Centre (ADPC) conducted on the day of the collapse revealed how a building intended for retail merchants was being used for industrial purposes. It housed five garment factories that employed at least 3,000 workers and placed weight on the floors (including four huge electrical generators on the third and fourth floors) almost six times greater than the building was intended to bear. Support columns were erected haphazardly. Building materials and methods were below par. 

Experts say the building was but one example of a broken system for authorizing, carrying out and monitoring construction; tens of thousands more buildings - and millions of people inside them - face the same fate, said Anisur Rahman, an urban planner with ADPC’s office in Bangladesh. 

“We are looking at the foundation for a big disaster.” 

Lack of clear planning authority 

Legislation from the 1950s gave the Ministry of Housing and Public Works authority to regulate town planning, while a 2009 Municipality Act transferred that power to local governments. Since then each of the capital’s five municipalities (including Savar, the site of the industrial accident 30km outside Dhaka) has handled its own planning.  

“It’s a management mess,” admitted K.Z. Hossain Taufique, an urban planner and director of town planning for the government’s Capital Development Authority, explaining how since the 1980s, as more businesses and people located in cities, responsibility for town planning has been divided between the Housing Ministry and the Ministry of Local Government, creating a patchwork of authorization - and leaving deadly gaps.  

Unenforced building codes 

The National Building Code from 1993 [ http://buildingcode.gov.bd/ ] and building construction guidelines (2008) are rarely - at best weakly - enforced, say government experts. The UN’s highest official for disaster risk reduction, Margareta Wahlstrom, called in 2012 for an update of the building code (a process then under way for one year) to protect the seismically active country from widespread devastation. 

But Mohammed Abu Sadeque, director of the governmental Housing and Building Research Institute (which is spearheading the building code’s revision), said with the recent industrial disaster, the problem was not the code (which is “good enough” and “fairly safe and sound”), but rather its lack of enforcement.  

Corruption and lack of integrity at all levels - from dishonest architects and engineers to profiteering owners and government officials - means “cutting corners” said Bashirul Haq, an architect in Dhaka who recently served on a government committee revising the building code. 

“Dhaka has limited space. Developers are in this market for money and want to squeeze as much as they can into any space. Yes, we have a law, but who is implementing it?” he asked. 

Police have arrested the building’s owner, Mohammed Sohel Rana, as well as the engineer who approved the building’s design.  

Low professional standards 

Haq has advocated a professional registry of architects and engineers to weed out unethical ones and to boost standards. “Design needs to be more rigorous, especially these days,” said the near-retiring architect, referring to the country’s high risk to natural disasters [ http://www.irinnews.org/Report/97889/Political-instability-undermines-disaster-preparedness-in-Bangladesh ], as well as the steady pace of factory construction in cities.  

The current process of signing off constructions as safe is haphazard and ill-informed, he added. Though companies should submit detailed plans to their local planning officials, which are then approved by an architect and engineer, mostly only rough sketches and outlines are required now, said Haq. 

Local government may not have engineers or architects qualified to give approval, he added. 

“Overall, building-oriented disaster management needs strengthening,” he concluded. By shaving off 0.3 metre of a staircase’s width, designers can help prevent a stampede during an emergency as only two people are able to fit through at once, which is “only a detail, but an important one”, said Haq. Suggested revisions to the building code are now before parliament. 

Poor land use 

The building collapse highlighted the dangers of unplanned development, said ADPC’s Rahman. According to the 20-year Dhaka Metropolitan Development Plan [ http://www.rajukdhaka.gov.bd/rajuk/dapHome ], effective until 2015, extra attention was to be paid to construction in Savar due to three fault lines that pass through the municipality, making it the “most severe” earthquake zone nationwide.  

“That plan has essentially been ignored, something that everyone shares blame [for], starting with the `Rajuk’ [Capital Development Authority],” said Rahman. 

But due to the 2009 Municipality Act, the Capital Development Authority cannot intervene in municipal planning, the group’s chairman, Nurul Huda, told IRIN. “If I were to come over [to Savar’s municipal government] asking questions about land use, they would ask me, ‘Who are you to come here?’”  

He said his office has requested the Ministry of Housing and Public Works to “clarify the controversy” surrounding conflicting laws in an effort to regain control of the capital’s planning.  

Also needed is a re-evaluation of ways to disperse industrial development to prevent over-construction in any one area, said Rahman. “There are vacant industrial zones to re-locate new factories,” he said, mentioning the southwestern city of Khulna (formerly a jute industrial zone) as one way to spread the risk of buildings collapsing in an earthquake.  

Change interrupted 

“Finding a regulatory body to prevent a similar tragedy - that is our goal,” said Salam with the Housing and Building Research Institute. He said proposals are circulating on boosting local officials’ expertise on construction standards and safety monitoring, as well as creating high-level district committees that will bring together architects, engineers, health officials and representatives from local government and the Ministry of Housing and Public Works. 

Meanwhile, the Urban Development Directorate, part of the Housing Ministry, is seeking government approval to draft a national urbanization plan up to 2021 which would centralize planning power in the Housing Ministry once again.  

The country’s Garment Manufacturers’ and Exporters’ Association has asked garment factories in the capital to submit structural drawings, while the labour and employment minister is heading another committee to investigate factories outside the capital. 

As of 2011, there were some 5,100 garment factories nationwide employing 3.6 million people, according to the trade organization.  

The Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology is supposed to conduct risk assessments to find the most vulnerable buildings in the capital. Halfway completed is a visual seismic assessment by the government’s Comprehensive Disaster Management Programme of some 400,000 buildings, also in the capital area. 

Altogether, there are some 1.26 million residential and commercial structures there, according to the Capital Development Authority.  

There are already some 5,000 cases against owners occupying unsafe buildings in Dhaka, but without court orders city officials have not been able to evict them, said the chairman, Huda. Since 2010, processing time has improved somewhat due to three mobile courts handling the backlog, he added.  

Rahman from ADPC remains skeptical about pledges to reform the building industry. He heard similar promises following a 2005 commercial building collapse in Palash Bari (near the Savar disaster) that killed near 70 and left dozens more missing; a 2010 chemical explosion in a residential area of the capital caused by improperly stored chemicals, which killed 120; and most recently, a fire in a garment factory in November 2012 that killed at least 100. 

But Dhaka’s development authority chairman, Huda, said efforts to change have been under way. Since 2010, his request for more engineers and architects has gone through six departments in three ministries for approval.  “We hope to be able to recruit more experts soon.” 

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]]></body><link>http://www.irinnews.org/Report/97987/Analysis-Wake-up-call-for-Bangladesh-s-building-industry</link><content:encoded><![CDATA[<table cellpadding="3"><tr><td valign="top"><img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2013/201304301155150667t.jpg"/></td><td valign="top">DHAKA 06 May 2013 (IRIN) - Corpses are still being recovered from Bangladesh’s worst industrial disaster ever - a factory building collapse on 24 April that killed at least 600 workers near the capital. Government experts are scrambling to prevent a repeat.</td></tr></table>>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Activists call for review of Myanmar’s citizenship law</title><pubDate>Fri, 03 May 2013 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[<img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2008/200810264t.jpg" />]]>BANGKOK 03 May 2013 (IRIN) - Human rights groups are calling for a review of Myanmar&apos;s citizenship law, which has left more than 1.2 million people stateless nationwide, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).</description><body><![CDATA[BANGKOK 03 May 2013 (IRIN) - Human rights groups are calling for a review of Myanmar's citizenship law, which has left more than 1.2 million people stateless nationwide, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) [ http://www.unhcr.org/pages/49e4877d6.html ].

“The 1982 citizenship law should be amended to reflect basic principles of human rights, including equality and non-discrimination,” Debbie Stothard, the coordinator for Altsean Burma [ http://www.altsean.org/ ], a Bangkok-based advocacy organization for minority rights in Myanmar, told IRIN. 

There are no reliable data on the number of stateless people in Myanmar; the last population census [ http://www.irinnews.org/report/97609/Challenges-ahead-of-Myanmar-s-first-census-in-30-years ] was conducted more than three decades ago, according to the UN Population Fund [ http://countryoffice.unfpa.org/myanmar/2009/11/11/1545/country_profile/ ]. But rights groups believe that in addition to some 800,000 stateless Rohingya in Myanmar's western Rakhine State, ethnic groups originating from China and India are also disenfranchised by the law, facing persecution without legal redress. 

“The law creates a permanent underclass that is exploited with impunity, creating significant resentments [liable to] explode when security forces take advantage of the legal vulnerability of stateless persons through abuse,” said Phil Robertson, the deputy director of Human Rights Watch's (HRW) Asia division. 

While all persons born on Burmese soil were considered citizens under the country's earlier 1948 citizenship law, General Ne Win's seizure of power in 1962 led to policies that excluded communities whose ancestors entered the country after 1823 [ http://www.refworld.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/rwmain?docid=3ae6b4f71b ]. 

The constitution established by Ne Win in 1974 listed 135 “national races” - including the Karen, Shan and Kachin - while excluding all “non-indigenous” minorities. 

Eight years later, the citizenship law, which recognizes only the children of national races as full citizens, was established, leading to limited rights for non-recognized groups such as the Rohingya [ http://www.irinnews.org/report/96801/Briefing-Myanmar-s-Rohingya-crisis ]. 

Parliament blocks amendments 

Despite repeated calls for change, including a recent attempt to amend the law on 6 November 2012 by Member of Parliament (MP) Tin Mya from the Union Solidarity and Development Party, objections from other parliamentarians caused proposals for amendments to be shelved, according to Altsean. 

“While the international community has [also] spoken up to the need to amend the law, there has yet to be a coordinated and concerted effort to ensure this actually happens,” said Stothard. 

The discriminatory law may have helped fuel the sectarian violence that broke out between the Muslim Rohingya and the Buddhist population in Rakhine State in June and October 2012 and in the town of Meiktila in March 2013, said Chris Lewa, the director of the Arakan Project, a Rohingya advocacy group. 

“The Rohingya have been constant victims of arbitrary arrests, extortion, harassment and fines due to their precarious legal status and laws prohibiting basic rights such as freedom of movement,” she said. 

Children “blacklisted” 

Since 2008, Rohingyas in Rakhine State - who must obtain permission to marry or travel outside of their villages [ http://www.irinnews.org/Report/88220/MYANMAR-Tentative-steps-towards-Rohingya-rehabilitation ] - have been limited to having two children per couple. 

But with access to birth control limited around the country, Burmese couples have an average of 4.7 children per marriage [ http://countryoffice.unfpa.org/myanmar/2009/11/11/1545/country_profile/ ]. The majority of Rohingya families continue to have more than two children, but forgo birth registration for those children over the limit for fear of being penalized, says Lewa. 

“These children are blacklisted and without any rights at all,” she explained. “They cannot even apply for permission for marriage, to go to school or to move outside of their village with their parents because, according to the authorities, they do not exist,” she added. 

