Rural development in Burma/Myanmar

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Description: "CAD (Country Agency For Rural Development) is a Catholic faith based local non-governmental and non-profitable organization working for remote villagers in 3 townships (Hakha, Matupi and Thangtlang) in the central part of Chin state and Monhla village in Ye Oo township of Sagaing division. The inception of CAD is propelled by the backward of Lautu tribe, one of FOUR tribes in Thang Tlang and Matupi Townships in the central part of Chin state. CAD has been spearheading development projects in this region since 2005. CAD has supported our development projects to 23,143 populations at 42 villages in the said townships for 2006. The area?s elevation ranges about 4,250 feet above sea level. Being surrounded by mountains and river fresh air and fish, organic vegetables and crops are available in this region. Furthermore, seasonable flowers are blooming and are exuding different sweet smell of their fragrance around the thick forest."
Source/publisher: Country Agency for Rural Development
Date of entry/update: 2010-01-01
Grouping: Websites/Multiple Documents
Language: English
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Description: Development Study on Sustainable Agricultural and Rural Development for Poverty Reduction Programme in the Central Dry Zone
Source/publisher: Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)
Date of entry/update: 2010-01-01
Grouping: Websites/Multiple Documents
Language: English
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Description: "Scope of the document This document is a consolidated result of the harmonization of terminologies participative workshop. The National Cluster conducted it in April, and May 2022. Cluster members were gathered to work and agree on Shelter/CCCM terms and definitions to have clarity and use harmonized terms to avoid confusion and reduce ambiguity. This process is part of standardization and harmonization activities..."
Source/publisher: International Organization for Migration, Shelter Cluster
2023-08-14
Date of entry/update: 2023-08-14
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Format : pdf
Size: 847.14 KB
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Description: "In this research note, we provide an overview of the state of food security and nutrition in Myanmar using a recently collected household dataset. We examine food security using a household hunger scale and a food consumption score. To examine the state of nutrition, we examine the diet quality of individuals across Myanmar for three separate but important sections of population: (1) adults (18+ years), (2) women of reproductive age (15-49 years), and (3) children (6-23 and 6-59 months). We explore these indicators using three rounds of the Myanmar Household Welfare Survey (MHWS) collected over the phone in the first three quarters of 2022 – hereafter Q1, Q2 and Q3 – among over 12,000 households in 310 townships of Myanmar. MWHS is a nationally, urban/rural and state/region representative phone survey (MAPSA 2022a). We use standard food security and diet diversity measures for each of the three subpopulations to examine trends over the three rounds as well as explore heterogeneity with respect to gender, location of residence, and asset and income-based welfare indicators. We also look at disaggregated consumption of the different food groups that constitute the diet diversity measures to investigate the change in the consumption pattern of individuals. Finally, we use regression analysis to look at predictors of food insecurity and inadequate diet diversity, including household wealth and income, self-reported shocks, food prices, and household characteristics..."
Source/publisher: International Food Policy Research Institute (Washington, D.C.) via "Reliefweb" (New York)
2022-12-09
Date of entry/update: 2022-12-09
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Format : pdf
Size: 710.3 KB
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Description: "The migrant-centred “Aye Chan Thaw Ein” (ACTE) project aims to strengthen and empower migrants and their families through multi-sectoral interventions. The project covers such topics as awareness of safe migration and labour rights, enhancing vocational skills and providing opportunities for upward mobility, promoting healthier nutritional behaviour and improving access to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) facilities and practices in Shwe Pyi Thar township, Yangon Region. Under the project, People in Need (PIN) and our consortium partner, Community Development Association (CDA), have provided lifesaving WASH assistance to migrant workers, their families, and the host community. The project allows migrants to adopt safe hygiene practices and access improved WASH facilities in six wards in the Shwe Pyi Thar township. The peri-urban area of Yangon, Shwe Pyi Thar township, has been negatively impacted by unhealthy and environmentally unfriendly behaviours, such as dumping waste into drains, rivers, streams, or creeks due to low potential rates of disposal at community dumping sites. This severely impacts and harms the surrounding environment and causes risks for the population during the rainy season. As part of WASH assistance, we---together with CDA---have improved WASH-related hardware, such as drainage, conducted emergency clearing, and offered innovative solutions for waste management through a participatory community approach. Moreover, CDA awarded community grants to address specific WASH-related issues and promote engagement with the household- and community levels on gender-responsive WASH solutions, including sanitation, hygiene and menstrual hygiene management (MHM) and waste management. Improved access to waste management and drainage system As part of WASH-related hardware solutions, CDA has constructed 11 concrete community drainage culvert systems in six wards. U Maung Maung (name has been changed for security reasons) member of the targeted wards says, "we thank CDA and donors for upgrading drainage systems and providing emergency cleaning process in our ward. There were floods in our ward in previous rainy seasons due to the lack of good waste disposal management. Most household members are migrant workers in our ward, with minimal waste disposal knowledge. Although we put warning signs at each drain not to throw anything into these drainages, people did not follow the instructions." He adds, "with a small grant program from the CDA and community participation, we renovated our main drain. Because of the support from the ACTE project, the drainage systems are free to flow smoothly, and flooding is also prevented." U Kyi (name has been changed for security reasons) also expresses his gratitude to CDA, “I lived near the main community drainage. In the past, during heavy rains, waste was stuck in the drainage and caused flooding where water entered our houses. While drain water was trapped, it created bad smells and contained many mosquitoes. Now, these problems have been solved with the support of CDA. Thanks to CDA and its donors for cleaning the drainage system and maintaining the upgrade of it.” CDA aims to assist and improve the lives of migrant workers and their families by sharing knowledge about improved WASH facilities and good hygiene practices through awareness-raising activities. In total, CDA reached 8,148 individuals, of which 6,242 were women and girls. As part of the lifesaving WASH assistance, such as drainage systems and waste management, it aimed to benefit a more significant number of community members and migrant workers who reside in the wards for sustainability beyond the project life. CDA also conducted capacity-building activities, especially on sanitation, hygiene and menstrual hygiene management practices at the grassroots level where women, adolescent girls, the elderly and persons with disability can have easier access to learning opportunities. Regarding the behaviour changes of waste disposal and good hygiene and sanitation practices, CDA conducted behavioural change campaigns at five wards in Shwe Pyi Thar township. Ko Win Htut Thein, a project manager at CDA addresses how to implement good hygiene practices among the host community and internal migrants. "CDA aims to assist and improve the lives of migrant workers and their families by sharing knowledge about improved WASH facilities and good hygiene practices through awareness-raising activities. In total, CDA reached 8,148 individuals, of which 6,242 were women and girls.” He added that “the awareness sessions focused on intensified hygiene promotion on handwashing and menstrual hygiene management by holding small groups at each ward. Along with this session, CDA distributed hygiene supplies to all participants.” Also, CDA organised three public events on behaviour change, including handwashing, menstrual hygiene, and waste disposal public campaigns from December 2021 to March 2022. CDA also provided hygiene items to the host community and the migrants’ families actively involved in the campaigns. Through menstrual hygiene management awareness and education sessions, CDA reached a total of 2,981 beneficiaries, including 2,709 women and girls and 272 boys and men. Safe water for host communities and migrant workers To access safe water and prevent water-borne diseases in Shwe Pyi Thar, CDA has constructed a 200-foot-long community drainage system in ward 21. First, CDA organised a community-level committee on WASH solutions based on their needs and provided a grant to implement with the collaboration of community members. One of the committee members U Kyaw Moe (name has been changed for security reasons) shares their needs. “Our ward is quite close to Hlaing River, and flood water always enters the ward when it rains. We rely on water sources from community ponds but need to access clean water. Water resources are enough for us in the rainy season, but we face water scarcity in the dry season. With the ACTE project’s long-term support, CDA provided one water truck and constructed the drainage system near the school compound. With this water truck, we will be safe for clean water access and no need to worry about flood water next season. Thanks to CDA and PIN for supporting us.” People in Need and its consortium partners have been working together under the Aye Chan Thaw Ein project in collaboration with ward development committees to meet the needs of internal migrant workers and reduce the vulnerability of internal migrants with the financial support of the Livelihoods and Food Security Trust Fund (LIFT) in Myanmar..."
Source/publisher: People in Need
2022-10-21
Date of entry/update: 2022-10-21
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "Under the Myanmar Community Resilience Project (MCRP), the World Bank will support ICRC’s interventions in support of vulnerable, violence-affected communities in Myanmar. The objective of the MCRP is to support the resilience of communities through multisectoral assistance including livelihood support and small-scale infrastructure projects. As part of this collaboration, the ICRC has conducted an assessment of the potential environmental and social risks linked to the project and devised appropriate mitigation measures to manage these. This process has and will continue to involve consultations with a range of stakeholders. The guiding documents on these efforts are included in the attached Stakeholder Engagement Plan (SEP), Environmental and Social Commitment Plan (ESCP) and Framework. This groundwork and the iterative and continuous follow up provided will ensure that adequate environmental and social standards are lived-up to..."
Source/publisher: International Committee of the Red Cross (Geneva) via "Reliefweb" (New York)
2022-10-20
Date of entry/update: 2022-10-20
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf pdf pdf
Size: 805.21 KB 517.65 KB 1.47 MB
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Description: "CONTEXT: The use of Cash and Voucher Assistance (CVA) in Myanmar dates to 2008, with the first CVA emergency response to Cyclone Nargis. By 2020, more than one million people received a total of 35.6 million USD worth of CVA, distributed by 63 organisations nationwide. Even so, government acceptance of CVA was not uniform in all contexts and sectors of implementation. On 1St February 2021, the Myanmar military overthrew the government in a coup d'etat. The combined effects of COVID-19 as well as the February 2021 coup have turned back the development clock by years. The resulting economic crisis comprised of inflation, depreciation of the Myanmar kyat (M MK) against the United States dollar (USD), as well as a liquidity crisis/low supply of bank notes and closure of banks. Objectives In light of this, this review aimed to harness lessons learned from the design, implementation and monitoring of past and current humanitarian CVA projects by humanitarian actors before and after 1St February 2021 in order to inform future crisis response in Rakhine, Kachin and Northern Shan states. Accordingly, the review mapped the use of CVA and CVA stakeholders, collated qualitative accounts of challenges and opportunities faced by humanitarian organisations, identified adaptations to the change in economic situation, market functionality and protection risks. Methodology The review took place from October 2021 to March 2022 and utilised a qualitative approach relying on a variety of primary and secondary data sources, both capturing qualitative and quantitative data. The research team reviewed a total of 56 documents and interviewed 39 humanitarian practitioners. Findings Yearly CVA volume • Rakhine accounted for the largest volume of cash transfer programming in 2021 with a total of USD21,212,651. This is a significant increase compared with 2019 and 2020, USD 6,294,712 and USD20,714.603 respectively. • In Kachin and Northern Shan. the CVA volume in 2020 amounted to USD 7.261.976 and USD 1,022.432 respectively. In 2021, the volume in Kachin and Northern Shan increased to USD 8,856,565 and USD1,420,218. CVA actors • In Rakhine, WFP accounted for the largest share of the CVA volume transferred with 75% (USD 15,586,124) in 2020 and 93% (USD 19,578,449) in 2021. 34% of the assistance was distributed to recipients by local and national organisations acting as implementing/cooperating partners of international organisations. • In Kachin and Northern Shari WFP Is the largest and most active cash Implementer accounting for 76% IUSD778,6051 and 59% (USD 4,287.130) of total transfer volumes respectively in 2020. This remains similar in 2021 with WFP representing 63% (USD 5,380,683) in Kachin and 95% (USD 1,348,369). 57% of CVA in Kachin and 42% in Northern Shan respectively are distributed to recipients by local and national organisations acting as implementing/cooperating partners of international organisations. Sector • In Rakhine, Kachin and Northern Shan. CVA for food represented the biggest CVA volume since 2019 until the time of this review. This is due to the WFP being the largest CVA actor in the three states..."
