One year after Cyclone Nargis the regional bloc ASEAN has won the respect of many in the international community for its response to the disaster and found a broader purpose in building up its capacity to deal with future emergencies, relief workers say.

With thousands of lives at risk because of the Myanmar junta's resistance to foreign intervention, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations stepped in last May when Nargis battered the country to facilitate an emergency relief effort that many aid agencies say proved very effective.

ASEAN, much maligned before the cyclone for its hands-off approach to Myanmar, became a conduit between a military government distrustful of any foreign involvement and an international donor community that feared the junta would divert any resources it gave in response to the disaster, which killed 140,000 people and sparked a vast humanitarian crisis.

The structures ASEAN helped to set up to bridge the void between Myanmar and the world community could provide a model for other regional blocs in areas where responses to crises or conflicts are hampered by complex politics, according to aid workers and analysts.

"ASEAN really stepped into the breach in the third week of May (2008) and provided a really vital bridge, if you like, between two fairly mistrustful sets of stakeholders," said Dan Collison, director of emergency programmes for Save the Children in Myanmar. "In terms of providing some predictable humanitarian space, it has worked very well," he added.

The regional bloc helped to put into place a transparent aid mechanism, facilitate an effective needs assessment and establish follow-up recovery plans.

Some representatives of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) point to problems and failings -- excessive bureaucracy, for example, and timidity in ASEAN's approach to the junta -- but most agree the organisation's response was largely successful.

"These were unchartered waters. They (ASEAN) had no experience in this ... and the role that they played was incredibly important," said Ray Hasan, head of programme policy for Asia and the Middle East at Christian Aid. "The UN couldn't have done it."

TRIPARTITE APPROACH

The key to the post-Nargis model was the Tripartite Core Group (TCG), a Yangon-based structure consisting of ASEAN, the United Nations and the Myanmar government.

The TCG facilitated day-to-day relief operations including the issuing of visas to foreign aid workers, which Myanmar had initially blocked. The TCG's mandate, due to end in July, has been extended until July 2010.

"This was a success and everyone needs to ensure the momentum is continued through the second year of its (the TCG's) mandate," said Paul Sender, country director for Merlin, based in Yangon.

One international aid worker, who asked not to be named, said ASEAN was overly bureaucratic, but added that it did an excellent job in dealing with the highly sensitive junta, capitalising on the trust it had built up through its 'constructive engagement' policy.

READY FOR FUTURE DISASTERS

Building on its Nargis experience, ASEAN is working with the UN and the World Bank on disaster relief responses and capacity building for the future. The body has also drawn up a social charter.

"In the next disaster, we won't start from scratch, we have the model and the experience," said William Sabandar, special envoy of the ASEAN secretary-general for post-Nargis recovery in Myanmar. "It is clear donors will come if you have a very strong structure."

Funds are sparse right now, partly because of the economic climate, although Lilianne Fan, an independent consultant on humanitarian policy who worked for Oxfam in Myanmar after the cyclone, said ASEAN could be more active in reaching out to donors.

ASEAN could also have been bolder with the junta in trying to get NGO representation on the TCG and in persuading Myanmar to broaden the TCG's mandate beyond the cyclone-hit Irrawaddy Delta, said Yves-Kim Creac'h, formerly the head of Merlin's Emergency Response Team, who now works for the Norwegian Refugee Council.

"ASEAN could have tried to push further ... they could have been more ambitious," he said.

Fan said the lack of an NGO voice on the TCG caused frustration, although other aid workers disagreed and Sabandar said new forums had since been created to include NGOs in the recovery phase of the response.

Creac'h and Fan said the post-Nargis model of an effective intermediary could be replicated by regional bodies elsewhere, say in Africa, or Central and South America, in emergencies or conflicts.

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