In November 2012, immigration police and the national army in the Rakhine townships of Pauktaw, Maungdaw and Sittwe attempted to register Rohingya families, issuing them temporary national residency cards (NRCs). But these efforts were met with opposition because the registration forms used the term “Bengali” to describe to the Rohingyas - a label referring to their South Asian heritage, used to emphasize their perceived foreignness. 

“It is very controversial as they deserve full citizenship, not just temporary residence, which gives them no other rights, and they are afraid that if they sign the documents then it will be proof that they are non-citizens,” said Lewa. 

Additionally, to receive the NRC, families must prove they have lived in Myanmar for three generations, but many Rohingyas lost evidence of this in the recent sectarian violence, which destroyed up to 4,800 buildings, according to HRW, and forced over 125,000 to flee their homes [ http://www.refworld.org/country,,,,MMR,,516e51b14,0.html ]. 

Missed opportunity 

Myanmar has undergone significant reforms since March 2011 - including the easing of media censorship, the release of hundreds of political prisoners and the reshuffling of the country’s cabinet [ http://www.irinnews.org/report/96818/Analysis-How-real-are-Myanmar-s-reforms ]. The European Union subsequently lifted sanctions on Myanmar on 22 April 2013. 

But rights groups fear international pressure to create an inclusive and fair citizenship law will cease to be effective. 

“We are worried that the rights of Rohingya and other stateless people will continue to be set aside in the international euphoria over Burma's reforms,” said Alstean's Stothard. 

Earlier this week, the Inquiry Commission on the Sectarian Violence in Rakhine State, a government commission set up to investigate the 2012 violence in Rakhine, failed to recommend [ http://www.burmapartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Executive-SummaryEnglish-Version.pdf ] any revisions to the citizenship law. Rather, it called for a process to examine the citizenship status of the people in Rakhine, in order to implement the provisions of the current law. 

“The commission missed a critical point when it failed to include reform of the 1982 Citizenship Act to strip out discriminatory provisions and ensure that the law complies with international human rights standards,” said HRW’s Robertson on 29 April. 

dm/ds/rz

]]></body><link>http://www.irinnews.org/Report/97966/Activists-call-for-review-of-Myanmar-s-citizenship-law</link><content:encoded><![CDATA[<table cellpadding="3"><tr><td valign="top"><img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2008/200810264t.jpg"/></td><td valign="top">BANGKOK 03 May 2013 (IRIN) - Human rights groups are calling for a review of Myanmar&apos;s citizenship law, which has left more than 1.2 million people stateless nationwide, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).</td></tr></table>>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Innovative ICT helps aid workers in Afghanistan</title><pubDate>Thu, 02 May 2013 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[<img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2013/201304281046160354t.jpg" />]]>KABUL 02 May 2013 (IRIN) - As Asia’s poorest country and the deadliest for aid workers, rugged Afghanistan offers a considerable challenge to humanitarian work.</description><body><![CDATA[KABUL 02 May 2013 (IRIN) - As Asia’s poorest country [ http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.CD?order=wbapi_data_value_2011+wbapi_data_value+wbapi_data_value-last&sort=asc ] and the deadliest for aid workers [ http://www.irinnews.org/Report/97874/Afghanistan-the-world-s-most-dangerous-place-for-aid-workers ], rugged Afghanistan offers a considerable challenge to humanitarian work.

But just as in parts of Africa, the only other area of the world with similarly poor infrastructure, rapid advances in information and communications technology (ICT) have had a profound impact on humanitarian activities over the past decade.

To make a phone call in 2001, the only option for many Afghans was a trip to neighbouring Pakistan. Now 85 percent of the population enjoys mobile phone coverage, and aid agencies are taking full advantage.

Despite the remoteness of many regions (with three-quarters of the population living in rural areas), the mobile phone network has expanded rapidly and by 2010 a USAID survey [ http://www.altaiconsulting.com/docs/media/2010/Afghan%20Media%20in%202010.pdf ] estimated that 61 percent of the population owned or had access to a mobile phone.

The country's four major operators (Roshan, AWCC, Etisalat and MTN) share 18 million subscribers, according to a 2012 report by Research and Markets [ http://www.marketresearch.com/ISA-International-Strategic-Analysis-v2697/Afghanistan-ISA-Country-7489601/ ].

Five Afghan tech initiatives

Mobile Money, one of the most commonly used ICT services, allows Afghans to safely and securely transfer money, in some cases internationally [ http://www.roshan.af/Roshan/Media_Relations/News/News_Details/12-05-21/Roshan_and_Western_Union_Launch_International_Mobile_Money_Transfer_Service_in_Afghanistan.aspx ], using mobile phones. Currently all four of Afghanistan's major telecommunications operators provide money transfers. In March, USAID [ http://afghanistan.usaid.gov/en/USAID/Article/2948/Public_School_Teachers_Salary_Payment_Goes_Mobile ] partnered with other agencies to promote a new electronic salary payment programme. The project aims to disperse salaries to more than 30,000 teachers in about 200 schools across Afghanistan by 2014.

SMS or Interactive Voice Response (IVR) messages give Afghan farmers and traders information on crop and livestock prices in specific locations. In partnership with USAID and Mercy Corps, Roshan launched the Malomat service in 2010 - currently nearly 600 farmers and 19 traders are participating in 15 provincial markets. Malomat provides farmers and traders with wholesale prices for agricultural commodities - aiming to improve farmers’ livelihoods and thus providing a disincentive to farmers to engage in opium production.

Telemedicine: Afghan doctors are starting to use a new ICT service [ http://imaginationforpeople.org/en/project/afghanistans-telemedicine-project/ ] to access e-learning, training, management tips and tele-radiology (the electronic sharing of patient scans). Hospitals can have real-time access to medical experts outside the country. “In many areas, people cannot reach hospitals or clinics safely. And the end of winter is likely to bring renewed fighting, making the problem worse,” said Gherardo Pontrandolfi, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross delegation at a press conference in Kabul last week. “Fighting, roadblocks, roadside bombs and a general lack of security prevent medics and humanitarian aid from reaching the sick and wounded, just when they need it most,” he said.

Emergency hotline services: WFP's Beneficiary Feedback Desk is an example of how such a service can improve the distribution of aid. The hotline was launched through a series of radio adverts in three provinces last year. The mobile phone hotline operators told IRIN they quickly started getting calls from all over the country. Operators call back those who hang-up after a couple of rings, in case they lack phone credit. They say they receive complaints and suggestions on aid delivery. One young Afghan woman used the phone line to expose a man in her village who had set up fake literacy classes to benefit from WFP aid. In another case, in an insecure and impoverished part of Ghor Province, students were able to use the hotline to negotiate the safe delivery of WFP aid - something that had not been possible for eight years.

Mobile teacher software: Ustad Mobil was designed to help tackle the country's illiteracy problem. A UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) project [ http://unama.unmissions.org/Default.aspx?ctl=Details&tabid=12254&mid=15756&ItemID=36716 ] aims to improve literacy among the police force, an estimated 70-80 percent of whom are illiterate. The app adapts the national literacy curriculum so it can be taught on camera mobile phones, with slides, videos and quizzes. “The feedback has been positive,” said Mike Dawson, CEO of Paiwastoon Networking Service, the designers of Ustad Mobile software. “We expect students will reach level three, which means they will be able to read and write.”

Advantages and challenges

Though many of these new technologies lack integration and are generally stand-alone operations, ICT has helped aid organizations improve monitoring, transparency and accountability, and provided greater access to vulnerable populations.

“Access is one of the biggest issues in a country like Afghanistan. We can only help those who we can access. There is always conflict in this country so we can't visit every part of the country to see who is vulnerable and who needs assistance,” said WFP information officer Wahidullah Amani.

“We have also been able to prevent food diversion and better monitor our food distributions, which in turn gives us opportunities to be more transparent and accountable to the people.”

But such developments in Afghanistan have not been entirely benign.

Mobile phones are frequently scrutinized at Taliban checkpoints to see if people have links with government officials or Western organizations. Being caught with a suspicious phone number or contact can lead to the loss of the phone, and in some cases a beating.

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]]></body><link>http://www.irinnews.org/Report/97936/Innovative-ICT-helps-aid-workers-in-Afghanistan</link><content:encoded><![CDATA[<table cellpadding="3"><tr><td valign="top"><img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2013/201304281046160354t.jpg"/></td><td valign="top">KABUL 02 May 2013 (IRIN) - As Asia’s poorest country and the deadliest for aid workers, rugged Afghanistan offers a considerable challenge to humanitarian work.</td></tr></table>>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Prospects for Rakhine reconciliation dim</title><pubDate>Thu, 02 May 2013 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[<img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2013/201305021027080852t.jpg" />]]>RAKHINE STATE 02 May 2013 (IRIN) - Almost one year after the first wave of inter-communal violence struck Myanmar’s western Rakhine State, sectarian hostilities have gone unabated, leaving little room for reconciliation, residents and experts say.</description><body><![CDATA[RAKHINE STATE 02 May 2013 (IRIN) - Almost one year after the first wave of inter-communal violence struck Myanmar’s western Rakhine State, sectarian hostilities have gone unabated, leaving little room for reconciliation, residents and experts say. 

“The ‘kalars’ want to take our land,” said Aung Tun Hla, an ethnic Rakhine, using a pejorative term for the Rohingyas ethnic group. 

“Before, the relations between the two communities were okay,” added the 48 year old, whose house in Sittwe, the state capital, was destroyed in the violence. “But now they want to quarrel with our people - they want to rape our women and burn our homes.” 

Violence between Buddhists and Muslims in June and October 2012 left 167 dead and hundreds injured. At least 140,000 were displaced, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) recently reported [ http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/Ref_Doc_UNOCHA_Humanitarian_Bulletin_on_Rakhine_April_2013.pdf ]. More than 10,000 homes and businesses were burned or destroyed. 

According to most estimates, 95 percent of those displaced are Muslims, mostly Rohingyas [ http://www.irinnews.org/report/96801/Briefing-Myanmar-s-Rohingya-crisis ]. Under Burmese law, the Rohingya are de jure stateless. There are an estimated 800,000 Rohingya in Myanmar, and human rights groups say they have long faced persecution and discrimination. 

The resentment felt by Rakhine Buddhists towards Rohingyas has made official steps towards reconciliation between the two communities - which are still largely separated by security forces - nearly impossible, and the prospects for displaced Rohingyas returning home appear dim. 

Displaced Rohingyas returning to their homes in Sittwe is “unacceptable”, Aung Tun Hla said. 

Soured dialogue 

Following last year’s violence, long-held prejudices against Rohingyas - and against Muslims and people of South Asian descent more generally - came to the fore. 

Ho Than Hlaing, a journalist at Sittwe for Eleven [ http://elevenmyanmar.com/ ], one of Myanmar’s largest-circulation newspapers, spoke to IRIN about his belief that Rohingyas have had a deleterious effect on Burmese society. Muslims have excessive numbers of children, and they are economically aggressive and want to colonize Buddhist land, he said, echoing prejudices voiced by many Buddhists across the country. 