Source/publisher: Crown Agents and Humanitarian Assistance and Resilience Programme via "Reliefweb" (New York)
2022-05-31
Date of entry/update: 2022-05-31
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf
Size: 8.66 MB
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Description: "MIMU Analytical Briefs shine a light on topical, emerging and under-explored issues relevant to humanitarian and development support in Myanmar based on analysis of available information. Each Brief includes a short narrative document and accompanying infographic as well as the dataset, methodology and an interactive dashboard to enable others to take this analysis further This Analytical Brief focuses on the situation of household amenities in Myanmar based on the review of data from nationwide surveys over the five-year period from 2014 to 2019. As household amenities affect human health, productivity, and overall quality of life, this reveals some important developments in households' living situation. Summary ƒ Whereas a million more people were in paid/for profit employment nationwide by 2019, women continued to be less likely to be employed than men, and rural households were earning significantly less than those in urban areas. While ownership of mobile phones and home internet grew massively, a million households – mainly in rural areas - owned no communications devices at all as of late 2019. ƒ Despite considerable improvements in shelter and access to electricity for many Myanmar households, a third of the country’s households were still living in bamboo houses or short-term huts as of 2019. Myanmar’s electrification rate was the lowest in South East Asia with as many as 30 million people still not connected to the main power grid in 2019, and around 6.7 million households were dependent on solid cooking fuels, presenting additional health risks for women and children in particular. ƒ Although more households had access to safer drinking water from improved sources, over 2 million households were still using unimproved water sources in 2019, mainly in rural areas, with the highest reliance on unimproved water sources in Rakhine and Ayeyarwady. ƒ The use of improved sanitation also improved. However, 2 million people countrywide were still dependent on unimproved sanitation facilities, and a further 3 million people were practicing open defecation which brings particular risks to health, equity, dignity and safety, especially for women and girls..."
Source/publisher: Myanmar Information Management Unit (Myanmar) via "Reliefweb" (New York)
2022-05-05
Date of entry/update: 2022-05-05
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf
Size: 2.7 MB (Original version) - 23 pages
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Description: "Executive Summary Authored by The Operations Partnership,December 2021. WHAT IS HARP-F? The Humanitarian Assistance and Resilience Programme Facility (HARP-F) is a UK Government Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) initiative launched in 2016. HARP-F is the grant-funding mechanism, and the largest component of the wider Humanitarian Assistance and Resilience Programme. It is managed by Crown Agents. It has so far committed £74.7 million, reaching 1.69 million conflict-affected people via 76 grants, across 8 sectors and in collaboration with 55 partners. WHY REVIEW HARP-F MULTI-YEAR WASH FUNDING? Since 2016, HARP-F has been the largest funding mechanism for humanitarian water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) support in Myanmar. Over the last 6 years HARP-F WASH programming has supported 315,000 conflict-affected people in Kachin, Northern Shan, Rakhine and Chin States, with grants totalling £22.4 million. The case for multi-year humanitarian funding was established as part of the Grand Bargain in 2016. Since then, HARP-F has been the main provider of multi-year humanitarian WASH funding in Myanmar, providing 95% of all humanitarian WASH multi-year funding in Myanmar between 2017 and 2021. This strategic review outlines what has been learned about WASH multi-year funding and identifies where, and how, this learning could be applied in the future. 71 specialists, representing 22 organisations, were consulted via key informant interviews (KII) and focus groups. This included staff from HARP-F, FCDO, the WASH cluster and from the majority of key WASH actors working in Myanmar. 7 KEY LESSONS LEARNED FROM HARP-F MULTI-YEAR WASH PROGRAMMING Provision of “Long term” multi-year funding (>24 months) was a key factor in supporting substantial advances in community ownership and management of WASH services in a challenging operating environment (central Rakhine IDP camps) “Medium term” multi-year funding (12-24 months) was effective in supporting a structured process of local NGO capacity development (mostly evidenced in Kachin/NSS). It was crucial to maintain coordination with other capacity building providers for this funding to be effective. 96% of WASH actors consulted in this review agreed that HARP-F funding has been effective in empowering local and national actors. Multi-year funding of any duration (12 months or more) helped implementing agencies build programme quality and led to administrative and operational cost savings in comparison to typical short term humanitarian funding. This is consistent with previous research on multi-year funding. 93% of WASH actors consulted in this review agreed that multi-year funding substantially increased programmatic impact. Those consulted reported that more time was spent on creating value with targeted communities rather than meeting the increased administrative requirements that back-to-back short-term funding involves. A contextualised strategy framework for WASH programming was helpful in guiding HARP-F support to partners, HARP-F funding decisions and HARP-F partner planning. It outlined relevant approaches to sustainability and resilience for the key operating contexts in Rakhine and Kachin States. HARP-F recognised the difficulty that a funding gap would present for local NGOs and tried to mitigate the risk of this happening. Local NGOs do not typically benefit from the funding reserves that many INGOs have. Given the effort invested by HARP-F and partners in LNGO capacity development it was crucial that HARP-F found ways to ensure sustained funding for local NGOs working in a protracted crisis. The M&E approach needed to be better at capturing outcomes and learning. There would be increased benefit from multi-year funding, and stronger evidence for the future, if M&E approaches were designed to understand emerging long-term outcomes and learning. A results/outputs focused humanitarian M&E approach is not sufficient. Multi-year thinking and planning was encouraged alongside multi-year funding. The HARP-F experience shows that multi-year funding is not the only tool that can support programme quality, efficiency and longer-term WASH outcomes. In a protracted crisis multi-year planning approaches should be encouraged at all levels. There were examples of this happening in Myanmar at both the WASH cluster and implementing organisation levels. APPLYING THIS LEARNING There was a significant scale-up of the humanitarian response during 2021 to respond to new needs following the military takeover in February. Unfortunately, the situation continues to be unstable and unpredictable. Humanitarian access remains a significant challenge. Humanitarian organisations have set an ambitious target of assisting 6.2 million people in 2022. The financial ask identified in the Humanitarian Response Plan is three-times that of 2021. HARP-F will end its programming in March 2022. Since HARP-F currently supports 95% of multi-year WASH projects, it is critical for other funding organisations to consider financing multi-year WASH projects. Continued funding from new sources is important for the sustainability of capacity investments made in communities and local NGOs via HARP-F. There is a risk that the current level of uncertainty in Myanmar could dissuade donors from making multiyear funding commitments. However, short-term funding will yield only short-term results. It seems highly likely that humanitarian access will continue to be a critical problem. Well supported and capacitated community organisations and local NGOs may be the only lifeline available to provide humanitarian assistance and protection to the most vulnerable in many locations. Continuing and deepening support to communities and local NGOs is a critical strategy for the overall response. Multi-year funding is the most effective way to accomplish this in WASH, and in many other sectors. RECOMMENDATIONS Humanitarian actors and donors in Myanmar should Advocate for multi-year WASH funding, especially where long term outcomes are envisioned, or access constraints are likely to be sustained. Multi-year grants with a duration of 2 years or more (in keeping with the OECD definition) are preferred because of the increased efficiency and programme impact gains that can be achieved over such a period. Where multi-year funding is not possible, adopt multi-year plans at the agency, donor and cluster levels. Meanwhile, the situation at community level should be closely monitored to help identify when the situation is sufficiently stable for multi-year funding. Consider adopting multi-year funding and planning modalities for emergency response programming, employing an adaptive management approach. This can also provide a framework that will enable local NGO response capacities to be further strengthened. Humanitarian, development and peace actors in Myanmar should Continue to build linkages between humanitarian, development and peacebuilding mechanisms in order to maximise coherence and shared impact. This coordination becomes increasingly important the more that humanitarian multi-year funding is supported. The Global WASH cluster should Examine how the cluster funding matrix could better capture data relevant to multi-year funding. Original project duration and project extension information is important, as is disaggregated data on primary grants and sub-grants (duration and financial value). If this information is collected, it can more readily be used to track progress against Grand Bargain commitments towards “Quality funding” and “More support and funding for local and national responders”..."
Source/publisher: Crown Agents and Humanitarian Assistance and Resilience Programme via "Reliefweb" (New York)
2022-04-07
Date of entry/update: 2022-04-27
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf pdf pdf
Size: 2.71 MB (Original version) - 45 pages, 1.15 MB 1.17 MB
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Description: "ABSTRACT: The first round of the Myanmar Household Welfare Survey (MHWS)–a nationwide phone panel consisting of 12,100 households–was implemented between December 2021 and February 2022. The objective of the survey was to collect data on a wide range of household and individual welfare indicators–including wealth, livelihoods, unemployment, food insecurity, diet quality, health shocks, and coping strategies–in a country exceptionally hard hit by conflict, severe economic collapse, and several damaging waves of COVID-19. The respondents interviewed in the MHWS were purposely selected from a large phone database aimed at being representative at the region/state level and urban/rural level in Myanmar. In this paper, we discuss two key steps taken to ensure that the MHWS is nationally and subnationally representative at the state/region and urban/rural level. First, we used a quota-based sampling strategy by setting survey quotas for respondents’ geography, education, farming status, gender, and rural/urban residence. This sampling strategy is used to address the well-known drawbacks of phone survey samples (e.g., the over-sampling of more educated respondents) and the survey’s particular interest in over-sampling farm households and equally sampling men and women. Second, we constructed household, population, and individual level weighting factors to further ensure that the survey generates nationally and subnationally representative statistics. To assess the effectiveness of these two strategies on achieving representativeness and consistency with previous surveys, we compare results from the MHWS to earlier nationally representative datasets, focusing on sample sizes of interviewed households for each state/region, and on education levels, farm/non-farm occupation, urban/rural residence, as well as respondents’ housing characteristics, which are unlikely to change substantially over short periods of time. We show that the phone-based MHWS has broader geographical coverage than previous national surveys, reaching 310 of Myanmar’s 330 townships. Moreover, our sampling approach was generally effective in reducing the education bias of phone surveys, except for a handful of states/regions. The MHWS is also unique in providing equal representation of male and female respondents. Additionally, the MHWS sampling and weighting strategies produce statistics on key indicators that closely mirror results from the two most recent national surveys in Myanmar. Overall, the results suggest that these strategies are successful in generating a subnationally representative phone survey that collected data on a rich array of household welfare indicators in exceptionally difficult political and economic circumstances..."
Source/publisher: International Food Policy Research Institute
2022-04-27
Date of entry/update: 2022-04-27
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf
Size: 1.7 MB (Original version) - 48 pages
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Sub-title: A brutal crackdown in Yangon’s Hlaing Tharyar Township in mid-March triggered an exodus of migrant workers. As protests subside, many are heading back to the big city but are finding that work is scarce.
