NGOs in Myanmar: Proposal - Research Paper Example

2.0 Research Review According to United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees HIV/AIDs crisis has been a major cause of concern in Myanmar with almost 1% adult population HIV positive as of 2009.2 Malnutrition is also a severe problem in this nation with more than 25% of new born babies underweight, and approximately a third of the children suffering from malnutrition by the age of five.3 Since the military took over the government in 1989, women from all ethnic, cultural and religious backgrounds in Myanmar have been denied most of their fundamental rights.4 1. Steinberg, D. I., Burma/Myanmar: what everyone needs to know (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010) p126 2. UNICEF.“Myanmar statistics,” Modified March 2, 2010.. http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/myanmar_statistics.html 3. UNHCR, “UNHCR country operations profile – Myanmar, Working Environment,” Modified 2012.

http://www.unhcr.org/pages/49e4877d6.html 4. O'Shannassy, T., Burma's excluded majority: women, dictatorship and the democracy movement( London: CIIR, 2007), p5 Another report produced by UNHCR in 2008 showed that only 43% of this nation’s population had access to safe water and adequate sanitation.5 Both the local and international NGOs operating in Myanmar focus on supporting various humanitarian programs and services such as confronting the HIV/AIDs crisis, providing food relief, supporting access to health care and education, providing safe water and sanitation, promoting the rights of women and starting community-based development projects and micro-loans.

This paper seeks to investigate the humanitarian and development role related to refugees played by both international and local NGOs in Burma. Despite the above services, NGOs operating in war prone zones have to meet difficult conditions. Polman presents the case of Darfur in Sudan where though NGOs worked hard for humanization aid, solders took advantage of these NGOs to demand money.6 Polman in addition explain that governments impose high taxes for food items brought in these regions as humanitarian aid, making the work of NGOS much more difficult and unbearable.

The lack of sufficient doctors in the battle field to treat both the local citizens and soldiers has been a matter of concern, where in some cases; solders have no food or medication, and yet have to be involved in war.7 Polman offers the case of Rwanda genocide as the worst humanitarian situation in the modern world that required massive intervention. NGOs carried out fund raisings, with massive aid of about $1.5 billion received from donors and governments to make the Rwandese case the best funded humanitarian crisis in the world.8 5. UNHCR, “Myanmar, Republic of the Union,” Modified May 21, 2008.

http://www.unicef.org/emerg/myanmar_43877.html 6. Linda, P., The crises caravan: What’s wrong with Humanitarian aid (New York: Henry Holt, 2010), p1 7. Ibid, p3 8. Ibid, p 20 Buddhism has portrayed a major role in offering massive humanitarian aid to many Burmese residents. The economic independence of the Buddhist Monkhood and the intervention in clerical disputes to favor a single sect compared to another portrays interplay between political and religion forces in