Meanwhile, monks could play a key role in shaping public attitudes towards reconciliation in this majority Buddhist majority nation, but few have taken a stand against the violence. 

“Before, we lived together, ate together and worked together, but we cannot do this anymore,”said Ashin Ariya, the head monk of Shwezedi Monastery in Sittwe. “The Bengalis want to take the whole area and make everyone Muslim,” he said, referring to the Rohingyas as foreign immigrants - a line often used by Burmese government officials. 

Public dialogue on the Rohingya issue has become so polarized that “it is hard to say anything and stay neutral,” said Tom Kramer, who runs the Myanmar office of the Transnational Institute (TI) [ http://www.tni.org/ ], a conflict-resolution NGO. 

Views are reflexively interpreted as "pro-Rohingya or pro-Rakhine, with nothing in between,” he added. 

Meanwhile, rights groups have criticized authorities’ lack of progress in helping Rohingyas return to their homes and livelihoods, and in some cases they have accused the government of complicity [ http://www.hrw.org/reports/2013/04/22/all-you-can-do-pray-0 ] in the Rohingyas’ displacement. 

“Instead of addressing the problem, Burma’s leaders seem intent on keeping the Rohingya segregated in camps rather than planning for them to return to their homes,” said Human Rights Watch [ http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/03/26/burma-rohingya-muslims-face-humanitarian-crisis ], which has repeatedly called on the government to put forward a plan to bring the displaced home. 

Sustainable peace 

Any peace-building effort in Rakhine State will also require looking at the long-standing grievances of the Rakhine Buddhist majority itself, TI’s Kramer said. These include economic concerns that are separate from the sectarian tensions, but which create an environment ill-disposed to reconciliation. 

Despite an abundance of natural resources, Rakhine is the second-poorest state in Myanmar, after Chin State [ http://www.irinnews.org/Report/87352/MYANMAR-Chin-State-a-mountain-of-trouble ], with widespread unemployment and poverty. It receives little development assistance from the government and, according to a the medical charity Médecins sans Frontières [ http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/news/article.cfm?id=6624&cat=field-news ], has historically received less investment in health care than other areas of the country. 

“The Rohingyas' problems have been so great that there hasn’t been time to look at the Rakhine Buddhists' grievances,” Kramer said. 

Chief among these is the historic exploitation of Rakhine State’s resources by the central government, he said. Like many of Myanmar’s border regions, Rakhine’s natural resources were pillaged for decades by the country’s ruling military. The waters off Rakhine State are rich in natural gas, much of it destined for China through a pipeline scheduled to be completed this year. 

Sustainable solutions will require a commitment by the central government to share the benefits of resource-extraction projects in the state, Kramer noted. 

Government inquiry 

On 29 April, the Inquiry Commission on the Sectarian Violence in Rakhine State, a government commission set up to investigate the 2012 violence, recommended doubling the number of security forces in Rakhine State. It also called for the “temporary separation” of the two communities to continue. 

“While keeping the two communities apart is not a long-term solution, it must be enforced at least until the overt emotions subside,” the 183-page report recommended. 

Both communities highlighted the continued need for the deployment of the military in the region for safety and security, a summary of the much-delayed findings [ http://www.burmapartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Executive-SummaryEnglish-Version.pdf ] said. 

The report went on to suggest family-planning education to address what it describes as the rapid growth of the Muslim population in the state. 

bb/ds/rz 

]]></body><link>http://www.irinnews.org/Report/97956/Prospects-for-Rakhine-reconciliation-dim</link><content:encoded><![CDATA[<table cellpadding="3"><tr><td valign="top"><img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2013/201305021027080852t.jpg"/></td><td valign="top">RAKHINE STATE 02 May 2013 (IRIN) - Almost one year after the first wave of inter-communal violence struck Myanmar’s western Rakhine State, sectarian hostilities have gone unabated, leaving little room for reconciliation, residents and experts say.</td></tr></table>>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Behaviour change needed to combat malnutrition in Nepal</title><pubDate>Wed, 01 May 2013 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[<img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2011/201107210821590098t.jpg" />]]>KATHMANDU 01 May 2013 (IRIN) - More work is needed to improve nutritional behaviour in Nepal, where nearly half of children under five are chronically malnourished, experts say.</description><body><![CDATA[KATHMANDU 01 May 2013 (IRIN) - More work is needed to improve nutritional behaviour in Nepal, where nearly half of children under five are chronically malnourished, experts say. 

“Food is more than nutrients and knowledge - it is culture, practice, and what you have been told about your life since you were born,” Ramesh Adhikari, a paediatrics professor at Kathmandu Medical College, told IRIN. 

Across the country, childhood malnutrition, which results in stunting (low height-for-age, also known as chronic malnutrition) and other long-term health effects, occurs not because of food insecurity or lack of access to nutritious food, but because of behaviour in households which is preventing nutrients from getting to children, they say. 

According to a recent report [ http://www.wfp.org/content/nepal-thematic-report-food-security-and-nutrition-march-2013 ] by the World Food Programme (WFP), the prevalence of undernutrition is high even in the wealthiest households, suggesting that other factors beyond food availability and income are influencing nutrition nationwide. 

Misconceptions about the food and eating needs of pregnant women are widespread and varied across Nepal, according to a USAID literature review [ http://www.ghtechproject.com/files/1.367%20Nepal%20Nutrition%20Overview%20Rpt%208_16_10%20%20508.pdf ].

“So many families I work with believe that feeding pregnant wives a lot of food will make delivery difficult, so they even reduce the amount of food once they discover the pregnancy,” explained Keshab Dhakal, a health outreach worker in Nepal’s western Kapil Vastu District. 

Mothers attending a nutrition seminar at a health post in rural Rupendehi District in southern Nepal listed yoghurt, pumpkin, and eggs among foods they avoided while pregnant.

Said one mother, who is using complementary vitamin packets distributed by Nepal’s Health Ministry: “This is my third child. For the first two, I didn’t eat many things while pregnant. Now, with this one, I think she will be strong and clever because of the vitamins.” 

Gender bias in food distribution 

Compounding taboos, maternal malnutrition (and therefore child malnutrition) is sometimes the result of gender-based discrimination in decision-making and food-sharing. 

“Women, including mothers, usually eat less well than men. This can lead to inadequate foetal growth, ultimately leading to stunting in children by the age of two,” said Saba Mebrahtu, nutrition chief at the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Nepal. 

Many children eat off the plate of a parent, often the mother. Because of food distribution hierarchies, typically giving the male members of the family food before the females, children who eat from mothers’ plates may have limited access to nutritious food, according to studies cited in the USAID review. 

“Nutrition education for mothers and children has to start with men,” said Shanti Acharya, a female community health volunteer in Rupendehi. “It’s men who usually make the decisions regarding what to do with vegetables, for example - to sell them or eat them in the household,” she said, adding that this can mean that nutritious foods grown at home are sold more frequently than they are consumed. 

Excessive burden on mothers 

Women bear much of the burden for child care and food preparation. While WFP analysis [ http://www.wfp.org/content/nepal-thematic-report-food-security-and-nutrition-march-2013 ] shows remittances from outmigration can improve nutrition in households, especially if the household is female-headed, the absence of men also means an increase in women’s workloads, leaving less time for food preparation. 

Recognizing what experts call “unpaid care work” performed by women can balance labour distribution [ http://www.actionaid.org/sites/files/actionaid/recognise_redistribute_reduce_0.pdf ] in the household - benefiting children by putting more value on preparing their food. 

“If fathers are engaged in caring for their children, they will know more about what to feed their children, and notice when feeding and growing aren’t going as well as they should be,” said Mebrahtu, adding that Nepal’s 2013 draft strategy for infant and young child feeding addresses the beliefs of a range of people who influence the mother, including husbands, in-laws, elders, and community members. 

Malnourished children are less successful in school, grow into less productive adults, and develop chronic diseases that can put strains on the medical system according to the World Bank [ http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/NEWS/0,,contentMDK:20839585~pagePK:64257043~piPK:437376~theSitePK:4607,00.html ], which also warns that malnutrition is costing poor countries up to 3 percent of their yearly GDP. 

“The incentives to feed mothers and children well are clear,” said UNICEF’s Mebrahtu. “It’s just a matter of closing the information gaps and correcting misunderstandings and mistreatment.” 

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]]></body><link>http://www.irinnews.org/Report/97949/Behaviour-change-needed-to-combat-malnutrition-in-Nepal</link><content:encoded><![CDATA[<table cellpadding="3"><tr><td valign="top"><img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2011/201107210821590098t.jpg"/></td><td valign="top">KATHMANDU 01 May 2013 (IRIN) - More work is needed to improve nutritional behaviour in Nepal, where nearly half of children under five are chronically malnourished, experts say.</td></tr></table>>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Pressure in Philippines to end ban on formula milk aid</title><pubDate>Tue, 30 Apr 2013 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[<img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2012/201208121507490903t.jpg" />]]>COMPOSTELA VALLEY 30 April 2013 (IRIN) - Health authorities in the Philippines were vigilant in keeping out infant formula donations when Typhoon Bopha hit last December, but activists are concerned the infant formula industry will succeed in pushing through legislative changes that will allow formula donations in future emergencies, making it harder to convince women in those crises to continue exclusive breastfeeding.</description><body><![CDATA[COMPOSTELA VALLEY 30 April 2013 (IRIN) - Health authorities in the Philippines were vigilant in keeping out infant formula donations when Typhoon Bopha hit last December, but activists are concerned the infant formula industry will succeed in pushing through legislative changes that will allow formula donations in future emergencies, making it harder to convince women in those crises to continue exclusive breastfeeding. 

Breastfeeding - especially during emergencies - has been medically linked [ http://www.who.int/mediacentre/multimedia/podcasts/2009/breastfeeding_20090804/en/ ] to improved child survival due to the incomparable nutrients and antibodies human breast milk offers. But emergencies are also the hardest time to convince women that breast milk can keep their children alive, due to myths about stressed or malnourished women not being able to breastfeed [ http://www.irinnews.org/Report/87923/HAITI-Fear-of-the-earthquake-lives-on ].

Cease-and-desist 

When Typhoon Washi (locally known as Sendong) hit the southern Philippines’s Mindanao Island in December 2011, breast-milk substitutes, including formula, turned up in evacuation centres even though they are banned under the country’s “Milk Code” [ http://www.lawphil.net/executive/execord/eo1986/eo_51_1986.html ]. The Department of Health singled out infant formula maker Nestlé Philippines, issuing a cease-and-desist order requesting it to stop donating milk products to typhoon survivors. The problem was not the company, insisted Nestlé spokeswoman Meike Scmidt, but rather “kind-hearted private individuals and organizations” who donated products of their own will. 

“We have the industry’s toughest system in place to enforce our policies governing the marketing of breast-milk substitutes,” she told IRIN. “Our monitoring procedures include control measures that prevent donations of breast-milk substitutes during emergencies, and those control measures are routinely audited.” 

