Improving Humanitarian Flows Post Cyclone Nargis in Burma

Creating and enhancing the flow of information in Burma's Ayeyawaddy Delta and Yangon Division
Context and Issue: 

When Cyclone Nargis struck the coast of Burma on May 2nd, 2008, it moved across the Delta and the southern Rangoon division, leaving behind a trail of lost lives and widespread destruction, devastating townships with a total population of over seven million. Those affected lost family members, homes and livelihoods. The survivors had little or no way to access to information, particularly information on the massive aid effort that had been mobilised to provide them with resources for relief and recovery. The roughly two dozen major international and inter-governmental organisations along with many more smaller local organisations working to provide assistance, had little or no way to consistently provide information to those affected by the cyclone, and to receive feedback on the emerging needs and impact of their efforts as a whole. Internews conducted a successful three-pronged intervention campaign to improve information flow between the populations recovering from Cyclone Nargis and the humanitarian response effort, thus improving the ability of the humanitarian community and government to reach beneficiaries with the information they needed, the capacity of the affected communities to participate in their own relief and recovery, and the efficiency and appropriateness of the humanitarian assistance operation itself.

Project's activities: 

The three activities conducted were as follows: • Activity 1: Over 5,000 battery-powered radios were distributed to civil society leaders throughout the cyclone-affected area. • Activity 2: Almost 200,000 copies of locally published newspapers and magazines were distributed regularly to the affected villages, to augment the information provided by the radios. • Activity 3: an editorial team produced information targeted at cyclone-affected people for inclusion in the already-operational newspaper delivery system; Activity 3b: a regular brief on humanitarian information -- the Humanitarian Liaison Bulletin -- was created on a weekly basis and delivered to key institutions providing assistance, national and international NGOs and intergovernmental agencies participating in the OCHA cluster system and the parties to the IASC; and Activity 3c: in which the project assisted journalists to access key information from the humanitarian community, through the website www.myanmarhumanitarianinfo.org, and via informal linkages and workshops. Two ‘Media Penetration and Information Access’ surveys were also conducted to assess needs and to provide information on the success of the project.

Participants and Beneficiaries: 

The programme has engaged dozens of civic-minded individuals, NGOs and community-based organisations operating in affected areas, as well as local print media outlets that provide an information bridge between the humanitarian community and the affected population. It has also potentially provided hundreds of thousands of affected people with important information on the humanitarian efforts underway, and has increased their ability to understand and be involved in the process, despite the political limitations of information flow in-country.

Outcomes: 

Internews conducted a baseline survey of 1,200 affected people in the Delta region in July, and then a follow-up survey in November-December 2008. These surveys indicated that radio listening went up in the Delta after Cyclone Nargis. Before Nargis, 45 per cent of people owned a radio but, by November 2008, 58 per cent did so. By 2008, 92 per cent of the population in the affected areas was listening to the radio. An overwhelming 99 per cent of listeners turned to the national Nay Pyi Daw station for weather, news and songs, while significant numbers also turned to the exile stations for alternative news on political as well as relief-related issues. By distributing radios to civil society leaders in remote affected villages, the project also contributed to re-building community structures that were impaired or interrupted by the cyclone. For example, in Burma, monks are highly respected community leaders and people turn to them for assistance, particularly in times of crises. The distribution of radios raised the stature of monks as leaders as they could share information with their communities. Everywhere the radios were distributed, locally based monks were the first to ask for a radio. Internews issued approximately 35 per cent of the total number of radios via the network of monks and sanghas. One monk in Laputta connected the radio donated by Internews to a loud-speaker so that the whole village could hear the weather reports and state news broadcasts.

“I went and listened to my neighbour’s radio as it was said that the radio had announced that a storm was coming, that there was a low pressure area. I moved to the high land. I also brought the radio with myself and listened continuously. The broadcast of the announcement stopped after about six hours. After nine hours, some people went back to the village thinking the storm would not come. Thinking that it would be difficult to flee with children, I stayed on the hill all night. I kept listening to the radio believing that it would be broadcast if something were to happen. But nothing was broadcast again.”
Ko Yakhine Gyi from the Myothit village in the Hainggyikyun Township, Burma
“The number of radios we could deliver was much lower than the number of families needing help, so we usually asked people to draw lots for the radios. Every time, villagers were more interested in receiving our radios than in getting our rice and clothing.”
Ko Thaung Tan, from a small community-based organisation, Burma