Red Cross experience in Myanmar

Disasters do not announce themselves. The key to disaster management is therefore preparation and efficient coordination. In May of 2004, a devastating storm hit the Rakhine region of Myanmar and caused widespread damage that severely affected more than twenty-five thousand people. The internationally isolated military government pushed aside its suspicion of humanitarian aid and made an unprecedented decision to request international assistance, and the Red Cross launched the first-ever international appeal for Myanmar. Though I had just left Myanmar and was three thousand miles away at the time, I take great pride in the relief operations that followed because the guidelines, best practices, and information channels developed under my leadership made its success possible.

Two years earlier, just after I arrived in Myanmar, I took responsibility for coordinating another flood relief operation as acting head of a delegation of the International Federation of Red Cross. The serious lack of reliable information and the reluctance of the authorities and the Myanmar Red Cross Society (MRCS) leadership to take timely actions made it a formidable task. During my two-year mission, I addressed these problems from three dimensions – systems, skills, and culture.

First, I collaborated with MRCS leaders to formulate its Disaster Management Policy and develop standard operating procedures to institute the Disaster Assessment and Response Teams (DART) at a branch level. This laid the vital foundation for reliable information gathering and reporting mechanisms between MRCS National Headquarters and its branches.

Second, I developed a training program on essential knowledge and skills in disaster relief by drawing on examples and expertise from other countries. I organized a “training of trainers” workshop to create a pool of branch leaders, who later facilitated the DART workshops across the country. They trained 110 Red Cross staff and volunteers and nine representatives from the local authorities and military medical service in damage and needs assessment, reporting, logistics management, and coordination.

Third, I initiated a strategic planning process to articulate MRCS’s overall missions and directions and conducted an extensive branch survey to reduce communication gaps between the National Headquarters and branches. Concurrently, I organized advocacy events to sensitize key local officials to their humanitarian obligation to assist disaster-affected populations. These initiatives were instrumental in clarifying the MRCS’s roles and responsibilities in disaster management and in generating a shared understanding about ways to coordinate relief operations among MRCS staff and volunteers at all levels of the organization and their counterparts in the authorities and other humanitarian organizations.

My strengths as a leader were vital to realizing the changes that helped thousands of people in need. I was able to visualize the contextual connection between different national, organizational, and individual problems and find common ground between disparate interests of individual Red Cross leaders, the government authorities, and donors. These skills helped me develop a holistic, long-term vision and formulate strategic steps that led the organization in the desired direction based on a broad consensus. This experience taught me that the right combination of empathy, straight talk, perseverance, and a collaborative approach can produce positive results even in a complicated, murky political environment beset with multiple stakeholders and hidden agendas.