Yet the company is now part of a formula interest group called the Paediatric Nutrition Association of the Philippines (IPNAP) which is trying to change the country’s Milk Code. One of the proposals is to allow unrestricted donations of breast-milk substitutes during crises. Activists have rallied to fight what they characterize as the “diluting” and weakening of the current Milk Code, allegations that Nestlé dismisses. 

Milk of life 

Medical studies have linked formula donations to increased diarrhoea during crises, as was the case during Indonesia’s 2006 earthquake in Central Java. 

A 2012 UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) study [ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21426621 ] found one-week diarrhoea incidence among those who received milk substitutes after the earthquake was more than twice as high as those who did not (24.5 percent versus 11.5 percent); overall, the rate of diarrhoea among infants aged 12-23 months was five times higher than before the earthquake, which researchers linked to breast-milk substitute donations. 

Some 80 percent of the 832 surveyed surviving households had received donated infant formula, 76 percent commercial porridge and 49 percent powdered milk. Pre-earthquake only 32 percent of the infants had ever had breast-milk substitutes, a rate that rose to 43 percent at the time of the survey, 

“Uncontrolled distribution of infant formula exacerbates the risk of diarrhoea among infants and young children in emergencies,” concluded the study, a message aid agencies are still struggling to publicize [ http://www.unicef.org/nutritioncluster/files/IYCF_-_IYCF-E_workshop_report_2012.pdf ].

Doing things differently 

Almost one year after Typhoon Washi hit, Typhoon Bopha (local name Pablo) hit Mindanao Island again, this time taking out entire villages in Compostela Valley and Davao Orientale along the island’s northern and eastern coasts. Some 2,000 are dead or missing. 

Five days after the Category 5 (winds up to 250km) typhoon made landfall on 4 December, the regional health director for Davao Region (heart of affected zone) circulated a memo to all governmental and aid agencies working on health, water and sanitation urging them to enforce and uphold Health Department regulations prohibiting the distribution of milk products to women and children. The memo stated such donations by “well-meaning, but misinformed donors” were unnecessary. 

The challenge, said UNICEF nutrition officer for emergencies in the Philippines Paul Zambrano, is reaching aid groups that bypass any donation coordination structure such as local NGOs and faith-based groups. “They go directly into communities. Monitoring at the local level is difficult,” he said. 

Even with health officials’ vigilance to keep out milk products, the disaster took a heavy toll on nutrition in affected areas: Aid groups estimate 95,600 persons will be at risk of malnutrition in 2013 including nearly 67,000 children under the age of five and 29,000 pregnant and lactating women [ https://docs.unocha.org/sites/dms/CAP/Revision_2013_Philippines_HAP_BOPHA.pdf ].

The youngest are the most vulnerable. One month after the typhoon hit, of the nearly 500 children under age five surveyed, 66 percent had some illness (most often accompanied by a fever, cough and diarrhoea) [ http://philippines.humanitarianresponse.info/system/files/documents/files/Bopha%20Assessment%20Key%20Findings%20Feb%202013.pdf ]. Breast-milk substitutes increase the risk of these illnesses due to unsafe water used to mix formula and lack of fuel to sterilize products. 

The proposed Milk Code changes are pending review as parliament is on recess until 1 July, and the country prepares to elect new parliamentarians in 13 May elections. 

pt/cb 

]]></body><link>http://www.irinnews.org/Report/97943/Pressure-in-Philippines-to-end-ban-on-formula-milk-aid</link><content:encoded><![CDATA[<table cellpadding="3"><tr><td valign="top"><img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2012/201208121507490903t.jpg"/></td><td valign="top">COMPOSTELA VALLEY 30 April 2013 (IRIN) - Health authorities in the Philippines were vigilant in keeping out infant formula donations when Typhoon Bopha hit last December, but activists are concerned the infant formula industry will succeed in pushing through legislative changes that will allow formula donations in future emergencies, making it harder to convince women in those crises to continue exclusive breastfeeding.</td></tr></table>>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Lessons from Bangladesh garment factory collapse</title><pubDate>Tue, 30 Apr 2013 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[<img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2013/201304301153410896t.jpg" />]]>DHAKA 30 April 2013 (IRIN) - Bangladesh must strengthen its urban search and rescue capacity, say experts, following the collapse of an eight-story factory building outside Dhaka which left nearly 400 dead.</description><body><![CDATA[DHAKA 30 April 2013 (IRIN) - Bangladesh must strengthen its urban search and rescue capacity, say experts, following the collapse of an eight-story factory building outside Dhaka which left nearly 400 dead.

“This most recent tragedy highlights the need for the government to do more in the area of urban search and rescue,” Gerson Brandao, humanitarian affairs adviser to the office of the UN resident coordinator, told IRIN.

“Noble efforts were made to reach many of the survivors, particularly by volunteers, but unfortunately it was not enough.”

On 24 April, at least 385 people were killed when the concrete structure collapsed in Bangladesh’s Savar industrial suburb (24km northwest Dhaka), trapping more than 3,000 mostly garment workers inside.

Brandao’s comments follow criticism of the authorities’ overall handling of the operation, and the Bangladeshi government’s rejection of international search and rescue offers, including by members of the International Search and Rescue Advisory Group (INSARAG) [ http://www.unocha.org/what-we-do/coordination-tools/insarag/overview ], a network of disaster-prone and disaster-responding countries and organizations dedicated to urban search and rescue (USAR) [ http://www.usar.org/ ] and operational field coordination, just hours after the building’s collapse.

Bangladesh Home Minister Muhiuddin Khan Alamgir defended the decision saying no help was needed because the country’s local emergency services were well equipped.

Many describe it as Bangladesh’s worst industrial accident since the country gained independence in 1971.

More than 2,000 volunteers and local rescue teams rushed to the scene to assist. However, they soon found themselves overwhelmed and ill-equipped.

“There is a notable gap in specialized and sophisticated equipment such as micro-cameras which can go under the rubble to search for survivors, as well as scanners that can detect human heat,” Brandao noted, adding that there was also no sniffer dog capacity to identify survivors under the rubble.

In addition to a lack of specialized equipment, however, many of the volunteers, including some trained by the authorities to respond in such situations, did not even have protective gear such as gloves and helmets.

“Rescuers were even asking members of the public for flashlights,” said one international aid worker who preferred anonymity and who visited the scene.

A wake-up call?

Others criticized the overall coordination of the operation, describing it as “confused”.

“The incident reminds us that we are not prepared for a major earthquake. When we face difficulties to operate rescue operations in one building, it’s not difficult to understand what might happen in a major earthquake,” said Mehedi Ahmed Ansary, an earthquake expert and professor at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology.

Densely populated Dhaka is at high risk of an earthquake [ http://www.irinnews.org/Report/89491/BANGLADESH-Getting-ready-for-the-big-one ], experts say.

“In a major earthquake, 100-200 buildings may collapse. It would be difficult to conduct a rescue operation with the present capacity,” Ansary said.

Brandao also called for institutional reform, noting that in Bangladesh the fire service and civil defence are one institution, but the two bodies have different sets of skills.

“The Bangladesh fire services and civil defence are very well trained in dealing with fires, but lack the capacity and training needed for civil defence, of which urban search and rescue is a component,” he said.

According to the Department of Disaster Management [ http://www.dmb.gov.bd/ ], the government has 23,000 trained volunteers and plans to train 66,000 more in the coming years. However, confidence even within the department is low.

“If we can’t manage a rescue operation in one building, how can we possibly manage one when many buildings collapse,” said one official who asked not to be identified.

mw/ds/cb

]]></body><link>http://www.irinnews.org/Report/97945/Lessons-from-Bangladesh-garment-factory-collapse</link><content:encoded><![CDATA[<table cellpadding="3"><tr><td valign="top"><img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2013/201304301153410896t.jpg"/></td><td valign="top">DHAKA 30 April 2013 (IRIN) - Bangladesh must strengthen its urban search and rescue capacity, say experts, following the collapse of an eight-story factory building outside Dhaka which left nearly 400 dead.</td></tr></table>>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Imagining a major quake in Kathmandu</title><pubDate>Fri, 26 Apr 2013 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[<img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2013/201304261101330697t.jpg" />]]>KATHMANDU 26 April 2013 (IRIN) - It is the nightmare scenario aid workers and government officials have long feared: a massive earthquake striking Nepal’s densely populated Kathmandu Valley, with tens of thousands feared dead.</description><body><![CDATA[KATHMANDU 26 April 2013 (IRIN) - It is the nightmare scenario aid workers and government officials have long feared: a massive earthquake striking Nepal’s densely populated Kathmandu Valley, with tens of thousands feared dead.

In terms of per capita casualty risk, the valley - as the area is known locally - is the most dangerous place in the world [ http://www.geohaz.org/projects/gesi.html ].

The capital city and its surrounding suburbs of some 2.5 million people sit in one of the most seismically active areas of the world; declining or non-existent construction standards, haphazard urban development and a population growing 4 percent annually [ http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2013/04/01/managing-nepals-urban-transition ] have compounded the risk.

While disaster preparedness awareness has increased, protracted political instability [ http://www.irinnews.org/Report/95761/Analysis-Humanitarian-fallout-from-Nepal-apos-s-constitutional-stalemate ] has weakened risk reduction potential. The last major earthquake (1934) flattened Kathmandu, killing thousands and destroying 20 percent of the city’s buildings.

IRIN sat down with leading international and Nepalese experts at both the National Society for Earthquake Technology [ http://www.nset.org.np/nset2012/ ] and the Nepal Risk Reduction Consortium [ http://un.org.np/coordinationmechanism/nrrc ] to determine how such an earthquake might play out today.

1005am early May - An intensity IX (Mercalli scale measure) [ http://www.irinnews.org/Report/93862/HOW-TO-Measure-an-earthquake ] earthquake hits Kathmandu Valley when school is in session and people are at work.

1009 - Immediate aftershocks stop.  Some 60 percent of buildings have been damaged or completely collapsed. Few schools remain standing. Schoolchildren [ http://www.irinnews.org/Report/81805/NEPAL-Schoolchildren-face-earthquake-risk ] in Kathmandu are 400 times more likely to be killed by an earthquake than those in Kobe, Japan [ http://www.preventionweb.net/files/5573_gesireport.pdf ].

The US Geological Survey [ http://www.usgs.gov/ ] first reports the earthquake, information some newswires pick up, but few details emerge. Mobile phone towers are damaged severely, internet communication is down and electricity coverage is out.

1045 – Significant aftershock lasts 90 seconds. Now 80 percent of buildings are damaged or destroyed. Only a handful of healthcare facilities remain standing.

Residents work feverishly to dig out loved ones using nothing more than their bare hands. The first 72 hours are seen as critical.

A 2001 seismic risk assessment [ http://www.unisdr.org/2009/campaign/pdf/wdrc-2008-2009-information-kit.pdf ] of one of the capital’s (and country’s) main hospitals [ http://www.patanhospital.org.np/ ] identified weaknesses, which were only partially addressed as hospitals failed to get the funding they needed.

In the quake’s epicentre, only doctors and health workers who were on duty when the quake hit are able to work; others are either injured or blocked from reaching health facilities due to rubble [ http://un.org.np/sites/default/files/2010-10-19-Presentation-NSET.pdf ]. Many have died.