Description: "On April 18, the second day of the traditional Myanmar year, Yangon Region’s outer western Hlaing Tharyar Township was busier than it had been in a month. With the Thingyan holiday over, large numbers of people were entering the heavily industrialised township on motorbikes, in taxis and aboard light trucks loaded with their belongings. They were returning to the scene of a massacre. Pitched battles on March 14 between well-armed security forces and protesters wielding home-made weapons left at least 58 protesters dead, according to a local network of volunteer medical groups, and several factories were burned down. That same day, the junta declared martial law in the township and in neighbouring Shwepyithar – a draconian new security regime, where civilians can be hauled directly before military tribunals and handed death sentences, that was later extended to four other outlying, industrialised townships in Yangon. Fearing a wider crackdown, and with many having already lost their factory jobs amid the near-collapse of the garment sector, tens – possibly hundreds – of thousands of migrant workers fled to their home towns and villages. Hlaing Tharyar, whose population had swelled to close to a million thanks to a decade of steady migration from the countryside, suddenly resembled a ghost town. But after more than a month away, and with protests in decline because of brutal suppression by soldiers and police, many of those who fled have begun making their way back to the commercial capital. They were largely driven to return by a lack of jobs in the countryside, but with increased factory closures and reduced output, and a steep decline in the wider economy, many are struggling to find new work and to meet the expenses of living in the city, raising the prospect of hunger and further waves of displacement. Ma Nwet Yi Win, a former workplace union leader at a shoe factory in Hlaing Tharyar, joined the mid-March exodus and left for her home village in Ayeyarwady Region’s Ngapudaw Township, but is now back in Yangon. Returning to the city to find work was the only way for the migrant workers to survive because there are no jobs for them in the villages, she told Frontier. “If Yangon is stable and it’s safe to live there, the people will return. They have to return if they want a job or the opportunity of going abroad to work,” said Nwet Yi Win, who lost her job at the shoe factory after it closed permanently on March 24. Nwet Yi Win said ultimatums from factory managers to resume work or be fired had prompted some workers to return to their jobs in early April. She said many had been afraid of returning to Yangon because of the military’s “inhumane oppression”, including regular raids on homes to arrest political opponents, but were worried about losing their jobs. However, according to Hlaing Tharyar residents, even those who still had jobs in the township’s dwindling number of operational factories largely chose not to return until after the mid-April Thingyan holiday. Ko Aung Ye Min, who works at a noodle factory in the township, had ignored a less severe order from his bosses for employees to resume their jobs on April 1 or forfeit their Thingyan holiday pay. “I don’t care about the money – I have to take care of my life and if I had returned to work on April 1, I might have been risking death,” he said, referring to the threat of Tatmadaw crackdowns. Aung Ye Min said that, like him, most of the factory’s employees did not return to work until April 20, by which time a sense of stability seemed to be returning to Hlaing Tharyar. Ko Min Min Soe, a taxi driver in Hlaing Tharyar, said migrant workers who returned to their rural homes after the violence in mid-March had to rely on motorbikes because taxis were unavailable. Taxi drivers did not want to risk their vehicles being damaged in a fresh bout of unrest, he said. However, the reduction in protests and return of migrant workers since Thingyan is keeping him and other taxi drivers busy. “I already have three orders for trips to bring back migrant workers from Kyaiklat [Township, Ayeyarwady Region], Ahpyauk [town in Yangon Region’s Taikkyi Township] and Kawhmu [Township, Yangon Region],” he said. “Each trip is worth about K50,000. Three or four workers are pooling their money and hiring my car together,” he said. But even if some of the township’s bustle has returned, the landlords of dormitory blocks – where much of the migrant workforce is housed – say Hlaing Tharyar’s population is still well below pre-coup levels. U Aung Hlaing Win, 55, who owns four hostels in Shan Kyaung ward in eastern Hlaing Tharyar, said about half his rooms were vacant. “Before Thingyan, some of my hostels had no tenants. I have begun receiving tenants since April 18, but the situation is totally different to before the coup. My hostels used to be full and I had to turn people away,” he told Frontier. Aung Hlaing Win added that the ward was still quiet with many shops closed because their owners were yet to return to Yangon. “Most of the migrant workers in our ward are from Rakhine State and Ayeyarwady Region. They come here to work in factories or run small businesses like shops. It seems that some are still wary about returning to Yangon because they think it is not safe yet, but they might return by the end of April,” he said. Labour activist Nwet Yi Win also expects many more workers to return to the township because they will need jobs to support themselves and their families. But most will likely be disappointed, she believes, and will find themselves no better off than in their rural homes. “After the military coup, many [garment] factories closed permanently because of a lack of orders from abroad, so I don’t know how those people will find another job,” she said. “Because of the COVID-19 situation, we also cannot go to neighbouring countries to find work.” Despite losing her job at the shoe factory, Nwet Yi Win still makes some money from reporting labour issues to non-government organisations, but she mainly relies on financial support from her family. Jobs are harder to find because even factories that have continued operations have downsized their staff, as orders and income have plummeted. Ma Su Myat Nwe has been looking for work since she was laid off from a Hlaing Tharyar garment factory in February. After more than two months, she is thinking of giving up the search and leaving Yangon for good. “I might go to Lashio where my parents work at a restaurant,” she said. “Although I don’t have to pay for accommodation because I’m staying at my brother’s home [in Hlaing Tharyar], it’s not going to work in the long term.” Those lucky enough to keep factory jobs have meanwhile seen their earnings reduced thanks to the 7pm curfew imposed under martial law. Although only an hour earlier than a nationwide curfew that has been in place since February, it deprives factory workers of the opportunity to earn overtime pay in the evenings. This supplementary income enabled them to not only meet the expenses of living in Yangon but also send money to their families and maybe save some for the future. “If we don’t work overtime, we will receive only K150,000 a month, but if we work overtime our salaries rise to about K220,000. Every factory worker wants to find a job that includes overtime,” said garment factory worker Ma Thida. Her workplace now closes at 4:30pm each day, she said, to ensure workers have time to return home before curfew. However, labour activist Nwet Yi Win said that, even without a curfew, there would likely be few opportunities to work overtime. Orders have plummeted because the garment sector, which dominates Hlaing Tharyar’s industrial zones and was already severely weakened by the economic fallout from the pandemic, relies heavily on demand from European countries that have strongly condemned the coup, she explained. Some companies, such as H&M and Benetton, have already stopped sourcing from Myanmar. Factory worker Ma Thida said she was relieved to still have a job, despite not being able to earn overtime, but was no longer able to support her family in her home village. She had been sending her family K100,000 a month before the coup, she said. Meanwhile, creeping inflation is making it harder to even support herself. “My income is lower than before, but the prices for basic commodities have risen. It’s harder to make ends meet,” she said. “I don’t expect the situation to be good, but I hope it won’t get worse.”..."
Source/publisher: "Frontier Myanmar" (Myanmar)
2021-04-29
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-30
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Topic: Rural working people; national land network; movement building; Land in Our Hands; Myanmar; right to land; political transition
Topic: Rural working people; national land network; movement building; Land in Our Hands; Myanmar; right to land; political transition
Description: "ABSTRACT: The transition from military dictatorship to an electoral regime has opened limited political spaces for social activism in Myanmar. Some have called the unfolding situation a ‘transition to democracy’. But this is far from the reality for some, if not most, of Myanmar’s ‘rural working people’. This paper explores the trajectory of the national land network called Land in Our Hands (LIOH or Doe Myay), which came into formal existence in 2014. This paper attempts to lay out a more comprehensive account of the historical legacies and internal and external pressures that have been shaping LIOH as a movement building initiative, and in relation to three key dimensions: its identity politics; its ideology and class base; and its political work.....Introduction: The transition from military dictatorship to an electoral regime has opened limited political spaces for social activism in Myanmar. Today’s electoral regime is still a largely elite-controlled political situation, with relatively more competitive elections but under unevenly restrictive conditions, including continued restricted access to basic democratic rights for much of the population especially outside the main urban areas. This goes hand in hand with a centrally controlled economic opening and continuing armed conflict in parts of the country. While the political space (such as it is) may be new, social movement in Myanmar is not. Social movements of different forms and scales continued to exist occupying non-traditional political spaces, especially local spaces, throughout the dark ages of military rule beginning from 1962. In the remote ethnic states, rural villagers have been using everyday forms of resistance such as ‘hiding resources, ignoring orders, packing road embankments with sticks during forced labour, informing human rights groups but not the military’ in order to protect their territories and communities (Malseed 2009, 380), which as a whole formed a grassroots movement (Malseed 2008). Some movements such as the Ba Ka Tha (All Burma Federation of Student Union) went underground after the brutal crackdown of the 1988 pro-democracy uprising to continue training student activists in leftwing political ideology. Others, including students and ethnic-based democracy movements, transformed into armed struggles along the Chinese, Thai and Indian borders. Diaspora-driven human rights coalitions sprang up in Western countries, exposing violations and atrocities committed by the military regime and lobbying for support for the democratic forces working inside and outside the country. Some have called the unfolding situation a ‘transition to democracy’ (Sein 2017). But this is far from the reality for some, if not most, of Myanmar’s ‘rural working people’. In this paper, we draw on Shivji’s (2017) conception of ‘working people’ to encompass a diverse constituency of people currently struggling to reproduce themselves and their households under contemporary political-economic conditions in Myanmar..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: The Journal of Peasant Studies via Routledge (London)
2021-02-09
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-27
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "Myanmar’s rural population are extremely vulnerable given their low human development and high dependence upon natural resources for their livelihoods (including agriculture, fisheries and forestry). This has led to environmental degradation including deforestation and poor land use management practices, diminishing water sources and high rates of food insecurity and sickness etc. These pre-existing vulnerabilities combined with the large number of hazards affecting Myanmar including cyclones, floods, earthquakes, tsunamis, fires, storm surges, droughts and landslides have resulted in a high risk rural society. In addition, climate change and its associated impacts are already, and will likely continue to exacerbate the situation further through more frequent, intense and widespread extreme hazard events including cyclones, floods and droughts, and through increased temperatures, rainfall variability and sea level rises. Myanmar has taken steps to addressing risk to hazards including climate change at the national level through the development of Myanmar’s Action Plan on Disaster Risk Reduction (MAPDRR) and the National Adaptation Program of Action on Climate Change (NAPA). However, in many cases rural communities are either not aware or have not yet benefited from the policies, strategies and actions outlined in these two documents. Communities are also those best placed to identify strategies and solutions to their problems as they are at the front line of hazard impact. It is therefore essential that urgent action is taken at the local level in partnership with communities, government, civil society and other stakeholders to implement actions identified in the NAPA and MAPDRR and increase the resilience of rural communities to hazards including climate change. This Handbook outlines a process whereby Malteser International staff and their partners can work in partnership with rural communities and local governments to address risk to hazards including climate change and increase community resilience. Firstly the Handbook outlines hazards, their associated impacts and sources of vulnerabilities facing rural communities in Myanmar. It then provides example actions and measures for inclusive disaster risk management and climate change adaptation at the community, township and state level. The Handbook then presents the case for an integrated approach to resilience building which embeds climate change adaptation strategies within a disaster risk management approach. The steps and tools for this approach are then described, before outlining how community resilience plans should be integrated into development plans at township and state level..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Malteser" via "Reliefweb" (New York)
2020-07-28
Date of entry/update: 2020-07-30
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Format : pdf
Size: 2.05 MB
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Description: "A CASH-FOR-WORK programme will be launch-ed to provide jobs in 2,500 villages in Myanmar under its Covid-19 Economic Response Plan (CERP). Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation Ministry's Rural Development Department director, U Zarni Min, said 25 billion kyat had been put aside for the programme, according to The Myanmar Times. Zarni said the project was one of two to be carried out by the department through CERP. "Some people lost their jobs due to the pandemic. They need money. "This project will provide financial support to the unemployed who participate in development projects launched in their villages." He said villagers would help build basic infrastructure in the villages in exchange for income. A sum of 10 million kyat will be distributed to each village and about 120,000 households are expected to benefit from it. The project period will take about 3½ months until September. Townships will be selected based on those with the highest Multidimensional Poverty Index and with a high number of workers returning from overseas. The villages will be chosen based on the severity of road conditions, safety for trade, those which suffered the most damage from Covid-19 and those with potential for agriculture, livestock and aquaculture businesses. The other project launched earlier by the department will see 41 billion kyat distributed as loans to 1,700 villages under CERP..."
