Good news for poor Burmese and NGOs in Burma-Douglas Alexander, Britain’s Secretary of State for International Development, has announced that his government is to double its aid for the poorest people in Burma from £9 million (US $17.6 million) in 2007 to £18 million ($35.2 million) in 2008.

Alexander made the announcement after recent ¬¬¬visits to refugee camps on the Thai-Burmese border and meetings with foreign experts and informed Burmese in Thailand,

The senior British official said: “We will not turn our backs on the Burmese people who have courageously stood up for their rights. The recent protests showed their deep frustration with the lack of political and economic opportunities in Burma. The UK government, alongside the international community, will continue to put pressure on the Burmese government to embrace freedom.”

He also said that doubling aid for Burma “will allow us to help more children go to school, treat more people suffering from malaria, tuberculosis and HIV and tackle humanitarian needs. We will also continue to support civil society groups addressing the development needs of Burma. All our work is monitored carefully to ensure it reaches those most in need.”

The news of more aid going to Burma is to be cautiously welcomed. Let’s make sure that it will be effectively delivered to the needy and that it will save lives.

It is vital to provide assistance to HIV/AIDS patients and the poor. However, the root cause of problems in Burma should not be overlooked.

The country’s problems are a man-made disaster; incompetent military rulers are mainly responsible for Burma’s humanitarian crisis. It is the regime that should increase its budget and its spending on health and education rather than buying more jet fighters, military hardware and building a new capital estimated by the International Monetary Fund to cost between $122 million and $244 million.

Than Shwe’s regime has a long shopping list for his country’s 400,000 officers and soldiers. Over the past decade, the regime has bought warships from China, tanks from the Ukraine, MiG-29 jet fighters and a nuclear reactor from Russia, at an estimated cost of more than $3 billion. About 40 percent of the national budget goes on defense.

What if that money were spent instead on health and other areas for the improvement of people’s lives? Just 3 percent of the national budget is now spent on health services.

Even when aid reaches Burma it still has to be asked how it can be effectively delivered to the needy.

The implementation of any aid project in Burma still faces obstacles and restrictions imposed by the regime and its ministries. Foreign NGOs traveling to project sites in the countryside need special permission from the authorities, and that’s not easy.

In 2005, these restrictions prompted the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria to cancel its programs in Burma. The International Committee of the Red Cross was forced to scale down and suspend its prison visits after the regime demanded that members of the pro-government mass organization Union Solidarity Development Association accompany the ICRC visitors.

Faced with this kind of regime pressure, some foreign NGOs based in Rangoon and UN agencies decided to cooperate with the government.

Recently, the World Food Programme announced it would spend $51.7 million over the next three years in food aid to as many as 1,600,000 vulnerable people in Burma.

It is sad to see the country that was once the proud rice bowl of Asia having to rely on food aid from international agencies, despite Than Shwe’s recent claim that his government is preparing to feed 100 million Burmese.

It is important to increase aid to the needy without wasting money on overheads, expatriate fees and payments into the regime’s coffer.  We also have to be aware that responsibility for the poverty and the health crisis in Burma clearly lies with the generals and the political conflicts they provoke.  Unless the country’s political problems are solved Burma will need to ask for more funding from Douglas Alexander’s department. It will be a vicious circle.

Thus, while increasing assistance to Burma’s poor and needy, the international community must also keep up the pressure on the regime to initiate political change.

Finally, aid and humanitarian assistance should be inclusive and support Burmese groups working along the border area with Thailand and India. Increasing numbers of Burmese are fleeing to border areas because of government oppression, economic problems and the on-going political crackdown. These refugees should not be left behind.

After visiting the border camps, Douglas Alexander said: “As the leading donor, I want to understand the scale of the challenge and capacity of aid agencies on the ground in the region who provide support to Burmese who have fled from the military regime.”

It is to be hoped, therefore, that Douglas Alexander’s recent visit to the border area represents a major step in making his department’s policy and approach to Burma’s humanitarian crisis more comprehensive and down to earth.