1200 noon - Domestic trained “light” search and rescue teams [ http://www.irinnews.org/Report/97831/Nepal-to-boost-search-and-rescue-capabilities ] (able to search the surface of a collapsed structure but not venture inside) begin their work. However, capacity is limited and many teams have not been properly trained.

Although deployed, international urban search and rescue teams are still unable to reach Kathmandu.

Access to facilities and vehicles is thwarted by rubble, and communications are spotty as only radio and satellite phones function. Foreign embassies use their radio systems to check for survivors.

The government’s National Emergency Operations Centre [ http://www.moha.gov.np/en/divisions/national-emergency-operation-center-25.html ] provides the first official - and skeletal - report on the earthquake.

3pm - Embassies attempt to direct their citizens to meeting points, but databases are not updated to reflect current numbers in the city. Travel by foot is almost impossible. First reports of looting begin. The air is still choked with dust. Parents rush towards completely or partially destroyed school buildings to search for their children, but movement is complicated by debris and safety concerns. Some fires from collapsed gas canisters and fallen electric wires spread.

5pm - International newswires carry reports on the earthquake. “A long-predicted earthquake of IX-intensity has hit the capital of Nepal. Kathmandu has suffered devastation in the initial quake and continued tremors. Humanitarian officials estimate tens of thousands missing or dead. Communications are routed through satellite phones, which are in limited supply.”

6pm - As the sun sets, air remains a thick fog of dust. Some people are able to clear space in the rubble, set up tents, light fires to cook and stay warm. Survivors who have emergency food supplies are careful to ration as well as protect them against looting.

Day 2: The government estimates the initial death toll at 150,000.

As the Oxfam Nepal country director, Scott Faiia, told IRIN: “Haiti was an island, so that meant nautical access was possible. Kathmandu is far more isolated than an island.”

There is no vehicle access to Kathmandu as countless bridges and roads into the city have been knocked out.

The airport, the only lifeline [ http://www.irinnews.org/Report/97766/Earthquake-proofing-Nepal-s-at-risk-airport ] for relief deliveries, has been damaged. C-130 military cargo planes, capable of landing on a short runway space, can land if 1,900 metres of runway remain intact, but a thorough evaluation of the airport is needed before this can happen. The assessment is under way, but with most major roads impassable, getting evaluators to the airport is taking longer than expected. Necessary repairs may take up to a week before flights can land.

There is no safe water supply in the city because pipes have been ruptured. Without an emergency, a break on a main pipe takes two days to repair on average. There are thousands of breaks throughout the city’s main lines, which do not include breaks in lines going to houses. Water tankers (trucks equipped with tanks) are full but many drivers are dead, injured, or unreachable. Those who can access and operate the tankers find all but main roads completely blocked.

With stores and markets in rubble, looting continues. Surviving police patrols are spread thin, and are pitted against residents desperate for food, water, and medical supplies.

One week: Death toll revised to 70,000

International aid workers begin building a humanitarian “hub” outside Simara in southeastern Nepal to receive relief supplies from India by rail through the Nepali border town of Birgunj, for onward transfer to Kathmandu by helicopter and, eventually, road.

Assessments have begun to give a better idea of the damage, but information is still limited. Health facilities and professionals have settled into a 24/7 routine of trying to meet acute trauma needs; facilities, staffing and supplies remain severely limited.

Critical international personnel are arriving by helicopter. Air space, frequency of flights and a memorandum of understanding to allow humanitarian workers to transit through neighbouring India without a visa are under negotiation between the two countries, even while India grapples with collateral damage from the quake. Lifesaving equipment destined for Nepal is stuck in Indian customs [ http://www.irinnews.org/Report/94648/GLOBAL-Why-international-disaster-law-matters ] in the cities of New Delhi and Kolkata.

Access is still restricted to helicopters. Heavy machinery that survived the quake is now clearing space for helipads and food drops. Embassies have evacuated most staff. Relief workers have arrived from around the world, but are stretched thin.

Of the five deep-drilled water wells around Kathmandu Valley, three are operational, so there is some water coming in, but not nearly enough. Petrol to fuel water pumps is running low because of over pumping and some looting of the fuel.

The situation around the water wells is tense as thousands queue for small amounts of water, which local government officials ration along with water purification tablets. A growing number drink untreated water, putting them at risk of disease.

Fuel for cremations is limited; there is no cold storage for bodies or body parts, which are then discarded haphazardly in burning piles around the city. The smell of burning cadavers permeates the still dusty air.

Hospitals are militarized with security forces standing guard to protect healthcare workers and patients from looting and violence. International NGOs have set up some temporary triage tents, but medical needs outstrip services.

One month

Death toll: 210,000 (and two million displaced)

Monsoon rains have begun, flooding temporary settlements, contaminating water supplies and resulting in the spread of infectious diseases.

More than 550 humanitarian relief organizations are now operating in Nepal. Some are working with communities outside Kathmandu Valley that are hosting survivors who fled the aftermath. Village food supplies are limited as populations swell. Road damage limits ground transportation. Helicopters are the only way to distribute relief goods; scant supplies make it to the hills and mountains outside Kathmandu where a number of survivors are now living with family and friends.

The government has resumed operations in temporary buildings in the south of the country along the border with India some 60km from the quake’s epicentre. Some 30 percent of civil servants died in the earthquake; another 20 percent left the capital and have not returned.

The government has replenished the ranks with some controversial appointments, sowing seeds for a potential political backlash in a country that has already gone through six heads of government in the past five years (with the most recent appointment in March), while failing to agree on a post-conflict constitution after a decade-long civil war.

People who have chronic illnesses and take medication have trouble accessing it. People living with HIV who get their anti-retroviral therapy medication in monthly disbursements from central hospitals now struggle to get supplies. Marginalized groups such as men who have sex with men (MSM) who often access vital health services through local NGOs must now go to mainstream health facilities, risking discrimination and violence [ http://www.odihpn.org/humanitarian-exchange-magazine/issue-55/making-disaster-risk-reduction-and-relief-programmes-lgbtiinclusive-examples-from-nepal ].

Risk of sexual violence against women and children increases in Nepal’s temporary settlements despite NGO “protection” efforts [ http://www.chrgj.org/press/docs/Haiti%20Sexual%20Violence%20March%202011.pdf ]. International media attention shifts focus from missing individuals to the failure of the humanitarian response.

One year - and beyond

In Haiti, two years after the earthquake some 75 percent of the rubble in the recovering capital, Port-au-Prince, had been cleared [ http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov/st/english/texttrans/2012/10/20121022137789.html#axzz2RFq5WwnS ].

Haiti’s capital covers about 39sqkm; the 30-second quake created 10 million cubic metres of rubble. Kathmandu Valley is roughly 570sqkm, or the size of Singapore.

After two years, arterial roads in Nepal are functional again, but much rubble remains.

Local government offices and NGOs have erected temporary schools, but attendance is patchy and affected by monsoon rains. With facilities overcrowded and teachers few, children attend school in shifts. Banks and some businesses are running again, but with limited road access to the valley, commodities are prohibitively expensive and many survivors continue to rely on aid rations. Long-term health effects, including a decline in mental health, continue to tax hospitals and other service providers.

Media begins to criticize aid agencies for lack of coordination, creating dependency and lack of a clear transition from emergency to recovery work.

Billions of dollars have been spent on relief efforts so far (some $3 billion were disbursed at the two-year mark in Haiti) [ http://www.lessonsfromhaiti.org/assistance-tracker/ ]; rebuilding contracts begin only one year after Nepal’s earthquake.

With so much funding and focus concentrated on Kathmandu, development elsewhere in the country has been neglected and longstanding grievances against the government and donors deepen.

Still recovering from a decade-long civil war that ended in 2006, the country has had no local elections since 1997 [ http://www.irinnews.org/report/95799/NEPAL-No-government-no-irrigation ]; a skeletal group of nationally-appointed administrators oversees everything from health administration to irrigation.

The final death toll is verified at 380,000.

kk/pt/cb

]]></body><link>http://www.irinnews.org/Report/97925/Imagining-a-major-quake-in-Kathmandu</link><content:encoded><![CDATA[<table cellpadding="3"><tr><td valign="top"><img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2013/201304261101330697t.jpg"/></td><td valign="top">KATHMANDU 26 April 2013 (IRIN) - It is the nightmare scenario aid workers and government officials have long feared: a massive earthquake striking Nepal’s densely populated Kathmandu Valley, with tens of thousands feared dead.</td></tr></table>>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Red tape hits humanitarian work in NW Pakistan</title><pubDate>Thu, 25 Apr 2013 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[<img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2010/201009071353040187t.jpg" />]]>ISLAMABAD 25 April 2013 (IRIN) - Delivering humanitarian aid in northwestern Pakistan has recently been hampered by attacks on schools, aid workers and polio vaccination teams, and bureaucratic procedures for aid projects are making matters worse.</description><body><![CDATA[ISLAMABAD 25 April 2013 (IRIN) - Delivering humanitarian aid in northwestern Pakistan has recently been hampered by attacks on schools [ http://www.irinnews.org/Report/97863/Far-from-home-but-closer-to-school-in-Pakistan ], aid workers [ http://tribune.com.pk/story/487834/swabi-bloodletting-in-grisly-attack-gunmen-kill-seven-aid-workers/ ] and polio vaccination teams [ http://tribune.com.pk/story/481267/targeting-polio-workers/ ], and bureaucratic procedures for aid projects are making matters worse.

International and national humanitarian agencies in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province (KP) and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) often face long delays waiting for local officials to grant the relevant permits.

Since 2005, procedures to obtain No Objection Certificates (NOCs) for projects and travel have made it more difficult to deliver vital aid, and in at least one case, led directly to the cancellation of projects.

Relief and recovery projects in FATA and KP require project NOCs, while international staff, including UN workers, also require travel NOCs to move around.

“We had applied for a project implementation NOC to begin a project in livestock in the Kurram Agency to the FATA Disaster Management Authority in February, and had planned the project in December last year, but have still had no response,” said Anwar Shah, CEO of the Peshawar-based national NGO Shid, which works in livestock, livelihood and education.

“Now the local livestock authorities in Kurram say it is too late to start - so everyone suffers.”

Hearing reports of delays, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) set about getting a more comprehensive picture by gathering data from agencies operating in the area.

“The problem is not a new one. It has been there for some time, but now rather than just anecdotal accounts, we are trying to properly monitor the situation and create a database to engage the authorities on this issue based on evidence,” Christina Alfirev, OCHA humanitarian affairs officer in Islamabad, told IRIN.

Of the 18 humanitarian agencies who submitted data [ http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/Humanitarian%20Bulletin%20Pakistan%20Issue%2013.pdf ] on NOC project requests in January and February, related to 27 projects, 21 were still being processed; only five had been approved and one had been rejected without explanation, as of early March.