Source/publisher: "New Straits Times" (Malaysia)
2020-06-23
Date of entry/update: 2020-06-24
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Sub-title: Major solar power tender's terms are seemingly designed to leave foreign investors in the dark
Description: "Myanmar is rushing ahead with a major solar power initiative amid the Covid-19 pandemic, giving potential investors just a month to submit bids and raising questions about the tender’s intent and viability. The Ministry of Electricity and Energy published a notice on its official Facebook page dated May 18 inviting companies to submit pre-qualifying bids to construct solar energy plants on a 20-year concession basis. The ministry will buy power from 30 “designated connection points” on a build-operate-own basis, according to the announcement. The tender deadline is June 18, giving investors one month to assemble and submit their bids, a fast-tracked time table that is raising concerns about non-competive bidding and possible related land-grabbing. The tender document, reviewed by Asia Times, includes 30 solar plants ranging from 30 to 50 megawatts (MW), with a combined capacity of 1060 MW. That’s equivalent to one third of the country’s current dry season available capacity of 3,100 MW. That capacity, the ministry says, is generated by 20 gas-fired, 62 hydropower and one coal-fired plant. Developers are required to start operating the plants within 180 days after an official letter of acceptance is issued, with stiff financial penalities for non-production after the deadline, according to the document. More controversially, bidders are required to include evidence of prior land acquisition for solar plant sites in their proposals..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Asia Times" (Hong Kong)
2020-05-23
Date of entry/update: 2020-05-24
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "From a distance, ChuChu Design, a single-storey building across the river from Myanmar’s bustling commercial capital, looks like any other on the impoverished outskirts of the city. But on closer inspection, the roof has been fashioned from old tyres, the walls are made of glass bottles and the lampshades from melted plastic, all items upcycled by the social enterprise as part of a mission to educate people about waste. ChuChu – named after the Burmese for “plastic house” – sells handicrafts and fashion products recycled from the thousands of tonnes of trash dumped in Yangon every day. The design of the house is intended as a statement about waste, said 68-year-old Wendy Neampui, the managing director of the business, which she founded in 2014 with the help of Italian non-profit organization Cesvi. “I wanted to transform trash from an ugly landfill site into beautiful items,” she said, as she stitched together plastic sheets to be ironed into a colourful patchwork bottle holder, a technique she learned from the internet..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Reuters" (UK)
2020-03-05
Date of entry/update: 2020-03-06
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Sub-title: Residents accuse local cement factory of coal pollution, but expert says more testing is needed
Description: "The 500 residents of Karen state’s Yedwingone village now depend on the charity of others for clean drinking water. Until recently, each of the 120 households in this village near the state capital Hpa-an got all the water it needed from its own well. But in October villagers began noticing the water in their wells had turned black. “Our skin would itch when we used it to bathe,” said 67-year-old Thaung Nyein. “We won’t drink it.” One resident told Myanmar Now his family broke out in blisters after using the water to bathe. Monks and local civil service organizations arrived almost immediately with donated drinking water, but villagers say the giving has since tapered off. “I only have drinking water if donors show up. I have to mix distilled and boiled well water to bathe the children, and I don’t have money to go to the clinic if they get sick from it,” said Thaung Nyein. In mid-January Myanmar Now visited Yedwingone, Natkone, Ngapyawtaw, Kawpatine and Pankone villages in Hpa-an township, where locals said the same thing has happened in 22 nearby villages. Officials from the state and from a nearby factory that locals accuse of polluting the groundwater insist the water is potable and safe, but cannot explain the cause of the change in colour. Meanwhile, locals refuse to drink it..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Myanmar Now" (Myanmar)
2020-03-02
Date of entry/update: 2020-03-02
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "For many farmers in rural Myanmar, Facebook embodies the internet. With scarce availability of WiFi, they often reserve their mobile data usage for the social network. That habit is difficult to break. Adrian Soe Myint, CEO of Yangon-based agritech startup Village Link, said it was challenging to convince farmers to allot part of their mobile data for the startup’s app, Htwet Toe, which means “higher yield.” The app’s name is exactly what Soe Myint wants for farmers in his country. Founded in 2016, the startup uses mobile technology to connect farmers and other stakeholders in Myanmar’s agriculture sector, which accounts for 38% of the country’s gross domestic product, as estimated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. But agricultural productivity in Myanmar is extremely low – the national output falls far behind that of neighboring countries. In a blog post, the World Bank explains how the country has not been able to capitalize on its “fertile soils and abundant water source.” A rice farmer in Myanmar generates only 23 kilograms of paddy after one working day during monsoon season, compared to Vietnam’s output of 429 kilograms and Thailand’s 547 kilograms..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Tech in Asia" (Singapore)
2020-02-12
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-13
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "At the juncture of East, South and Southeast Asia, Myanmar is home to a culturally and ecologically diverse country with rich traditions. In a largely rural but rapidly changing economy, around 54m people of different ethnic and religious groups strive to overcome a legacy of armed conflict, military rule and self-imposed isolation. In spite of substantial progress during the past decade, about 14% of the population is undernourished, 29% of children are stunted and the maternal mortality rate is 282 deaths per 100,000 births, the second-highest in the region. The Government of Myanmar is managing a challenging transition towards democracy, a peaceful and pluralistic society as well as an open and inclusive economy. Through the Myanmar Sustainable Development Plan (MSDP) 2018-2030, the country is committed to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In 2017, attacks on 30 police posts in Northern Rakhine by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) provoked a violent response by the security forces Executive summary that reportedly resulted in the death of 10,000 people and caused more than 700,000 to flee to Bangladesh. Denouncing the lack of accountability, several Western countries imposed targeted sanctions, private investments slowed, and the country came under increasing international criticism. Under the integrated Swiss Cooperation Strategy Myanmar 2013-2017, extended through 2018, Switzerland supported initiatives in vocational skills development, agriculture and food security, health, social services and local governance as well as peace promotion, democratisation and protection, with a total expenditure of CHF 179m over 6 years..."
Source/publisher: "Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation" (Bern)
2020-01-31
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-01
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Format : pdf
Size: 1.68 MB
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Topic: East-West Economic Corridor, Electricity, Infrastructure, Japan, Japanese Embassy, loan agreements, ODA, Official Development Assistance, Power, rural development, sewerage, Southern Economic Corridor, Traffic, Urban Development, wastewater treatment, Water
Topic: East-West Economic Corridor, Electricity, Infrastructure, Japan, Japanese Embassy, loan agreements, ODA, Official Development Assistance, Power, rural development, sewerage, Southern Economic Corridor, Traffic, Urban Development, wastewater treatment, Water
Description: "Myanmar and Japan have signed four loan agreements worth about US$1.1 billion (120.915 billion yen, or 1.61 trillion kyats) to fund sewerage, urban development, power distribution and infrastructure improvement projects in seven regions and states in Myanmar. The four Official Development Assistance (ODA) loan agreements were signed on Tuesday between Japanese Ambassador Maruyama Ichiro and U Maung Maung Win, Myanmar’s deputy minister for planning, finance and industry, with the aim of improving living standards and economic and social development in Myanmar, the Japanese Embassy in Yangon said in a statement. About 45.9 billion yen will go towards developing Yangon’s sewerage system. The funds will be used to renovate and expand wastewater treatment plants, lay sewer pipes and improve living standards in the central business district of Yangon. Currently, much of Yangon’s human waste and domestic and industrial wastewater flows into the Yangon River untreated, resulting in poor water quality..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
2020-01-22
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-23
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Sub-title: Solar mini-grids in Myanmar are expected to take off as the private sector sees solar energy as a potentially commercially viable solution in Myanmar’s journey towards full electrification.
Description: "With a US$1.6 million mini-grid installed, more than a thousand households on the island of Yesagyo in Magway Region were connected to electricity for the first time last month. The project was partly funded by the World Bank and Myanmar firm Parami Energy. Mandalay Yoma Energy also sees the potential in the sector and operates over 40 solar hybrid mini-grids Myanmar. It is a joint venture between French Engie Group’s GDF International SAS and Singapore-based consultancy Sol Partners. CEO Kapil Smith expects his firm to double the electricity generation capacity this year. “It is fulfilling to see how the sector has grown in Myanmar in the past two years versus other countries which have been trying for years,” he said. The rising business interest in Myanmar solar mini-grids reflects the vast potential of solar energy in the country as well as the role solar panels could play in bridging the nation’s energy deficit. Only less than half of Myanmar’s population has been connected to electricity, and rural areas generally lag behind cities in terms of electrification rate. The energy ministry’s National Electrification Plan aims to provide access to electricity to three-quarters of the population in 2025, and complete electrification by the end of this decade. The scheme is supported by the World Bank’s US$400 million worth of loans. However, access still seems like a distant dream for communities residing in islands and mountainous areas. The World Bank estimated it could take years or even more than a decade for the roughly 1.3 million people in remote areas in Chin, Kachin, Kayin, Shan, Rakhine, Tanintharyi and Sagaing states and regions to be connected to the national grid. “Off-grid solutions provide an alternative for communities in a decentralised manner, which is particularly useful for locations that will not receive access to the national grid for a significant period of time,” said Jordan Zele of Myanmar Energy Monitor..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Myanmar Times" (Myanmar)
2020-01-21
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-21
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Sub-title: The Yoma Yangon International Marathon took place for the eighth time in Yangon on Sunday with the participation of more than 11,000 runners in four categories.
Description: "YYIM is jointly organised by Yoma Strategic Holdings Ltd, First Myanmar Investment Public Company Limited and Yangon City Development Committee. The four categories are 42km Full Marathon, 21km Half Marathon, 10.5km Challenge and 3km Fun Run/Walk which started and finished at Thuwunnabhumi Event Park. In the Men’s Full Marathon, Philip Lagat from Kenya finished first with a time of 2 hours 33 minutes 33 seconds (02:33:33). Coming in second was Htay Ko from Myanmar with a time of 2 hours 55 minutes 44 seconds (02:55:44) while Zaw Thwe Win from Myanmar came in third with a time of 2 hours 55 minutes 44 seconds (02:55:44). In the Women’s Full Marathon, Edinah Mutahi from Kenya took home the title after clocking 3 hours 2 minutes 37 seconds (03:02:37) to come first. Finishing behind her was Masako Nakamura from Japan in second place (03:11:08) and Thidar Cho from Myanmar in third (03:15:34). In the Men’s Half Marathon Challenge, John Muiruri Mburu from Kenya came in first place with a time of 1 hour 2 minutes 8 seconds (01:02:08)..."
Source/publisher: "Myanmar Times" (Myanmar)
2020-01-19
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-20
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "ခ့ၣ်အဲးစံၣ်–ကညီတၢ်ကစီၣ်၀ဲၤလီၢ်ခိၣ်သ့ၣ် တီခိၣ်ရိၣ်မဲ၀ဲဒီးမၤ၀ဲတၢ်တၢၣ်ပီၣ်တဲသကိးဘၣ်ဃးဒီး လီၢ်က၀ီၤတၢ်ဂုၤထီၣ်ပသီထီၣ်အတၢ်ဖံးတၢ်မၤတဖၣ်ဒီး လီၢ်က၀ီၤဖိအတၢ်ထံၣ်တခါဖဲ ကညီကီၢ်စဲၣ် ကီးတရံးကီၢ်ဆၣ် အီဖး ဖးဒိၣ်သ၀ီအပူၤ တီၤထီကၠိ(အဒ့)အံၤ ဖဲလါနိၣ်၀့ဘၢၣ် ၂၃ သီ အနံၤန့ၣ်လီၤႉ ဒ်သိးဒီး လီၢ်က၀ီၤဖိတဖၣ်ကသ့ၣ်ညါဘၣ်၀ဲ လီၢ်က၀ီၤတၢ်ဂုၤထီၣ်ပသီထီၣ်အတၢ်ရဲၣ်တၢ်ကျဲၤအကလုာ်တဖၣ်အဂီၢ် အ၀ဲသ့ၣ်အတၢ်ထံၣ်တၢ်ပာ်သးတဖၣ်ဒီး တၢ်မိၣ်န့ၢ်သးလီတဖၣ်န့ၣ် ကပာ်ဖျါထီၣ်၀ဲပျီပျီရှဲရှဲဒီး တၢၣ်ပီၣ်တဲသကိးအီၤကသ့အဂီၢ် ပညိၣ်အီၤဒီးမၤ၀ဲတၢ်တၢၣ်ပီၣ်တဲသကိးလီၤ အဂ့ၢ်န့ၣ် ခ့ၣ်အဲၣ်စံၣ်အဲဒံထၢၣ် နါဖီဂ့ၤ စံး၀ဲဒၣ်လီၤႉ..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: KIC (Karen Information Center)
2019-11-23
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-06
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "Myanmar Union Minister of Investment and Foreign Economic Relations U Thaung Tun called for clear and open discussions at the 2nd Development Effectiveness Roundtable which kicked off in Myanmar’s capital Nay Pyi Taw on Wednesday. U Thaung Tun, in his capacity as the vice chair of the Development Assistance Coordination Unit (DACU), stressed that the mobilization and coordination of a wide variety of sources of development finance are required to achieve the vision set forth within the Myanmar Sustainable Development Plan. He said that poverty in Myanmar is on the decline, access to education and life-saving medicines is on the rise, and a second wave of social and economic reforms is underway, while economic growth remains strong by both regional and global standards. “The progress could not have been possible without the dedication and commitment of those gathered here today,” said the minister, adding that Myanmar government reaffirms its commitment to working with all like-minded partners from domestic and international civil society and private sectors, for transparency and effectiveness in the delivery of development assistance..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Xinhua" (China)
2019-12-04
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-05
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "Myanmar has urged ASEAN to intensify cooperation in rural development and poverty eradication efforts, according to the News Straits Times. Minister for Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation, U Aung Thu, said that total poverty eradication is necessary for the sustainable development of a nation; and urged all ASEAN members to work together in lifting their people out of poverty. He attributed the current success of the 10-member group in reducing poverty to exchanging experiences and finding new approaches in efforts to fight the problem. U Tun Lwin, deputy permanent secretary of the ministry, said that the Myanmar government is implementing people-centred projects using a World Bank loan, among others..."
