This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 RANGOON 000555 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE PASS USAID/GH -- D. GIBB 
STATE FOR EAP/BCLTV AND IO/EDA -- W. SWANEY 
BANGKOK FOR USAID 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EAID ECON PREL SOCI BM NGO
SUBJECT: UNICEF IN BURMA 
 
REF: A. STATE 76373 
     ¶B. RANGOON 22 AND PREVIOUS 
     ¶C. 04 RANGOON 158 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary: UNICEF is effective in most of its core 
programs in Burma, and is planning to expand and refocus its 
activities in the next five years.  Though some criticisms 
remain, particularly dealing with UNICEF's administrative 
laxness and close cooperation with the GOB, the country 
director is saying the right things about tightening up the 
ship and improving the quality and assessments of ongoing 
efforts.  Relations between the embassy and UNICEF are good. 
End summary. 
 
Plans for the Future 
 
¶2. (U) Per reftel request Chief of Mission (COM) met on April 
28 with UNICEF Burma country representative Carroll Long and 
her deputy Elke Wisch to discuss the agency's new country 
program and to clarify some embassy concerns prior to the 
executive board meeting. 
 
¶3. (SBU) The country rep laid out her vision for the 
immediate future of UNICEF in Burma.  She highlighted the 
broad objective of expanding at least basic immunization 
programs beyond the 61 townships in which UNICEF now operates 
while at the same time improving monitoring and evaluation 
and the skills of the primarily local staff tasked with 
carrying out the agency's directives in remote regions. 
Specifically, she mentioned the importance of auditing the 
unverified operating assumption that 80 percent of Burma's 
children were immunized against the "Basic Seven" childhood 
diseases.  Also, she stressed the importance of doing more 
community-based data collection to reduce dependence on GOB 
assertions and unreliable government data. On capacity 
building, Ms. Long indicated UNICEF would focus on getting 
more local and expatriate trainers and experts to work with 
both UNICEF staff and also technical-level GOB staff.  She 
said that because the quality of child protection in Burma 
was currently so low, this type of training was essential -- 
especially in rural areas.  UNICEF Burma was trying to get 
the budget to hire additional expatriate staff for more 
remote programs. 
 
¶4. (SBU) Ms. Long also pointed out a few specific new 
directions UNICEF programs would take in the next five years. 
 Most notably, according to the country rep, is an expanded 
child protection component that will focus on building a 
functioning juvenile justice system (in conjunction with 
ICRC), reaching out to orphans and "vulnerable children," and 
fighting child exploitation (especially trafficking, child 
labor, child prostitution, and child soldiers).  Other 
changes will be a redirecting of UNICEF's HIV/AIDs work to 
deal more intensively with mother-child transmission and AIDs 
orphans (both growing problems in Burma); expanding existing 
childhood development programs (from the current peri-urban 
focus to more remote regions); and, putting more into making 
education affordable (to reduce dropouts). 
 
Is UNICEF Too Close to the GOB? 
 
¶5. (SBU) Responding to the COM's observation that some view 
UNICEF as too close with the GOB (a common criticism of 
UNICEF, see ref C), Ms. Long pointed out that to carry out 
the type of structural changes they hope to achieve in 
GOB-controlled areas like basic healthcare and education, 
"you have to work with anybody who can help you get to kids, 
even if they're otherwise reprehensible."  She said there 
have been positive results to UNICEF's efforts to build trust 
in key ministries.  She noted, for example, that the Ministry 
of Education has refused to work with any other UN agency or 
international NGO on curriculum in public schools.  UNICEF, 
Ms. Long pointed out, has been able to get HIV/AIDs and 
domestic violence components added to school curricula in the 
townships in which UNICEF operates.  Ms. Long stressed that 
UNICEF has a wide array of NGO partners with whom the agency 
works without any GOB interference and cooperates well with 
the UN Country Team. 
 
¶6. (SBU) The UNICEF rep said that her agency's ties to the 
GOB at the working level did not do it much good when dealing 
with the designated UNICEF "focal point," the Minister for 
Development and National Planning, U Soe Tha.  She said that 
relations with him were quite poor and it was difficult for 
UNICEF to get necessary meetings with the Minister to seek 
his approval for planned changes and additions to UNICEF's 
mandate.  This bad situation had become even worse since 
former Prime Minister Khin Nyunt was ousted in October 2004. 
She did not seem to think these poor ties at the policymaking 
level would hurt UNICEF's new country plan, however. 
Regular Ties to NLD, Improving Ties to Embassy 
 
¶7. (SBU) Ms. Long volunteered that UNICEF had been taking 
monthly meetings with the NLD's Central Executive Committee 
(CEC) to explain the agency's activities and plans.  She said 
the CEC had not raised any objections to UNICEF's new country 
plan and indeed had urged the agency to do as much as 
possible to build the country's decrepit education system. 
In the past, imprisoned NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi (ASSK) 
had been a vocal proponent of a particular UNICEF childhood 
development project in suburban Rangoon. 
¶8. (SBU) (Note: U Lwin, NLD Secretary and spokesman, had a 
slightly different take.  He told us on May 3 that UNICEF had 
only met twice with a member of the CEC (once to discuss 
Global Fund issues and once to describe the new country plan) 
since the current country representative took office.  No 
UNICEF official has been to the NLD headquarters during this 
time period.  He also said that during the country plan 
briefing the NLD had been in a "listening mode" and he did 
not recall endorsing any component of the plan.  He admitted 
that ASSK had always been the primary point of contact with 
the UN agencies, and thus NLD-UN ties have been weaker since 
she was imprisoned in May 2003.  End note.) 
 
¶9. (SBU) COM asked if UNICEF would be amenable to more 
bilateral and informal visits of embassy staff to UNICEF 
project sites.  Though UNICEF's regular diplomatic group 
trips have been informative (ref C), UNICEF officials have 
been less willing to arrange informal visits to project sites 
by individual emboffs during up-country travel -- perhaps 
fearing a negative GOB reaction.  Ms. Long agreed with the 
COM's suggestion and said she would work to set up such 
visits in the future. 
 
Comment: On the Right Track? 
 
¶10. (SBU) UNICEF has been effective in many of its programs 
here. There are some outstanding concerns over UNICEF's 
activities here; particularly problems of oversensitivity to 
GOB criticism, administrative laxness, and a lack, thus far, 
of a true results-oriented assessment process.  However, 
while the country rep is optimistic, she is not naive in her 
dealings with the GOB, and is saying the right things about 
improving the quality of UNICEF's programs and the auditing 
mechanism that will help ensure efficiency.  Likewise, over 
the last year there has been a significant changeover in the 
administration in UNICEF's Burma HQ -- a change for the 
better one senior UNICEF official claimed. End comment. 
Martinez