Average processing time for project NOCs in KP as of the end of February was found to be 53 days and 66 days for FATA instead of the six weeks indicated by government authorities.  One NGO had to wait 118 days for an NOC.

The OCHA bulletin published 4 April 2013 says the delays are “hampering the provision of critical services” and calls on local authorities to speed up the paperwork “to enable timely assistance to people in need in KP and FATA.”

The bulletin says one emergency project had to be cancelled because of delays, while another had to be reduced in scope.

The paper trail

Humanitarian projects in KP need an NOC from the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) [ http://www.pdma.gov.pk/PaRRSA/Humanitarian_Coordination.php ], and must be requested at least six weeks in advance.

Expatriate staff also need an NOC for travel; and in February the Home Department in KP said applications should be made “at least 6-8 weeks prior to the visit”, something one international humanitarian worker, who asked not to be named, told IRIN that if implemented, “means regular visits to projects are nearly impossible.”

Donors have been expressing concern to the government about the delays these moves could create if implemented, and there are some indications the authorities may be prepared to revoke the policy.

Applications go to the home department of the provincial government in Peshawar, and then can often follow a trail of authorizations and approvals from various military units, as well as the Inter-Services Intelligence.

“A key reason for the new procedures is security concerns. The government is worried a foreign worker or local NGO worker may be harmed, and this brings it a bad name. I think recent events like attacks on polio workers are a factor in the decisions taken,” said a PDMA official in KP who preferred anonymity because he was not authorized to speak with the press.

The delays witnessed by agencies in the last few months are also affecting relations with donors, some of whom do not transfer funds until project NOCs have been issued.

“The Project NOC is valid for six months. Then the same game starts again. At this time I have been waiting now more than six weeks for the extension of an NOC,” said the aid worker, adding that donors usually extend a project’s lifespan, though without increasing budgets, which means they are almost inevitably reduced in size, something donors do not always understand.

“Right now one of our donors is very unhappy,” he said.

Permit mission creep

Alfirev said project implementation permits date back to the 2005 earthquake which killed 73,000 people in the north: “The procedure was put in place by the Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority [ http://www.erra.pk/ ] set up by the government after that disaster, and was really intended to coordinate the many agencies working in the quake zone and prevent duplication. The process worked smoothly then.”

All organizations working on relief and early recovery activities in KP/FATA are required to either apply for Project NOCs [ http://www.pdma.gov.pk ] for projects lasting up to six months, or apply for a Memorandum of Understanding for projects [ http://www.pdma.gov.pk/PaRRSA/Humanitarian_Coordination.php ] lasting more than six months.

Since 2005, there have been a series of additions to the list of documents and information needed when making NOC requests.

The latest came in February this year with the government’s announcement of a 6-8 week requirement for travel NOCs, against the normal 5-7 working days.

The Home and Tribal Affairs Department issued new directives for travel NOCs for 10 (out of 25) KP districts - Malakand, Swat, Upper and Lower Dir, Buner, Shangla, Chitral, DI Khan, Tank and Hangu. The Law and Order Department issued a similar directive covering FATA.

Humanitarian agencies are hoping the new time-scale will be officially reduced to the previous 5-7 working days, and as yet it does not seem the 6-8 week policy is being applied on the ground.

“Since 2008, the humanitarian community has raised US$1.38 billion in funding for people affected by violence in northwestern Pakistan. In order to ensure that the assistance is delivered to the people in need, we depend on the government to facilitate humanitarian operations and ease bureaucratic hurdles,” said Lynn Hastings, OCHA country director.

Aid workers say the delays are making it more difficult to deliver aid to KP and FATA. “People suffer when there are delays,” said Shah of Shid NGO.

In Mingora, the principal town in KP’s Swat District, Abdul Wali, 45, who lost his farm in the 2010 floods [ http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-202_162-6735391.html ], told IRIN: “There is a desperate need for more projects, more development here. So many people are jobless, and need help.”

kh/jj/cb

]]></body><link>http://www.irinnews.org/Report/97908/Red-tape-hits-humanitarian-work-in-NW-Pakistan</link><content:encoded><![CDATA[<table cellpadding="3"><tr><td valign="top"><img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2010/201009071353040187t.jpg"/></td><td valign="top">ISLAMABAD 25 April 2013 (IRIN) - Delivering humanitarian aid in northwestern Pakistan has recently been hampered by attacks on schools, aid workers and polio vaccination teams, and bureaucratic procedures for aid projects are making matters worse.</td></tr></table>>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Engaging with Philippine armed groups</title><pubDate>Thu, 25 Apr 2013 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[<img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2013/201304231114010299t.jpg" />]]>COTABATO 25 April 2013 (IRIN) - For Chris Rush, of the Swiss-based NGO Geneva Call, nuance is everything when engaging with armed groups. Although the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Maoist-inspired New People&apos;s Army (NPA) are both fighting insurrections on the same Philippines island of Mindanao, the choice of terminology is a tender issue when it comes to the use of such phrases as &quot;armed non-state actors (ANSAs)”.</description><body><![CDATA[COTABATO 25 April 2013 (IRIN) - For Chris Rush, of the Swiss-based NGO Geneva Call, nuance is everything when engaging with armed groups. Although the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Maoist-inspired New People's Army (NPA) are both fighting insurrections on the same Philippines’ island of Mindanao, the choice of terminology is a tender issue when it comes to the use of such phrases as "armed non-state actors (ANSAs)”. 

"The Maoists reject the word ‘ANSA’ as they see themselves having attained a situation of dual power and of having established a revolutionary government… while the MILF are more positive about the term, as they feel it provides some sort of political acknowledgement," Rush, the senior programme officer for the Philippines, told IRIN. 

The Moro, the island’s indigenous Islamic population, have fought for independence in their Mindanao ancestral homeland for about 40 years in various guises, and are on the cusp of reaching an agreement with the Philippines government for a semi-autonomous state, to be known as Bangsamoro, that could end one of the country’s longest-running conflicts. 

Rush has engaged with the MILF and its armed wing, the Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces (BIAF) and other stakeholders for the past six years to provide a mechanism for the MILF-BIAF to support humanitarian laws. Armed groups are automatically excluded from signing international treaties prescribing humanitarian norms. 

There is a genuine affability between Rush and the MILF when they meet at Camp Darapanan near Cotabato on Mindanao, where the archipelago’s largest armed group has about 12,000 combatants in more than 20 heavily guarded command bases. Talks with MILF chairman Al Haj Murad Ebrahim and other officials range beyond the armed group's commitment not to use anti-personnel mines to issues touching the prospective peace agreement. 

High aims 

Geneva Call's engagements with armed groups have strategic, long-term objectives relating to policy and practice, rather than focusing on more immediate problems like securing access to assist vulnerable populations, as is the case with many humanitarian actors. Rush said the importance of dealing with the same personalities consistently "cannot be overstated... but saying that there is only one right way to approach an armed group I would avoid, as it depends on what you are seeking to achieve." 

A document by Geneva Call to provide a format for armed groups to subscribe to humanitarian norms was first devised for anti-personnel mine usage. The MILF signed the Deed of Commitment for Adherence to a Total Ban on Anti-Personnel Mines and for Cooperation in Mine Action in 2000, during an upsurge in the conflict [ http://www.genevacall.org/resources/deed-of-commitment/f-deed-of-commitment/doc.pdf ].

Much of the nationalist struggle took place in the Bangsamoro homeland. Because landmines harm indiscriminately and remain lethal after peace agreements are signed, the MILF-BIAF favoured a ban on anti-personnel mines, but prior to the Deed of Commitment there were no available mechanisms to formalise it, Rush said. 

In many respects the Deed mirrors the Mine Ban Treaty (MBT) [ http://www.icbl.org/index.php/icbl/Treaty ], a state protocol ending the use of anti-personnel mines and requiring the destruction of weapons stockpiles, which entered into force in 1999. The Philippines government was among the MBT's first signatories [ http://www.icbl.org/index.php/icbl/Universal/MBT/States-Parties ].

A progress report on a 2012 Framework Peace Agreement between the MILF and the government, and its stance against the use of anti-personnel mines, was presented at two recent BIAF rallies. Rush was a guest speaker and drove home the point that " [anti-personnel] landmines are an issue of conflict, but also of peace". 

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the International Coalition Against the Use of Child Soldiers, and the Swiss Foundation for Mine Action (FSD), among others, had also approached the MILF about International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and human rights law, and adhering to international humanitarian norms in their conduct of war. 

Geneva Call was introduced to the MILF by the Philippines Campaign to Ban Landmines (PCBL), the local branch of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL). 

Geneva Call has developed two more Deeds of Commitment for armed groups - one for the protection of children from armed conflict, another covering the respect and rights of women - and is commencing negotiations for adoption of the latter by the MILF. “We are fighting for the cause of self-determination... you have to conform to international standards," Murad Ebrahim told IRIN. 

Humanitarian norms 

Jesus Domingo, of the government's foreign affairs department, told IRIN he became involved in the MILF commitment not to use anti-personnel mines through the department’s work in humanitarian affairs and disarmament in 2007. "The process was very much between MI [a shorthand for MILF] and Geneva Call, but we encouraged it and applauded it, as we welcome armed non-state actors embracing IHL and other international norms." 

The government assented and then stood back. "We respected their [Geneva Call’s] independence... and for them to be successful they must have the confidence of not only us, but also of MI," Domingo said. The MILF signing the Deed "was a plus”, and “It certainly contributed to the building of confidence… Geneva Call were not directly part of the peace process, but we saw them as part of the overall spectrum." 

The proposed peace agreement could allow for an autonomous region in Mindanao with tax-raising powers and a share of the profits from the island's mineral resources, with the government retaining control over defence, foreign affairs and monetary policies. Sharia law may be applied, but only to Muslims in relation to civil cases, while criminal cases will be the domain of existing courts. Once the agreement is confirmed, it would go to the Philippines Congress for approval, followed by a plebiscite in Bangsamoro. 

"During the early stages of the struggle we were using anti-personnel mines as a defence for our camps,” Murad Ebrahim noted. “There are those commanders who said we did not need to sign this commitment but, ultimately, if we continued to use landmines, our people suffer." 

He said the 2001 Tripoli agreement between the MILF and the government to resume peace talks, which included provisions for the respect of human rights and IHL, and a commitment not to use anti-personnel mines, "gave us the image of having respect for international law". 

An analyst who declined to be identified told IRIN the commitment to end the use of anti-personnel mines gave the armed group a "wider level of respect... It brings more good than bad, and more credibility [among the international community] for armed non-state actors." 

The MILF was formed in 1977 after Sheikh Salamat Hashim split from the secularist Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), which had begun its separatist war five years earlier. The Philippines government reached a peace agreement with MNLF in 1996, and in the following year signed an interim peace agreement with the MILF. 

Peace processes 

The long-running conflict has seen an estimated 150,000 people killed so far, amid a host of proposed and rejected peace agreements. Two million people have been displaced since 2000, of which about 22,000 remain displaced today. 