Source/publisher: "Mizzima" (Myanmar)
2019-11-12
Date of entry/update: 2019-11-17
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "UP TO 152km of rural roads will be upgraded at a cost of US$51.2 million (RM212 million) by the Asia Development Bank (ADB) in Myanmar. The all-weather and climate-resilient roads will be built to benefit communities of some 150 villages in the Ayeyarwady and Magwe regions, according to The Myanmar Times. In a statement by the financial institution that is dedicated to reducing poverty in Asia and the Pacific, the funding consists of a US$45.4 million loan from ADB and a US$5.8 million grant from the Asian Development Fund. On top of that, the Myanmar government will contribute US$1.2 million. The ADB said the project aims to enable people in the region to connect better and cut down traveling time once completed by 2025. The project will also see road surfaces elevated in areas prone to floods and materials to be used will be durable, such as concrete. ADB senior transport specialist for Southeast Asia, Shihiru Date, said the improved roads can help address climate change challenges which can cause damage to deteriorating rural links. “The project will provide rural residents in four townships of Ayeyarwady and Magwe with reliable, climate-proof roads, so they can better access markets and job opportunities,” he added. Myanmar has one of the lowest rates of rural road access in Asia, with more than 40 per cent of the country’s rural population having no access to all-season roads, according to the Rural Access Index database. The country's total population is estimated at around 53 million. ADB studies revealed that over four million people in Myanmar are not connected by road, and 10 million more are connected by roads that are not passable during the rainy season. About 6 per cent of the country’s 95,000km rural road network is considered paved, while 28 per cent have gravel or stone surfaces..."
Source/publisher: "New Straits Times" (Malaysia)
2019-11-16
Date of entry/update: 2019-11-16
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "Myanmar's Yangon Bus Service (YBS) will implement a card payment system to replace the present cash box system to facilitate passengers in taking buses by the end of this year. According to the Yangon Region Transport Authority Monday, more than 1,500 buses will get the e-ticketing machines in the initial stage. The Asia Starmar Transport Intelligent Company, which is the tender winner for taking up the project, will start the trial run services by November or December once the imported machines of the system arrived in Yangon. The transport authorities have invited local and foreign joint-venture companies to bid for tender for operating related card payment services since last year that include card issuing, card acquiring and card top-up agency. Aimed at enhancing better transport service and reducing traffic congestion, the regional government introduced the new Yangon Bus Service (YBS) system in January last year, under which the number of bus lines was initially cut from more than 300 to 70 to solve the traffic jam problem..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Xinhua" (China)
2019-10-28
Date of entry/update: 2019-10-29
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "Myanmar Vice President U Henry Van Thio has called for working towards the production of food safe for consumption and the development of living standard in rural areas to properly feed the growing population and nurture the future generation into healthy and able-bodied citizens. The vice president made the call at a function in Nay Pyi Taw Wednesday to mark the World Food Day, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation Thursday. "Such a monumental task required the assistance of the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and the effective implementation of government policies with public cooperation," he said. Only an absence of hunger can bring about nutritional sufficiency and robust health and can elevate education and drive socio-economic development, he added. While Myanmar was receiving international assistance to meet the development goals, he reminded that Myanmar people must be the main drivers for change..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Xinhua" (China)
2019-10-17
Date of entry/update: 2019-10-17
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "The United States and Myanmar partners celebrated achievements in Myanmar’s melon, sesame, coffee, ginger, and soybean sectors at the #MarketNext event yesterday, according to a press release. Agriculture is vital to the livelihoods of the majority of people in Myanmar. U.S. Ambassador Scot Marciel answered questions from trade association leaders, farmers and other Myanmar partners during today’s event. He said, “Myanmar has tremendous potential to produce and export a wide range of agricultural products. Our programs are designed to help farmers and others expand quality production and find good markets that allow them to increase their incomes.” The #MarketNext event marks the end of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Value Chains for Rural Development project. USAID invested $27 million from 2014-2019. This project has helped 40,000 farmers, at least a third of whom are women, and 400 private sector partners. Strong producer and exporter associations such as Myanmar Coffee Association, Myanmar Fruit, Flower and Vegetable Producers and Exporters Association, and the Sesame Farmer Development Association will carry on the work of helping farmers improve their production while also establishing new markets for Myanmar products..."
Source/publisher: "Mizzima" (Myanmar)
2019-10-09
Date of entry/update: 2019-10-13
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "How will Myanmar farmers and their families benefit from the dramatic changes taking place in Myanmar’s rural economy? This was the central question at a day-long workshop that brought together American and Myanmar researchers and Government of Myanmar policy makers and agricultural program implementers, according to a press release. U.S. Ambassador to Myanmar Scot Marciel opened the day-long workshop in Yangon on September 26. He said, “The United States is committed to supporting Myanmar’s economic transformation and democratic transition. For Myanmar, that means working to help transform the agricultural sector, a source of livelihood for more than seventy percent of rural households.” Faculty of Michigan State University facilitated four panel discussions about the findings from the Food Security Policy Project, a five-year investment co-financed by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and Livelihoods and Food Security Fund (LIFT). Participants reviewed findings from surveys of close to 8000 rural households, 800 communities, and more than 1150 enterprises in agricultural value chains in eight states and regions, including Mon, the Delta, the Dry Zone, and Shan. Panelists encouraged government policy makers to understand how farmers can benefit from changes such as the maize boom in Shan State, the rise of aquaculture in the Delta, changes affecting communities working with oilseed and pulses in the Dry Zone, and the recent surge in mechanization in agriculture. They discussed farmers’ needs to access and utilize land, seed and credit, the changing rural economy, migration, and the need to consider gender issues in policies and programs..."
Source/publisher: "Mizzima" (Myanmar)
2019-09-27
Date of entry/update: 2019-10-02
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Sub-title: Real rural wages increased by around 40 percent in just five years due to labour shortages brought about by migration, a study shows.
Description: "The finding was revealed during workshop organised by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in Yangon on Thursday. Machinery such as combine harvester were hardly used in 2013, but by 2016, half of all rice farms used them so farming is mechanising quickly according to the study research. US Ambassador to Myanmar Scot Marciel attended the workshop titled Agriculture,Value Chains and Rural Transformation in Myanmar . “The United States is committed to supporting Myanmar’s economic transformation and democratic transition. For Myanmar, that means working to help transform the agricultural sector, a source of livelihood for more than seventy percent of rural households,” Marciel said in a speech for the workshop. Participants reviewed finding from surveys of close to 8000 rural households, 800 communities and more than 1150 enterprises in agricultural value chains in eight states and regions, including Mon,the delta and dry zones and Shan..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Myanmar Times" (Myanmar)
2019-09-27
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-27
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "As a bamboo design and construction company, Pounamu’s business relies on the supply of bamboo. So in 2017, the company thought: How can we make the business more sustainable? The answer lies in training communities on sustainable bamboo forestry, treatment, and construction. “Actually the bamboo is a sustainable material in itself, but … we [should care] and ... [be] good [in] managing and taking the bamboo from the forest,” Pounamu Operations Director Soe Win Zaw told Devex at the 7th Asia-Pacific Housing Forum in Bangkok. Bamboo technology in the housing sector isn’t new, but Pounamu’s work with the community on sustainable and productive practices in the sourcing and utilization of bamboo has earned the company the first Asia-Pacific Housing Forum Innovation Awards in the category of community initiatives and spatial planning. The innovation awards are initiated by Habitat for Humanity with support from the Hilti Foundation and the Cities Alliance..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "devex" (USA)
2019-09-19
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-20
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Sub-title: The government will borrow US$185 million (K283.4 billion) from the Asian Development Bank to finance rural development projects across the country, a senior agriculture official said.
Description: "U Hla Kyaw, deputy minister for Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation, told the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (Assembly of the Union) on Monday that more than 1.8 million people would benefit from the projects funded by the loan. Most of the projects would be labour intensive and would directly benefit people in villages. “The villagers will participate in rural development, the incomes of rural families will increase, and their living standard will be higher,” he said, adding that the projects will help rural people better withstand natural disasters. The ADB loan will form part of the $244.95 million in rural development projects that the government is currently implementing. A portion of the project is funded by the European Union and the Japanese government. U Hla Kyaw said 70 percent of the projects will involve the direct participation of villagers. “The public approach development method will be used,” said U Hla Kyaw, adding that some 1395 local youths will be appointed public organisers..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Myanmar Times"
2019-09-11
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-11
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Topic: Doh Eain to present ways on “How to reduce your waste as a Yangonite”
Sub-title: We the City: Making Yangon
Topic: Doh Eain to present ways on “How to reduce your waste as a Yangonite”
Description: "“Rain, rain, go away, come again another day.” We’ve been chanting this nursery rhyme while writing this advertisement, hoping that the heavy rain outside will soon stop. Our washing won’t dry, and the trash is building up inside. But however much we wish, the rain doesn’t wash away the rubbish - either in the home, or on the streets. Yangon, the crowded commercial capital of the country, produces 2300 tonnes to 2500 tonnes of trash a day, or about 0.5 kilograms of waste per person, according to the Yangon City Development Committee. That’s a lot of waste! Doh Eain, a social enterprise organisation dedicated to building a better Yangon, is hosting the 9th “We The City - Making Yangon” event at the Pansuriya Gallery. The theme of this year’s event is “what Yangonites can do to reduce waste”. You will have the opportunity to listen to ideas on how best to separate, reduce and reuse waste in the How-To-Reduce-Your-Waste-Market. Or, you can get inspired and hear about how you or your organisation can help clean up the city. A panel discussion will also explore how we can improve our own waste disposal habits as humble Yangon folks..."
Source/publisher: "Myanmar Times"
2019-09-09
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-09
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "Myanmar's Yangon municipal authorities have planned to privatize water distribution as part of its efforts to deal with water pipe leakage, water losses and staff shortage, according to the Yangon City Development Committee (YCDC) Thursday. A total of over 30 local and foreign companies are seeking investment in the city's water distribution project, said YCDC Engineering Department on Wednesday, while inviting expression of interest for the project from the private sector under public-private partnership. The Yangon authorities are raising awareness about systematic water meter installation, dealing with water pipe leakage, unsystematic water consumption, management of water loss in urban water distribution and curbing illegal connections to the water pipe network, said Yangon Mayor U Maung Maung Soe. There are three main sources of water supply in Yangon city -- Gyo Phyu, Phoo Gyi and Nga Moe Yeik water reservoirs, providing over 2 million gallons of water every day. However, about half of the water supply gets wasted due to water losses and leakage in the supply system, he added..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Xinhua"
2019-09-05
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-05
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "Myanmar's Yangon regional government has initiated a project of developing apartments on state-owned land to tackle the issue of squatters and the project will be implemented in September, according to the office of the regional government on Wednesday. "The regional government will offer a long term installment payment plan to squatters to help them purchase the apartments," Yangon Region Chief Minister U Phyo Min Thein told in a coordination meeting with private entrepreneurs, adding that the regional government will contribute land and obtain a loan for the housing project, under which the apartments will be sold at 12-13 million kyats (8,000-8,600 U.S. dollars) per unit. He warned that squatting in industrial zones and other commercial sites can cause damage to the drainage system of the industrial zone and increase risk of fire. Besides squatters, civil servants and private company staffs who have not occupied any house will be allowed to apply for the to-be-developed apartments. The apartments will be regarded as community-owned property and those allowed to live in the apartments will be restricted from re-selling them, according to him..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Xinhua"
2019-08-28
Date of entry/update: 2019-08-29
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "The Government of Myanmar, with the help of the World Bank, is rolling out on-grid and off-grid electricity services to rural communities as part of its National Electrification Plan. The plan aims to bring electricity to everyone in Myanmar by 2030, installing modern solar home systems and mini-grids for remote villages that would otherwise have to wait years for a grid connection. The new electricity source will help Ei Po Po Aung to study without disruption, helping her achieve her dream of becoming a teacher in the future. It will also help her family save on daily expenses and enabling them to be more productive..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "World Bank"
2017-06-28
Date of entry/update: 2019-08-21
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "Nwe Ni Win describes the challenges and successes of Myanmar teachers using mobile technologies in their classrooms for the first time. Nwe Ni works as a Programme Assistant for UNESCO's ICT for Education project in Myanmar. Join Nwe Ni as she travels to the schools and supports the teachers on this journey. UNESCO’s ICT for Education project in Myanmar is part of Ericsson’s Connect To Learn initiative and UK Department for International Development’s Girls’ Education Challenge..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "UNESCO"
2016-09-20
Date of entry/update: 2019-08-16
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "With the new fiscal year underway, our Yangon team moved into a new head office in September—bringing all business units and teams under one roof. Our Irrigation business launched its newest product—a micro irrigation sprinkler system with 60 units sold in the first month. Our Farm Advisory Services expanded operations from the Delta to the central Dry Zone. Proximity Finance, our farm finance business, now serves 57,695 rural borrowers. Our economic research team produced a short discussion paper, entitled “Internal and External Challenges to Unity in Myanmar,” in response to the country’s critical juncture in democratic transition. Proximity Labs, our design team, is working on a pipeline of products and services including a soil moisture sensor, seed multiplication services, and a redesigned solar irrigation pump..."
