Due to this shortfall the UN recently allocated $3M “from the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) under the Under-funded window,” ear tagged for relief efforts in Kachin state. But this is just a stop gap measure, and won’t solve the long term funding crisis facing the UN's Kachin relief programs.

The CERF funding “is intended to fill critical gaps in humanitarian program to sustain operations, including needs associated with the current rainy season, while other funding sources continue to be identified.” Kaneko told DVB. But it remains to be seen what other sources can be tapped after major donor countries, including the US and Australia, have preferred to spend their money on other projects across Burma instead of on Kachin relief.

The latest UN estimates put the number of internally displaced people (IDPs) in Kachin state at 85,600. About 50,600 are in camps located in territory controlled by the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) with the remainder sheltering in government controlled areas. An additional 4,400 displaced people are staying in camps in government controlled areas of northern Shan state, according to UN estimates. This includes camps in Namkham, Namtu, Manton and Muse - all close to the route of the Shwe pipeline project.

Aid workers that have recently visited the area put the numbers of displaced as higher. Many IDPs living in government areas are afraid to register. Furthermore some of those living in KIO controlled territories are seeking work in China leading to a decrease in the actual recorded numbers. Very few, if any, have actually been able to return to their homes despite a 7-point agreement signed at the end of May that was supposed to reduce tensions between the KIO and the Burma's government.

The IDP camps in KIO territory remain poorly equipped due in no small part to the serious restrictions imposed on the UN and other aid groups by Burma's government. The UN has only been able to make 11 aid deliveries to the camps in KIO territory since the Kachin conflict began in June 2011. The most recent UN visit that happened last month was the first time the UN had been allowed to visit the IDP along the China border in nearly one year.

It isn’t clear when the UN will be allowed resume aid missions to the region. Last year’s trip came after a series of negotiations that involved Ban Ki-moon's special envoy to Burma Vijay Nambiar.

“There was certain difficulties posed by the government's insistence that government supplies should also be accompanied,” Nambiar told an Inner City Press reporter Matthew Russell Lee during a trip to Burma in February of last year.

 It still took nearly another two months for regular aid convoys to begin shipping aid to KIO territory, and then stopped after July 2012 for reasons that remain unclear.

The UN was told they would be granted regular access to all the camps shortly after Nambiar's most recent trip to Burma this February. After this UN aid reached the government controlled Hpakant area, west of the Kachin state capital from Feb.17 - 21. Aid also reached Mai Ja Yang in mid-June. This was the first time in over year that UN assistance went to rebel controlled territories.