Domingo said, “There were separate tracks [of discussion] with the different Muslim groups [MNLF and MILF] in Mindanao," as well as efforts to resolve conflicts with other armed groups, such as the NPA and "the breakaway communist movements." These discussions covered social, economic and political reforms, consensus-building, separate negotiated settlements with each armed group, reconciliation, reintegration and rehabilitation, and the protection of civilians during conflict. 

One government source, who declined to be identified, told IRIN: "There are strong rumours of a breakthrough with the NPA. It may be weariness, or… [a sense of] ‘Hey, let’s not get left behind by history’." 

The National Democratic Front of the Philippines, political representatives of the NPA, signed the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CAHR-IHL) in the 1990s. Some observers say they may believe this encompasses the banning of anti-personnel mines and could be why they have not signed a Deed. 

A 2008 peace agreement gave the MILF control over more than 700 areas in the south that they considered their ancestral domain, but this was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court and hostilities resumed. In the course of the fighting the Philippines government accused the BIAF of using anti-personnel mines [ http://www.genevacall.org/resources/other-documents-studies/f-other-documents-studies/2001-2010/2010-GC-Report-Philippines-Web.pdf ] and Geneva Call launched a verification mission. 

Verification 

In 2009 Geneva Call concluded that some of the explosive devices used against the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) were activated by remote control and therefore not prohibited under the Deed's provisions. Others may have been victim-activated - set-off by trip wires or by downward pressure and therefore be in violation of the Deed - but there was not enough evidence to attribute responsibility. "The military would have liked more definitive conclusions," Domingo commented. 

Rush noted that "Although perhaps not completely satisfied, the government did accept the findings… [but] the MILF were also a little disappointed that it was not possible to definitively conclude that its forces had no involvement in the incidents, so it was not a zero-sum game." 

The verification report showed that disavowing anti-personnel landmine use was just a first step towards the "actualization of obligations", and armed groups sometimes needed assistance to achieve this. "So they [MILF-BIAF] drafted General Order Number 3, and we assisted… [with] advice and through working with them and our local partner, the Institute of Bangsamoro Studies, to disseminate the Order to their forces on the ground," Rush said. 

Domingo said the Order was seen as "a real earnest effort by MILF to educate its combatants about not using landmines", and added to "the very upbeat" feeling the government has about the Bangsamoro peace process. 

go/he 

]]></body><link>http://www.irinnews.org/Report/97918/Engaging-with-Philippine-armed-groups</link><content:encoded><![CDATA[<table cellpadding="3"><tr><td valign="top"><img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2013/201304231114010299t.jpg"/></td><td valign="top">COTABATO 25 April 2013 (IRIN) - For Chris Rush, of the Swiss-based NGO Geneva Call, nuance is everything when engaging with armed groups. Although the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Maoist-inspired New People&apos;s Army (NPA) are both fighting insurrections on the same Philippines island of Mindanao, the choice of terminology is a tender issue when it comes to the use of such phrases as &quot;armed non-state actors (ANSAs)”.</td></tr></table>>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Rakhine IDPs in Myanmar brace for monsoon rains</title><pubDate>Wed, 24 Apr 2013 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[<img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2013/201304240939570296t.jpg" />]]>RAKHINE STATE 24 April 2013 (IRIN) - More than 125,000 displaced Rohingya in Myanmar’s western Rakhine State are bracing for this year’s punishing monsoon rains.</description><body><![CDATA[RAKHINE STATE 24 April 2013 (IRIN) - More than 125,000 displaced Rohingya in Myanmar’s western Rakhine State are bracing for this year’s punishing monsoon rains. 

“There’s no real shelter here. People are getting diseases and the rainy season will make it even worse,” Ali Mia, a 45-year-old Rohingya father-of-six, whose home in Sittwe, the capital city of Rakhine State, was burned during inter-communal violence in June, told IRIN. 

Set to begin as early as May, the rains will come in daily downpours, which, in the crowded and unsanitary conditions of Rakhine’s dozens of camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs), could hasten the spread of disease, aid workers warn. 

“We’re very worried with the monsoon season coming up. If these people are not relocated we could see a very big humanitarian problem, [including] disease outbreaks,” said Peter Paule de Groote, the head of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Myanmar. "The water level will rise and some of it will be very, very muddy, if not flooded, and there’s nowhere for them to go.” 

Sectarian clashes between Buddhists and Muslims in June [ http://www.irinnews.org/Report/95631/MYANMAR-Rakhine-violence-sparks-concern ] and October left 167 dead, hundreds injured and more than 125,000 displaced in Rakhine State, according to government estimates. 

More than 10,000 homes were burned or destroyed in the violence [ http://www.irinnews.org/report/96801/Briefing-Myanmar-s-Rohingya-crisis ].

Under Burmese law, the Rohingya [ http://www.irinnews.org/In-Depth/95190/96/ ] are de jure stateless. There are an estimated 800,000 Rohingya in Myanmar and human rights groups say they have long faced persecution and discrimination.

On 19 April [ http://reliefweb.int/report/myanmar/monsoon-approaches-fears-rise-displaced-myanmars-rakhine-state ], the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) called for urgent action and increased financial support to improve conditions of the displaced to avert a “humanitarian catastrophe”. 

Some have camped in paddy fields or low-lying areas that will flood once the rains start.

Already, international aid groups are reporting high cases of respiratory and skin infections, worms and diarrhoea in the camps they have visited. Such diseases are much more likely to spread in sodden conditions, they warn. 

Moreover, the onset of rains will likely be accompanied by a spike in water-borne diseases, and the camp’s primitive latrines remain vulnerable to overflowing from rainfall. 

“The water and sanitation situation is appalling,” said MSF's de Groote. 

Unregistered lack assistance 

But it is the risk of those displaced not yet registered [ http://www.irinnews.org/Report/97729/Unregistered-IDPs-in-Myanmar-s-Rakhine-without-aid ] with the authorities that is most worrying.

While partners are providing life-saving assistance to more than 100,000 IDPs registered by the government, there is a sizable population (15,000 individuals) that is displaced but has yet to be allowed access to humanitarian aid. 

Several thousand are living in makeshift sites that have not been sanctioned by the government. IDPs in these locations receive limited to no assistance as opposed to those in official camps. 

Unlike in official camps, where residents are supplied with waterproof tents, residents of Maw Than Mia, home to some 1,000 unregistered displaced, sleep in tiny huts constructed of nothing more than thatched straw. 

They are particularly vulnerable because their camp is spread across a low-lying field which, previously used for rice cultivation, is designed to flood. 

Aid agencies are calling on the government to address the shelter needs as a matter of priority, noting adequate land needs to be identified and allocated and challenges related to water and sanitation addressed, particularly in Myebon and Pauktaw. 

Inter-agency plans 

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, humanitarian partners, in collaboration with the government, have developed an inter-agency preparedness plan for Rakhine running from March to June. 

The plan [ http://www.themimu.info/ ] aims to address preparedness and response actions with specific sector/cluster response plans for two scenarios: 1) a potential natural hazard such as a cyclone which would affect over 250,000 people across the state and 2) a potential deterioration of the humanitarian situation during the rainy season, particularly in the camps. 

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]]></body><link>http://www.irinnews.org/Report/97915/Rakhine-IDPs-in-Myanmar-brace-for-monsoon-rains</link><content:encoded><![CDATA[<table cellpadding="3"><tr><td valign="top"><img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2013/201304240939570296t.jpg"/></td><td valign="top">RAKHINE STATE 24 April 2013 (IRIN) - More than 125,000 displaced Rohingya in Myanmar’s western Rakhine State are bracing for this year’s punishing monsoon rains.</td></tr></table>>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Education takes a hit in Myanmar’s Kachin State</title><pubDate>Tue, 23 Apr 2013 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[<img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2013/201304230910310459t.jpg" />]]>MAI JA YANG 23 April 2013 (IRIN) - Traditional Kachin music fills the community hall as a troupe of singers bellows out a song for family and friends at the Teacher Training College in the town of Mai Ja Yang. It is a night of celebration for 65 graduates who have upgraded their teaching skills in Myanmar&apos;s northern Kachin State, not far from the Chinese border.</description><body><![CDATA[MAI JA YANG 23 April 2013 (IRIN) - Traditional Kachin music fills the community hall as a troupe of singers bellows out a song for family and friends at the Teacher Training College in the town of Mai Ja Yang. It is a night of celebration for 65 graduates who have upgraded their teaching skills in Myanmar's northern Kachin State, not far from the Chinese border.

Elsewhere in this remote, mountainous region, which has more than 83,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs), there is little to celebrate. A 17-year-old ceasefire between the Burmese government and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), who have been fighting for greater autonomy for the past six decades, collapsed in June 2011 [ http://www.irinnews.org/report/95616/MYANMAR-Kachin-conflict-continues-one-year-on ].

“In December [ http://www.irinnews.org/Report/97273/Myanmar-s-Laiza-town-tense-after-government-attacks ] we had to postpone studies at the school I was working at for a few months because of the fighting around Laiza,” 22-year-old Aung Gam Haundang, who will resume teaching next month at the middle school in the de-facto capital of the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO - political arm of the KIA), told IRIN.

“The biggest problem is we need more teachers. However, many who are qualified are afraid to work in the area because of the ongoing conflict and the recent attacks,” Haundang said.

Some 47,000 people are in IDP camps in KIA-controlled areas, with thousands more staying with host families, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported on 18 April [ http://reliefweb.int/report/myanmar/myanmar-humanitarian-bulletin-issue-march-2013 ].

Thousands of school-age children have been affected by the conflict, with varying access to education facilities.

In KIA-controlled areas, volunteer teachers have been used to maintain education services for the displaced. However, financial support for this effort is lacking. A comprehensive assessment of the education sector is urgently needed to better determine the number of children in need of education support, gaps in school supplies, and the absorption capacity of existing schools, OCHA said.

School closures

Before the ceasefire collapsed, there were 262 state schools in KIA-controlled areas. Today there are 229, many of them overcrowded and under-resourced, local authorities say; many have been forced to close due to nearby fighting.

In Mai Ja Yang's only high school, classes operate in two shifts, starting at 6.30am, and mid-afternoon.

Prior to the conflict, just 600 children were enrolled at the school. However, an additional 700 teenagers from the camps have since joined - 200 of them from Northern Shan State, currently staying at a boarding house on the edge of town.

“We heard fighting and gunfire near our village last year so we fled the area, running in all directions,” 14-year-old Saing Toya from Northern Shan State told IRIN. “My parents wanted me to continue my studies in a safe area and promised that I could return home once the village is more secure.”

The newly graduated teachers are being assigned to several recently constructed primary and secondary schools near Mai Ja Yang and Laiza.

Headmaster La Raw at the Teacher Training College says 15-20 of the graduates will be posted to IDP camps where assistance is needed most.

Recently, the college sent two teachers to Yangon to attend a peace-building training course, joining representatives from other ethnic groups in Myanmar.

As the singers finish their song, La Raw points out that music is a big part of Kachin culture, but also represents the harmony that is now needed to maintain peace.

“We hope to have peace-building training implemented in future school curriculums,” La Raw said, adding, “and we hope that some of the Burmese generals will attend.”