Source/publisher: Proximity Designs
2016-09-30
Date of entry/update: 2019-08-05
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Size: 1.78 MB
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Description: "At our mid-year point, Proximity has served over 85,000 customer households with our irrigation technology, rural finance, and advisory services. Year-to-date irrigation sales are up 11 percent, compared to FY2016, and our new sprinkler irrigation product has been well-received by farmers. Adoption rates for our farm advisory services jumped to 68 percent by quarter end, as our extension staff served 8.2 farmers each per working day. Proximity Finance is now serving 60,238 active customers with an outstanding portfolio of USD11.7 million. Proximity Research focused on recent inter-communal violence in Rakhine State with domestic research visits, and made preparations to take Myanmar leaders to visit Indonesia and Maluku in the next quarter. Our in-house product and service design team, Proximity Labs, completed a full-season pilot of our SMS-messaging service to advise farmers on timely fertilizer application, ready for launch next quarter..."
Source/publisher: Proximity Designs
2016-12-31
Date of entry/update: 2019-08-05
Grouping: Individual Documents
Format : pdf
Size: 2.42 MB
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Description: "In Myanmar's central dry zone, many villages and their inhabitants are in danger. Due to climate change, which causes both excessive rainfall and prolonged droughts, the Irawaddy river is bursting its banks more often and more destructively. Hundreds of acres are now permanently underwater, farmers have lost their land and livelihood and many villagers have lost their homes. Those who have been able to reconstruct their houses away from the flood-prone areas are now in danger of losing their homes again. Moving away even further is not an option for most, since the river they now fear, is also the main source of livelihood of this community of farmers and fishermen. Cordaid helps the community by mapping the risks and creating contingency and mitigation plans following a proven disaster risk reduction method. The villagers themselves express and document their greatest worries and needs, after which Cordaid's local resilience partners help the community to find a solution to their problems. This could entail planting trees to prevent the soil from eroding or the construction of dikes to stop the floods, just to name a few examples..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: Cordaid International, Cyril Myint Soe
2019-07-04
Date of entry/update: 2019-08-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "Across Myanmar’s central, rural dry zone, communities have markedly improved their lives with the support of Pact and its partners, in areas including health, food security, livelihoods, access to credit and renewable energy, and water, sanitation and hygiene. Pact’s unique, integrated model – one focused on making holistic, systemic change and building strong local institutions and decision-making – means villages lead their own development. Pact and its partners implemented the Shae Thot project in Myanmar from 2011 to 2018. The project was supported by USAID and paid for by the American people..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: Pactworld
2018-06-08
Date of entry/update: 2019-08-03
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Description: "Between April 2012 and March 2014 ADRA implemented a project with UKaid funding to reduce the poverty of 12,600 people within 15 villages of Pakokku Township. This is the project video report..."
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Source/publisher: ADRA UK
2015-09-08
Date of entry/update: 2019-08-02
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "World leaders are gathering in Poland for the COP24 summit. They will be discussing ways of implementing the historic Paris Accords, aimed at reducing global warming and cutting emissions. Myanmar may be a long way from where the conference is being held, but it is a country where climate change is having a dramatic effect. Nick Davies-Jones reports..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: TRT World
2018-12-05
Date of entry/update: 2019-07-28
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "Major Cities of Myanmar face great challenges to deliver high quality basic services to their citizens while urbanization is at an early but growing stage. While this urbanization process is closely linked to economic development, its effects on health can be contradictory. The urbanization of Myanmar should therefore be compensated by important efforts to expand and improve the quality of the services delivered. In particular, improvements brought by new facilities can only sustainably and positively impact the population if they are implemented along with a significant technical assistance. Cities of Myanmar indeed lack the technical, human and financial resources to cope with population growth. In the meantime, while cities face similar problems with regard to the management of environmental services (such as drinking water supply, sanitation, solid waste management, etc.) they scarcely exchange their experiences and expertise with one another. Based of these observations, the French Embassy in Myanmar, Mandalay City Development Committee (MCDC) and GRET INGO initiated in 2016 a program aiming to bridge progressively the supply and demand gap on infrastructure services in Myanmar cities by strengthening the capacities of service managers, facilitating experience sharing between operators, and fostering local partnerships as well as mutual technical support..."
Source/publisher: Myanmar Water Portal
2019-05-01
Date of entry/update: 2019-07-26
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "Within the framework of the capacity building program for Myanmar urban services providers implemented by GRET (ROSAMUR project), a comprehensive assessment study on sanitation in Magway city was conducted with the key following objectives: To gather and analyze data and information on sanitation conditions, including all different aspects: regulatory, institutional, financial, capacity, technical, etc. To draw the faecal waste flow in Magway city to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the current system To suggest priorities improvement for each component of the sanitation service chain according to the conclusion of the assessment The following report is in Myanmar language and presents the conclusions of this study.....ဤအစီရင်ခံစာတွင်၂၀၁၇ခုနှစ်၊စက်တင်ဘာလမှ၂၀၁၈ခုနှစ်၊ဇန်နဝါရီလအထိ လေ့လာတွေ့ရှိရသော ရေဆိုးစွန့်ပစ်စနစ်နှင့်ပတ်သက်သည့်လေ့လာချက်များနှင့်အနှစ်ချုပ်တွေ့ရှိချက်များကိုတင်ပြထားပါသ ည်။ ဤလေ့လာမှုသည်GRETမှအကောင်အထည်ဖော်ပြီး ပြင်သစ်အလှူရှင်များမှ ရန်ပုံငွေ မတည် ထားသော Rosamurပရောဂျက်၏ တစ်စိတ်တစ်ပိုင်းဖြစ်ကာမကွေးမြို့အတွက် ရေပေးဝေမှုစနစ် ရေဆိုးစွန့်ပစ်မှုနှင့် အမှိုက်သရိုက်အညစ်အကြေးများစီမံခန့်ခွဲမှုလုပ်ငန်းများ ဖံ့ွ ဖြိုးတိုးတက်စေရန် ရည်ရွယ်ချက်အတွက်ဖြစ်ပါသည်။ ကနဦးလေ့လာတွေ့ရှိချက်များနှင့်ကွင်းဆင်းလေ့လာမှု့များအရ မကွေးမြို့၏ရေဆိုးစွန့်ပစ်မှုအခြေအနေနှင့်ပတ်သက်၍အားကိုးအားထားပြုရမည့်အချက်အလက်များ လုံးဝမရှိသည့်အပြင်ရေဆိုးစွန့်ပစ်စနစ်နှင့်ပတ်သက်ပြီးမြို့၏အခြေအနေနှင့်ပြည်သူလူထု၏လက်တွေ့ ကျင့်သုံးမှုအပိုင်းမှာလည်း စိတ်ကျေနပ်မှုမရှိသည်ကို တွေ့ရှိရပါသည်။ ထိုအခြေအနေကိုကောင်းမွန်လာစေရန်အလို့ငှာမြို့၏လက်ရှိအခြေအနေကိုနားလည်ပြီး တိကျ မှန်ကန်သော သတင်းအချက်အလက်များစုဆောင်းရန်လိုအပ်ပါသည်။ ထိုသို့သောအကြောင်းအရာများကြောင့်GRETမှမကွေးမြို့တွင်ရေဆိုးစွန့်ပစ်စနစ်နှင့်ပတ်သက်သော ရှင်းလင်းသည့် လေ့လာအကဲဖြတ်မှုများကို အောက်ပါရည်ရွယ်ချက်များဖြင့် ပြုလုပ်ပါသည်။ 1) ရေဆိုးစနွ့်ပစ်မှုအခြေအနေများနှင့်ပတ်သက်၍သတင်းအချက်အလက်များကိုစည်းမျဉ်းစည်းကမ်း ဆိုင်ရာ၊ဖွဲ့စည်းပုံဆိုင်ရာ၊ ငွေကြေးဆိုင်ရာ၊စွမ်းဆောင်ချက်ဆိုင်ရာ၊နည်းစနစ်ပိုင်းဆိုင်ရာစသည်တို့ကိုရှုထောင့်အမျိုးမျိုးမှပါ ဝင်အောင်စုဆောင်းရန်။ 2) မကွေးမြို့၏မိလ္လာအညစ်အကြေးစီးဆင်းမှုကို ရေးဆွဲပြီး လက်ရှိမိလ္လာရေစီးလမ်းကြောင်း စနစ်၏ အားသာ ချက်နှင့် အားနည်းချက်တို့ကို လေ့လာရန်။ 3) လေ့လာတွေ့ရှိချက်များအပေါ်မူတည်၍ရေဆိုးစွန့်ပစ်စနစ်လုပ်ငန်းစဉ်၏ ဦးစားပေး လုပ်ငန်း တစ်ခုချင်းစီ ဖံ့ွ ဖြိုးတိုးတက်မှုအတကွ ် အကြံပြုရန်။..."
Source/publisher: Myanmar Water Portal
2019-07-01
Date of entry/update: 2019-07-26
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf
Size: 3.55 MB
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Sub-title: The Yangon City Development Committee (YCDC) is the entity charged with managing and providing many of the services, such as planning, cleaning, transportation, and infrastructure development, among others, that keep a modern city humming.
Description: "As such, the YCDC's performance of its duties directly affects the lives of some five million people living in the city. In return for those services, city dwellers pay taxes and fees to the YCDC. However, some experts question whether people in Yangon receive good value for the money they give. According to a recent survey conducted by the Myanmar Democracy Research Network (MDRN), some 40pc of Yangonites don't believe in the YCDC's performance. "It is roughly seen in the survey that less than half of Yangonites are unsatisfied with YCDC's performance, however, people's trust in the YCDC is found to be quite weak," commented Kyauktada No. 1 Constituency MP Daw Kyi Pyar on the results of the survey. In the survey, people were asked questions on several facets of issues in Yangon such as stray dogs, taxes, waste management, water supply, roads electricity, markets, and public parks. MDRN worked with seven civic organisations to conduct throughout April, which involved 510 respondents in 85 wards of 16 townships in the Yangon municipal area. For a more in-depth report on the survey and its findings, check out the Metro section of the Myanmar Times over the coming days..."
Source/publisher: Myanmar Water Portal via "Myanmar Times"
2019-07-05
Date of entry/update: 2019-07-26
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "A project funded by the American People (USAID) for rebuilding people’s lives helped rehabilitate houses for 1,000 families in Dedaye Township of Ayeyarwady Region..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: UN-Habitat Myanmar
2018-07-22
Date of entry/update: 2019-07-18
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "Improving the health of families in the Delta by providing access to safe water and sanitation facilities, while raising awareness of hygiene and health related issues was a project funded by the Government of Japan for recovery and reconstruction of 2365 latrines, 197 rainwater collection tanks, 235 ponds, 28 new ponds and 212 new wells, 13,911 ceramic jars, 129 bridges and jetties, 541 emergency water supply systems and many more for 190,000 people in 263 villages of the Cyclone Nargis affected community in the Delta area of Myanmar. More information can be found at: Community Water Supply and Sanitation Recovery Programme (CWSSRP)..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: UN-Habitat Myanmar
2015-03-20
Date of entry/update: 2019-07-18
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "MRTV broadcasts about the consultation workshop on National Urban Policy Framework in Nay Pyi Taw on 4 June 2018. The workshop was organized by Department of Urban and Housing Development, Ministry of Construction and UN-Habitat..."
