Governments and agencies must be wary of flooding Myanmar with well-intentioned but ill-targeted aid, experts warned on Thursday, admonishing the global community to “first do no harm.”
With the once pariah country approaching the second anniversary of the government of President Thein Sein, foreign aid is pouring into the country as it embarks on a series of surprising political and democratic reforms.
But there is “ample evidence that the flow of foreign aid... is likely to be greater than Myanmar’s capacity to absorb it,” said a new report commissioned by US economic consultants Nathan Associates.
Co-author Lex Rieffel, a Brookings Institution senior fellow, said Myanmar “is undertaking a remarkable transition, it’s not an easy transition. And the outcome, I think, is highly uncertain.”
“Don’t think that everything’s going to go well, it could go in many different directions,” he said.
The country needs help but there should also be “sensitivity in recognising that not everything we might want to do is actually helpful,” Rieffel added.
Myanmar officials have been swamped by requests for meetings from governments, NGOs and even movie stars as it emerges from six decades of isolation.