Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what recent assessment she has made of the effectiveness of UK aid to Rakhine State and Myanmar.

DFID officials have made a number of visits to Rakhine in the past two months and have regularly updated Ministers. Aid workers have been getting UK-funded humanitarian assistance to some people in parts of Rakhine State, however access remains extremely restricted in northern Rakhine. The UK has provided £1 million to the Red Cross in Burma, which is currently the only aid organisation permitted to provide humanitarian support in Northern Rakhine. We continue to press the Burmese government to end violence, allow full humanitarian access, and to implement the recommendations of Kofi Annan’s Rakhine Advisory Commission to address the underlying causes of violence and under-development.

DFID constantly monitors how we support the UK’s Burma strategy objectives of supporting peace, democracy and an open economy. We have been successful in reaching and improving the lives of many poor and marginalised people in Burma, many of whom have suffered decades of conflict.