Source/publisher: UN-Habitat Myanmar via MRTV
2018-06-06
Date of entry/update: 2019-07-16
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "ကတီၢ်အံၤ အ့ၣ်ဒူၣ်ကီးတရံးကျဲမုၢ်ဖးဒိၣ် တၢ်ဘၣ်ပတုာ်ဃာ် တၢ်တ့အီၤအံၤ လၢ(NLD)ပဒိၣ်ပၢဆှၢတၢ် ဒံးကတီၢ်ဒ်သိးကတ့၀ံၤ၀ဲကျဲမုၢ်အံၤအဂီၢ် ကဟ့ၣ်သဆၣ်ထီၣ်ပဒိၣ်အခံအဂ့ၢ် ဖၣ်အၣ်တၢ်ဖးဟီၣ်က၀ီၤ ဘျီၣ်ဒိၣ်ခၢၣ်စး နါသါသါလွ့ၣ် စံး၀ဲန့ၣ်လီၤႉ အ၀ဲစံး၀ဲလၢ“ကမျၢၢ်ပဒိၣ်အံၤကပၢဆှၢတၢ်အိၣ်တ့ၢ်၀ဲခံနံၣ်လီၤႉ ခံနံၣ်အတီၢ်ပူၤအံၤ ဒ််သိးကတ့၀ံၤ၀ဲအဂ့ၢ် ပကဘၣ်ဟ့ၣ်သဆၣ်ထီၣ်အခံလီၤႉ ပဒိၣ်ကရူၢ်တကပၤကဘၣ်ကျဲးစၢးမၤ၀ဲလီၤႉ ၀ံၤတ၀ံၤတခီအိၣ်ဒၣ်လၢတၢ်တဲသကိးအဖီခိၣ်လီၤႉ တၢ်ဂ့ၢ်ကီမ့ၢ်တကဲထီၣ်နီတမံၤဘၣ်ဒု၀ံၤ၀ဲသ့၊ ဘၣ်ဃးလၢတၢ်ထုးထီၣ်လၢၢ်တခီကမျၢၢ်မ့ၢ်တြီဒုတၢ်မၤ၀ံၤတန့ၢ်ဘၣ်”အဂ့ၢ် စံးဘၣ် ခ့ၣ်အဲၣ်စံၣ် ကညီတၢ်ကစီၣ်န့ၣ်လီၤႉ..." "လမ်းဆက်လက်ဖောက်လုပ်မှု ရပ်ဆိုင်းထားနေရဆဲဖြစ်သည့် ကရင်ပြည်နယ် အိန္ဒု၊ ကော့ကရိတ်လမ်း ဖောက်လုပ်မှုကို ကျန်ရှိသည့် NLD အစိုးရ သက်တမ်းတွင် အပြီးဖောက်လုပ်နိုင်ရေးအတွက် တိုက်တွန်းလုပ်ဆောင်သွားမည်ဖြစ်ကြောင်း ဖားအံမဲဆန္ဒနယ် ပြည်သူ့လွှတ်တော် ကိုယ်စားလှယ် နန်းသန်းသန်းလွင်က ပြောသည်။..."
Creator/author: နါ၀့ၤဖၠိစၣ်
Source/publisher: KIC (Karen Information Center)
2019-01-28
Date of entry/update: 2019-02-25
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: Sgaw Karen, Burmese မြန်မာဘာသာ
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Description: ''Communication for Sustainable Livelihoods and Food Security in Myanmar''
Creator/author: Khin Thuzar Nwe, U Hlan Chin, U Ke Tu, U Htan Hell, U Tint Nay Aung, U William, Mrs. Murielle Morisson
Source/publisher: ABC International Development
2017-04-06
Date of entry/update: 2019-01-30
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: Burmese (မြန်မာဘာသာ), Chin, English
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Description: "... Pyoe Pin is a programme aimed at strengthening civil society in Myanmar. The programme is supported by DFID, the British Department for International Cooperation and implemented through the British council in partnership with local NGOs. Community Forestry (CF) is a key element of the programme, as it is seen as pathway to increasing the participation of civil society in influencing policy and practice with regards to communities. access and sustainable use of forestry land. CF can also improve forestry conservation and enhance the livelihoods of communities. CF has been a national development tool since 1995, when the Ministry of Forestry issued instructions for the issuing of Community Forest certificates. In Kachin state in northern Myanmar bordering China, Pyoe Pin has been working with two local NGOs (ECODEV and Shalom Foundation), who are in turn engaging with forest villages, to increase their awareness of appropriate forest usage and management, through assisting these communities to apply for community forest certificates. These certificates provide community rights to forest products and tenure for 30 years. Working through 120 villages, 54 Forest User Groups (FUGs) consisting of about 40,000 people have been created, who are replanting degraded forest areas, and also balancing their livelihood needs with greater understanding of sustainability. So far, 31,445 acres have been prepared for CF, but aside from 3000 of these acres, the rest has not yet been granted the lease, largely a result of lack of institutional support for this process as government prioritizes commercial allocations of land over community allocations for CF. As yet, CF has not shown significant direct economic impacts, but it is hoped that income from forest products, produced by and for the communities engaged, will have an impact on the incomes of the communities and households involved. One of the challenges has been how to increase the commercial viability and impact of CF by bringing greater alignment between commercial and community priorities. Some parts of the CF Instruction have hindered the maximization of economic benefits that can be gained by CF as they limit community rights to harvesting and selling at minimal levels. In addition, both private sector and Government have not considered CF as a potential partner for sourcing raw materials. But the environment is ripe for undertaking analysis and piloting of alternative models. There is a new Minister of Forestry, formerly head of Myanmar Timber Enterprise, who has experience in extensive forest-based commercial ventures. In addition, a recent national CF workshop was the first of the kind to bring experts from around the region to discuss findings from a national-level appraisal of CF in Myanmar since inception 15 years ago. In this context, Pyoe Pin envisages to develop a pilot project that will seek to demonstrate: 1. the value of CF as a real national development tool for the poorest communities, and to increase institutional support for its realization. 2. CF can be a commercially viable business partner for private sector 3. that it is important that communities who apply for CF status should be supported with the expedient granting of leases 4. that CF Instructions need to be revised to allow communities to commercialize their CF Towards these objectives, Pyoe Pin started to identify CF products that could have the greatest market potential and feasibility of being taken up by community forestry, which can then supply the products to larger domestic and possibly even international markets. An initial brainstorming session with foresters from NGOs and research institutes and businessmen from the Timber Market Association in December 2010 identified a preliminary shortlist of forest products. This selection was mainly based on secondary sources of information on market potential to help narrow down a more appropriate list for additional value-chain analysis..."
Creator/author: Foppes, J., Moe Aung, Paing Soe
Source/publisher: Pyoe Pin
2011-09-00
Date of entry/update: 2016-04-20
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 1.26 MB
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Description: "... Large-scale agricultural investments ? in plantations, processing plants or contract farming schemes, for example ? have increased in recent years, particularly in developing countries. Investment in the agriculture sector can bring much needed support for rural development, but communities have also witnessed significant negative impacts. Some of the most serious involve local landholders being displaced from their lands and losing access to natural resources critical for their livelihoods and wellbeing. Instead of contributing to rural development, ill-conceived investments can undermine people?s rights to food, to water or to decent work. Improving accountability is essential in ensuring that investment processes respond to local needs and aspirations and respect human rights. Yet many deals struck between companies and governments to establish agricultural ventures are not fully transparent, making it difficult for the public and local communities to scrutinise projects before they materialise on the ground. Despite international human rights law and best practice requiring full transparency, public participation, and free prior and informed consent of local communities, civil society participation is often missing and once negative impacts have occurred citizens may struggle to have their voices heard or hold the company or the government to account. Weak governance is often accompanied by limited accountability to citizens. Yet, despite these challenges, many citizens have been able to hold companies and governments to account. For this to happen, local communities and the organisations that support them have to get organised, get informed and be strategic. Supporting affected communities to get organised so that they can collectively challenge or influence the project is essential to any successful advocacy. Success can take a long time ? sometimes involving years of struggle ? so ensuring strong community solidarity is key. Communities should be aware of their rights and what laws, regulations and policies are in place to protect them. An organised and informed community can then begin to devise a sophisticated advocacy strategy to achieve their goals. Usually the first step is to take complaints directly to local authorities, national authorities or the business operating on the ground. But when these approaches have limited success, communities and their supporters should not give up. There are other strategies that can be tried which reach beyond the borders of the project and the country where it is located. Behind most large-scale agricultural projects is a web of global actors that make the project possible. These actors include banks and companies that are funding the project and the companies that are buying the produce being grown or processed by it. All of these actors are necessary to the project?s success, and all are aiming to earn a profit from it in one way or another. They all have a relationship with the business operating on the ground and have the ability to influence it. All of these actors have some responsibility to ensure that the project does not harm communities. Knowing who is financing the project, who is buying the produce and who else is making the project possible and profitable ? in other words, ?following the money? ? opens up a range of opportunities for improved accountability. We call the web of actors involved in a project an ?investment chain?. Within this chain there are ?pressure points?. If affected communities can identify the strongest pressure points and take actions directed at effectively influencing key actors in the investment chain, they are more likely to achieve their goals. Understanding investment chains and pressure points, and effectively making use of them, can prove difficult. This Guide provides information, practical tips and exercises on how to map an investment chain behind a project, identify the strongest pressure points along the chain and then devise effective advocacy strategies that leverage those points. It explains what you need to know, the challenges you may face and the strengths and weaknesses of a range of advocacy options. Examples are provided from cases around the world where communities have tried to ?follow the money? and have used a number of strategies to hold investors and governments to account..."
Creator/author: Emma Blackmore, Natalie Bugalski, David Pred
Source/publisher: International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) and Inclusive Development International (IDI)
2015-00-00
Date of entry/update: 2016-04-18
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 7 MB
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Description: "... In 2014, Myanmar(Burma)confounded industry analysts by emerging to become the World?s third biggest tin producer, experiencing a 5-year tin production increase of ca.4900%. This surprise emergence of Myanmar as a major tin producer is a possible Black Swan event that potentially has significant re-percussions both for the future of global tin production, and for the economic development of Myanmar. This is a disruptive event that has likely contributed to a substantial drop in tin prices in 2015. The Myanmar production increase came from a new minesite in Wa State, and not from the traditional tin-producing areas in the South. We discuss tin mining and potential in Myanmar and consider whether it could provide a foundation for the economic rehabilitation of the country..."
Creator/author: Nicholas J. Gardiner, JohnP.Sykes, AllanTrench, LaurenceJ.Robb
Source/publisher: Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford
2015-10-05
Date of entry/update: 2016-04-15
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 1.95 MB
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Description: "... Located on Myanmar?s eastern border with Thailand, Kayah State has long been isolated because of conflicts between the minority groups there and the Burmese army; as a result, little is known about its agricultural systems. As a preliminary to NGO agricultural development projects, an agrarian diagnosis of two major types of agroecosystems in the state—lowlands alluvial plains and uplands—was conducted. The objective was to identify recent agrarian changes leading to the current presence of different types of farmers in each area and understand their development potential. Both agroecosystems have followed very different evolutionary trajectories, mainly because of politico-historical factors. In the lowlands, farmers with irrigated plots are administratively obliged to grow irrigated rice, while others who are forced to grow flooded rice but unable to irrigate can diversify into vegetable growing. In the uplands, communications infrastructures allowing access to the market are a source of differentiation between villages. Farmers who have this access are growing cash crops such as maize and pigeon peas, while those who do not have access continue with upland rice-based systems. The introduction of perennial crops such as rubber, non-perishable food production in the uplands, and horticultural diversification in the lowlands are waiting for future policies at the national level..."
Creator/author: Audrey Aldebert & Gauvain Meulle
Source/publisher: Mercy Corps
2013-11-00
Date of entry/update: 2016-04-12
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 1.29 MB
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Description: This report provides a summary of key findings from research on food security and the agriculture sector in Myanmar. The focus is on material relevant for a bio-physical characterization of the country. As such, there is little emphasis on material primarily addressing socioeconomic, policy, or institutional aspects of agriculture and food security. This study is based solely on desk research, and it does not involve a field research component. The report is organized by topic, with each section including a bulleted list of significant summary points followed by a brief list of critical gaps or issues to explore during the field mission to Myanmar in November 2012.
