6 June, Yangon - Four weeks since the cyclone, the United Nations Development Programme has successfully helped deliver emergency assistance to more than 100,000 survivors in the cyclone-hit delta region using its network and partnerships at the village level.
As the only UN agency that maintained 40 fully functioning field offices and more than 500 staff and project personnel in the delta, UNDP was quick to use its community mobilisation capacity to help deliver relief supplies to the five most severely affected townships in collaboration with other UN agencies and in coordination with the government. Subsequently, it has helped more than 114,800 people live through the immediate aftermath of Cyclone Nargis in Labutta, Bogale, Kyaiklat, Mawlamyinegyun and Ngapudaw townships.
'UNDP came to our village, and I received insecticide-treated mosquito nets and [energy] drinks,' said Than Than Myingt, 21, from Bogale's Seik Ma West village. She has been supporting her six children and parents by herself since the cyclone. 'Now my children can sleep at night.'
Ma Wai, 31, of Bawathit village, also in Bogale township, had been a member of UNDP's community development self reliance group for four years before the cyclone hit.
'Because no one died in our village, we didn't receive any help,' she said. 'It was really hard to get by.' She decided to visit the UNDP office in Bogale township where she was given a cash grant and in-kind assistance because she had been a member of the self reliance group. 'Now they are going to start a livelihood project in our village - so things won't be as hard,' she added.
In Labutta, the township that suffered the most damage, UNDP helped deliver rice bags to approximately 23,000 people in 76 villages. In Kyaiklat, UNDP assisted the distribution of rice bags from the World Food Programme to about 6,900 people in 25 villages. In Bogale, more than 900 survivors were able to see a doctor through UNDP's community development programme, operational since 1994.
As a development agency that typically does not engage in humanitarian operations, UNDP has readily facilitated the emergency response through the trust it has built with community-based organisations in the delta.
'We are re-orienting our programme and actively engaging the communities on a parallel early recovery process to sustain the lives saved,' said deputy chief of UNDP in Myanmar, Sanaka Samarasinha. 'There are a lot more people in need of help.'