Meanwhile, Yaw Sau of the Central Education Department in Laiza expressed concern over recent policy changes in Myanmar's education system which no longer recognizes official matriculation exams taken at schools in KIA-controlled areas - a move which could have serious repercussions for children once a peace deal is finally reached.

“One hundred and thirty-six students just completed their exams earlier this month, but the Myanmar government no longer recognizes the tests as official national level exams,” Yaw Sau said, noting that prior to June 2011, such exams were recognized.

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]]></body><link>http://www.irinnews.org/Report/97899/Education-takes-a-hit-in-Myanmar-s-Kachin-State</link><content:encoded><![CDATA[<table cellpadding="3"><tr><td valign="top"><img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2013/201304230910310459t.jpg"/></td><td valign="top">MAI JA YANG 23 April 2013 (IRIN) - Traditional Kachin music fills the community hall as a troupe of singers bellows out a song for family and friends at the Teacher Training College in the town of Mai Ja Yang. It is a night of celebration for 65 graduates who have upgraded their teaching skills in Myanmar&apos;s northern Kachin State, not far from the Chinese border.</td></tr></table>>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Slow retreat of monsoon floods in Pakistan hinders recovery</title><pubDate>Tue, 23 Apr 2013 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[<img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2011/201109190842460718t.jpg" />]]>SUKKUR 23 April 2013 (IRIN) - It is seven months since the monsoon rains fell on Mohammed Qayyum’s village in the Taib area of Shikarpur District in Pakistan’s southern province of Sindh.</description><body><![CDATA[SUKKUR 23 April 2013 (IRIN) - It is seven months since the monsoon rains fell on Mohammed Qayyum’s village in the Taib area of Shikarpur District in Pakistan’s southern province of Sindh.

The third straight year of devastating monsoon flooding in Pakistan destroyed his home and flooded his fields. He knocked together a temporary shelter for his family and tried to wait patiently for the waters to disappear.

But months after September’s rains, the water was still there.

“I waited and waited, and then I ran out of money. The help from the government and the NGOs was not enough, and the water just won’t drain,” Qayyum, 42, told IRIN.

By December, Qayyum had used up all his savings, and left his wife and three children behind and travelled to nearby Sukkur, where he set up a small fruit stall with money he borrowed from a cousin.

“I couldn’t grow anything, and the land from where the water has drained is in really bad shape. [Selling fruit] is the only way I can buy some food for my family.”

Qayyum is among the 1.2 million people in Pakistan still affected by the 2012 monsoon floods, and unable to return to their homes. They are living either in makeshift shelters next to their damaged houses, or in temporary settlements [ http://pakresponse.info/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=IaZV7zwPDF4%3d&tabid=148&mid=915 ].

Since the floods

Most of those affected by the floods in Sindh, the worst hit province, are farmers and the months the water took to dissipate meant they lost what would have been their main source of food and income in 2013, and diminished hopes of a quick recovery. 

Some 485,000 hectares of cropland was affected by the 2012 floods across Pakistan, where agriculture is the backbone of the economy [ http://www.ndma.gov.pk/Documents/monsoon/2012/damages/january/damages_details_23_01_2013.pdf ].

Savings can help them survive for a short time, but the length of time the floodwaters took to recede means such reserves often run-out - and when land does become available again, they lack the capital to invest in planting crops.

They were unable to plant crops for the winter season and with water still standing over swathes of cropland, the next season may be affected as well.

By January - four months after the flooding - 374sqkm [ http://www.unicef.org/pakistan/UNICEF_2012_Floods_Update_18_January_2013.pdf ] of land remained under water in Sindh’s Jacobabad, Qambar Shadhad Kot and Dadu districts, according to analysis of satellite imagery by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). 

The UN estimates that nearly 170,000 families need agricultural materials like seeds and fertilizer in the flood-affected areas of Pakistan, and over 100,000 need feed for livestock. Extensive damage to critical infrastructure, like roads and irrigation channels, compounds the crisis.

East of Shikarpur, in the village of Mir Sikander in Sindh’s Jacobabad District, 35-year-old rice farmer Mohammed Hayat leaves home soon after dawn to look for work as a labourer. 

His fields have been under water since September and without the agricultural income he had anticipated, he has little chance of rebuilding his life.

“The water has not drained and I don’t know what it will leave behind,” Hayat said. “It has been months now, and I don’t know when it will drain. I have to forget about the rice and find work elsewhere.”

Sindh is almost entirely flat - one reason why water from the last three monsoon floods drained very slowly [ http://www.un-spider.org/sites/default/files/RSO_SUPARCO_Floods.pdf ].

“The gentle slope of the land in Sindh makes natural drainage more difficult,” said Saifullah Bullo, deputy director at the Sindh Provincial Disaster Management Authority.

“Other factors compound the problem too. The irrigation and man-made drainage systems are not in proper shape, not properly maintained. The soil in some areas is also the type that tends to hold water.”

It is not just the crops that have suffered because of standing water.

The pools of stagnant water are ideal breeding grounds for mosquitos, a constant threat to the health of the villagers.

“My kids are feverish very often, which really worries me,” Hayat said. “I try to make sure that they drink the cleanest water we can get, but there are so many mosquitos.”

Fearful

Having suffered from floods three years in a row, Pakistan’s authorities and humanitarian organizations are worried about the prospects of another flood, with the rainy season expected to begin in July.

Some preparations are under way, including training local officials to respond more quickly and better to a disaster situation.

In villages like Mir Sikander, where the water from the last rainy season is still standing, villagers are acutely aware of the fact that things will get far worse with another flood.

“We don’t talk about it all the time, but you can tell that everyone is thinking about July, when the rains will come,” said Shah Nawaz, 32, another rice farmer from Mir Sikander. 

“Everyone is scared; old people, young people, little children.”

Pakistan’s government and aid workers consider the economic rehabilitation of the flood-hit areas to be a key medium-to-long-term priority, but any future development work will have to wait in areas like Jacobabad and Shikarpur where large tracts of farmland remain under water.

In Sukkur, farmer-turned-fruit seller Qayyum cannot stop thinking about the monsoon floods.

“They now come every year,” he said. “If there is another flood this year, I will not be able to grow anything for another year. The land will die.”

Reviving agriculture recovery in the flood-hit districts of northern Sindh will prove to be a significant challenge, with humanitarian organizations struggling to fund their recovery plan and key areas like food, health, sanitation and shelter still needing attention.

Only 32 percent of the US$169 million needed for the Monsoon Humanitarian Operation Plan has been funded [ http://pakresponse.info/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=QW_K8TltCeo%3d&tabid=148&mid=915 ].

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]]></body><link>http://www.irinnews.org/Report/97904/Slow-retreat-of-monsoon-floods-in-Pakistan-hinders-recovery</link><content:encoded><![CDATA[<table cellpadding="3"><tr><td valign="top"><img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2011/201109190842460718t.jpg"/></td><td valign="top">SUKKUR 23 April 2013 (IRIN) - It is seven months since the monsoon rains fell on Mohammed Qayyum’s village in the Taib area of Shikarpur District in Pakistan’s southern province of Sindh.</td></tr></table>>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Political instability undermines disaster preparedness in Bangladesh</title><pubDate>Mon, 22 Apr 2013 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[<img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2007/200708256t.jpg" />]]>DHAKA 22 April 2013 (IRIN) - Ongoing political instability in Bangladesh is undermining disaster preparedness efforts, experts warn. From January to April 2013, opposition parties have enforced 18 nationwide strikes throughout Bangladesh, with even more enforced at the regional and district level, according to security analysts.</description><body><![CDATA[DHAKA 22 April 2013 (IRIN) - Ongoing political instability in Bangladesh is undermining disaster preparedness efforts, experts warn. From January to April 2013, opposition parties have enforced 18 nationwide strikes throughout Bangladesh, with even more enforced at the regional and district level, according to security analysts.

“Due to consecutive strikes, our collective ability as a humanitarian community to meet, plan, implement or monitor development has become limited,” Gerson Brandao, humanitarian affairs adviser to the office of the UN resident coordinator in Bangladesh, told IRIN. He noted that field visits have been postponed, which limits humanitarian groups’ ability support to local partners.

Strikers’ demands include: the release of jailed opposition leaders; the cancellation of a state-appointed International Crimes Tribunal [ http://www.irinnews.org/report/97738/Time-to-reconcile-in-Bangladesh ] investigating war crimes by collaborators during the 1971 war of independence; and the reinstatement of a care-taker government system to run the country’s next national poll, scheduled for 2014.

When a strike is called, there is typically a total shut down of civilian vehicles on the road. And if any vehicles are seen on the street, opposition activist vandalize or set fire to them.

“I am worried that in the event of a major disaster - as it’s likely, given we are in the middle of the cyclone season - the capacity of development partners to complement the assistance provided by the government to disaster-affected people will be to some extent reduced,” Brandao said.

According to the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center [ http://www.adpc.net/2012/ ], Bangladesh [ http://www.irinnews.org/Report/80808/BANGLADESH-Working-to-improve-disaster-preparedness ] is ranked one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world, with cyclones striking coastal regions almost every year.

More than two-thirds of the country’s 64 districts are prone to natural disasters, including cyclones, floods, landslides, tornadoes and drought.

Development work interrupted

Meanwhile, the ongoing political turmoil is taking its toll on development work.

“Strikes do delay the implementation of activities we funded. For instance, cash-based transfers are not implemented during strikes. And usually INGOs [international NGOs] and UN partners are not able to use their vehicles on those days, which means their programmes come to a halt, and monitoring cannot be done," said Olivier Brouant, head of office of the European Commission’s humanitarian arm (ECHO) in Dhaka.

ECHO is one the largest donors in Bangladesh, providing 30.65 million euros to address humanitarian needs in 2012 and 2013, and 3.65 million euros for disaster risk reduction projects in 2013 and 2014.

To cope with the strikes, Plan International in Bangladesh has changed its working pattern.

“We have shifted some of our event-based activities to the weekends, and to make up working days lost in strikes for the staff who still cannot come to the office on a hartal (local word for strike) day, they are now working on weekends or making up time by working late,”

According to Gareth Price-Jones, country director for Oxfam, the situation is manageable. But he added: “We are worried for the future, though, and with other NGOs and the UN, we are reminding all actors of the protected status of humanitarian work under international law, which should enable us to keep working even if the situation worsens.”

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]]></body><link>http://www.irinnews.org/Report/97889/Political-instability-undermines-disaster-preparedness-in-Bangladesh</link><content:encoded><![CDATA[<table cellpadding="3"><tr><td valign="top"><img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2007/200708256t.jpg"/></td><td valign="top">DHAKA 22 April 2013 (IRIN) - Ongoing political instability in Bangladesh is undermining disaster preparedness efforts, experts warn. From January to April 2013, opposition parties have enforced 18 nationwide strikes throughout Bangladesh, with even more enforced at the regional and district level, according to security analysts.</td></tr></table>>]]></content:encoded></item></channel></rss>