Creator/author: Kye Baroang
Source/publisher: Center on Globalization and Sustainable Development, Earth Institute at Columbia University
2013-05-00
Date of entry/update: 2016-04-12
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 1.84 MB
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Description: "... Myanmar is an agricultural based country and the agriculture sector is the backbone of its economy. The agriculture sector contributes 34% of GDP, 23% of total export earnings, and employs 63% of the labour force. About 75% of the total population reside in rural areas and are principally employed in the agriculture, livestock and fishery sectors for their livelihood. Rice is the most important dominating crop and is grown in saline area mostly found in lower Myanmar especially in Ayeyarwady, Yangon, Taninthayi Divisions and also in Yakhine and Mon States. Deep-water rice is usually grown in areas of some restricted belts in Ayeyarwady, Bago, Taninthayi Divisions and Rakhine, Mon and Kayin States. Out of the total crop sown area of 10 million hectares, about 13% is under irrigation. The rest of the land has to rely on the rain for crop production. The population will grow to about 60 million by the year 2010 and the demand for local rice consumption alone, will be in the proximate of 20 millions tons. To be able to supply enough food for the increasing population and export the surplus, rice production will have to be increased up to 25 millions tons, by expanding the rice growing area up to 6 millions hectare. This scheme will further be enhanced by the adoption of modern proven technologies and provision of the required inputs in full. The Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation is making all-out efforts for the development of agriculture, taking measures as: efficient utilization of land and water resources; farm mechanization; introduction of new technologies; and supply of farm inputs. Agriculture being the largest economy of the country, the Ministry tries to stimulate public awareness and interest for better participation and investment in the sector. The government of the Union of Myanmar remains committed to the contribution of national as well as world food security. The Agriculture sector in Myanmar occupies a dominant position in the development of the national economy, and has a definite bearing on other socio-economic activities. Because of the high potential of land, water resources, man power resources and other mineral resources, Myanmar has been prominent as an agricultural country for many years and will continue to be so in the future. Given the importance of agriculture in Myanmar, agricultural education, research and extension are important priorities. In the process of developing the agricultural sector, conducting training and offering educational programs of international standard are crucial to the development of human resources..."
Creator/author: Khin Mar Cho
Source/publisher: Myanmar Development Resource Institute - Centre for Economic and Social Development (MDRI-CESD)
2013-03-00
Date of entry/update: 2016-04-11
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 666.52 KB
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Description: "... This background paper was commissioned by USAID as part of a Strategic Agricultural Sector and Food Security Diagnostic for Myanmar, led by Michigan State University and in partnership with the Myanmar Development Resource Institute ‐ Centre for Economic and Social Development (MDRI‐CESD). The broad objectives of the Diagnostic are to improve USAID?s understanding of the major constraints to agricultural sector performance and to food security of vulnerable households in Myanmar, and to outline core strategies USAID should consider as it designs policies and programs to stimulate broadbased agricultural growth and enhance food security. In support of these aims, this background paper synthesizes the best available data and information on poverty, nutrition, and vulnerability to food insecurity in Myanmar to identify key vulnerable populations, and outlines a set of strategic options to improve the food security of the most vulnerable households. This synthesis is based on a rapid assessment conducted during a three‐week field visit (October 28 to November 17, 2012), and pre‐ and post‐field visit desk research. The research draws from three broad types of information: 1) national surveys on poverty, malnutrition, and health outcomes; 2) food security assessments conducted by UN agencies, donors, and Non‐governmental Organizations (NGOs) in select geographic areas; 3) and semi‐structured qualitative interviews with key stakeholders across seven of the 14 states/regions in Myanmar?s Delta, Dry Zone, and hilly regions that the team accessed during the field visit. Data availability and reliability are major constraints to proper assessment in Myanmar. The Government of Myanmar (GOM) has not conducted a population census since 1983 and this inaction casts doubt on all other survey work since. The world?s longest running civil war and military‐government policies have restricted surveyors? access to many parts of the country; even the two relatively reliable surveys intended to document poverty and nutrition conditions face these limitations. Very few surveys provide sex‐disaggregated data, which limits analysis of gender aspects of poverty and vulnerability. The authors fully recognize this obstacle and yet are in agreement with one long‐time observer of Myanmar; the data may not be rigorous but are ?good enough to program against.” This synthesis therefore intends to provide a broad brush picture of the landscape of poverty, malnutrition, and vulnerability across Myanmar and focuses on providing a typology of vulnerability to inform USAID?s initial dialogue about possible program and policy design to improve household food security..."
Creator/author: Shannon Wilson, Naw Eh Mwee Aye Wai
Source/publisher: Myanmar Development Resource Institute - Centre for Economic and Social Development (MDRI-CESD)
2013-03-05
Date of entry/update: 2016-04-11
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 1.61 MB
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Description: "... Rice productivity in Myanmar has stagnated in comparison with other rice producers in the region. Once the world’s largest rice exporter, Myanmar is now a relatively minor player exporting an average 631,000 MT annually over th past 4 years. However, the nation’s export potential remains high because of abundant land and water resources, recent indications of progressive policy reforms, increased agricultural investment, and constructive international engagement. Growing global demand for rice, increasing public and private investment in infrastructure, and the potential for significant yield increases, all point to a strong return on investments to improve rice productivity in the country..."
Creator/author: Glenn Denning, Kye Baroang, Tun Min Sandar, other MDRI, MSU colleagues
Source/publisher: Myanmar Development Resource Institute - Centre for Economic and Social Development (MDRI-CESD)
2013-03-00
Date of entry/update: 2016-04-11
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 710.94 KB
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Description: "What role for public financial management in deepening social accountability and promoting legitimate governance?...This discussion paper outlines so me of the challenges and opportunities for public financial management (PFM) reform in contributing to deeper social accountability and legitimate governance in the context of Myanmar?s wider decentralization and peace process. The paper poses a set of key questions for development actors to consider as they seek to support inclusive reform in Myanmar..."
Source/publisher: OXFAM
2015-09-00
Date of entry/update: 2015-10-10
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: Abstract: "Considering health in the broad term as well?being this study examines changes to villagers? lives with the effect of privatization and modernization policies. It explores how their economy is related to the changing environment in both time and space. How these villagers cope, struggle and do their best to sustain their living in light of limited resources they had are also presented. This study is conducted in Htantaw Village in the area of Taungthaman Lake locating in the ancient Amarapura Township of Mandalay Division, Myanmar. Villagers, from different ages, occupations and economic status, were interviewed in their homes. Focus groups were used in the first section of the data collection stage. In addition, this study encouraged village leaders participation through the data collection process such as through drawing a Village map, talking through the geographic and social changes in the village and villagers? struggle and survival strategies. Before 1990, Htantaw; Village is a typical agricultural based village where villagers worked on rice farming, wickerwork and livestock breeding such as duck and cow. Initial socio and economic changes began in 1996 when the water draining in and out was blocked to make a natural Taungthaman Lake as the huge fish?raising ponds by the military government which later issued concession of fishing in a nearby lake owned by a private company. This greatly impacted the villager?s livelihood not only the farming family but also duck and cow raising for milk too, including the rice farmers as their paddy field and agricultural land around the lake had been flooded. The other significant social change was in 2000 due to the establishment of Yadanabon University providing the education for more than twenty thousand students in total a year. The village has become crowded not only with students moving in and from other places but also people who had moved in as workers for the university. Villagers who have some savings started the room rental business and grocery shops. Some started small business es such as restaurants, mobile phone shops and café shops, beauty salon and dress making shops. The social tension between the local and new moving in has been mentioned as well as the increasing struggles in villagers? life. As the study was conducted by university staff members with the participation of village leaders, its results will be used in further discussions to build a relationship between academic and community people in order to better support the economic and educational development of the village and suggest a model for peaceful learning society in the country.".....Paper delivered at the International Conference on Burma/Myanmar Studies: Burma/Myanmar in Transition: Connectivity, Changes and Challenges: University Academic Service Centre (UNISERV), Chiang Mai University, Thailand, 24-­26 July 2015.
Creator/author: Sandar Win
Source/publisher: International Conference on Burma/Myanmar Studies: Burma/Myanmar in Transition: Connectivity, Changes and Challenges: University Academic Service Centre (UNISERV), Chiang Mai University, Thailand, 24-­26 July 2015
2015-07-26
Date of entry/update: 2015-09-01
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 3.4 MB
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Description: Abstract: "With the major economic system changes, many new developments are observed in every sector of Myanmar. Urban landscaping is an integral part of modern urban construction and also presents the development of economic conditions. One of the most important factors of urbanization is population size. Urbanization is developed rapidly, based on rural-­‐urban migration and natural growth of cities and towns. As urban area develops changes occur in the landscape such as buildings, roads, recreational sites. etc. Although the country?s population remains largely rural because of Myanmar economy is based on agriculture, urban population growth was faster than spatial growth. Yangon is Myanmar?s largest urban area. However, spatially it grew between 2000 and 2010, increasing at a rate of 0.5% a year, from 370 square kilometers to 390. This paper studies many social (traffic congestion, waste disposal, water problems) and environmental issues (pollution) in urbanization and concludes that long-­‐term solutions to these problems. Therefore this paper presents the structure of urban landscape of some significant features within Myanmar and the controlling factors to this urban landscape. If population growth and urbanization are given sufficient attention in economic policies which must seek to manage for the sustainable future urban landscape of Myanmar.".....Paper delivered at the International Conference on Burma/Myanmar Studies: Burma/Myanmar in Transition: Connectivity, Changes and Challenges: University Academic Service Centre (UNISERV), Chiang Mai University, Thailand, 24-­26 July 2015.
Creator/author: Thin Thin Khaing
Source/publisher: International Conference on Burma/Myanmar Studies: Burma/Myanmar in Transition: Connectivity, Changes and Challenges: University Academic Service Centre (UNISERV), Chiang Mai University, Thailand, 24-­26 July 2015
2015-07-26
Date of entry/update: 2015-08-26
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 2.21 MB
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Description: "The new wave of political reforms have set Myanmar on a road to unprecedented economic expansion, but, without targeted policy efforts and regulation to even the playing field, the benefits of new investment will filter down to only a few, leaving small - scale farmers ? the backbone of the Myanmar economy ? unable to benefit from this growth...KEY RECOMMENDATIONS: If Myanmar is to meet its ambitions on equitable growth, political leaders must put new policies and regulation to generate equitable growth at the heart of their democratic reform agenda. Along with democratic reforms, and action to end human-rights abuses, these policies must: * Address power inequalities in the markets; * Put small-scale farmers at the center of new agricultural investments; * Close loopholes in law and practice that leave the poorest open to land-rights abuses..."
Source/publisher: OXFAM
2013-06-04
Date of entry/update: 2013-07-01
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 265.75 KB
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Description: Joseph Stiglitz offered a realistic assessment of Burma?s economic needs. But were the country?s rulers really listening?... "There is the hope that this is the moment of change for the country,? said Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel Economics laureate and former chief economist of the World Bank, after his visit to Burma in December. Stiglitz was speaking at a press conference in Singapore organized by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) after attending an economics forum in the Burmese capital, Naypyidaw. During his visit, Stiglitz told Burmese military officials led by Agriculture and Rural Development Minister Maj-Gen Htay Oo and National Development Minister Soe Tha that revenues from oil and gas, if well used, could open up a new era for the country. He called specifically for an increase in spending on education, which he said was necessary because the country is aging and the next generation needs to be prepared to face the challenges of economic development. He especially urged the Burmese regime to improve the economic conditions of the rural poor. Around 75 percent of the country?s estimated 57 million people live in rural areas. Burmese farmers are especially hard hit by crippling loan charges. According to researchers, farmers pay as much as 7 to 10 percent interest a month in Burma—which Stiglitz described as a symptom of serious malfunctioning of the credit system. He stressed this point repeatedly and noted that productivity suffered because of the lack of capital to buy fertilizers..."
Creator/author: Kyaw Zwa Moe
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" Vol. 18, No. 1
2010-01-00
Date of entry/update: 2010-02-28
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: Commentary of 9 January 2010 by U Myint on the visit by Joseph Stiglitz and necessary follow-up. A major section of the address dealt with how to boost the rice economy in Burma
Creator/author: U Myint
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy"
2010-01-09
Date of entry/update: 2010-01-31
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: New Delhi (Mizzima) ?s report recently urged Burma to prioritize its agricultural sector in the fight against poverty, as it has considerable growth potential. However, economic experts have cast doubts that agricultural reform can be feasible under dictatorial rule. The Myanmar Humanitarian Partnership Group meeting, held Wednesday in Burma?s former capital of Rangoon, was attended by over 70 experts, including heads of UN agencies, diplomats and aid workers, and highlighted the crucial need of promoting the agricultural sector to address the economic challenges faced by Burma. "Economic growth and poverty alleviation will depend on improvements in productivity and growth of agricultural crops, fisheries and livestock,"Over 70 percent of the population lives in rural areas, and all indicators suggest that the agricultural sector has considerable growth potential."..."
Creator/author: Salai Pi Pi
Source/publisher: Mizzima
2010-01-29
Date of entry/update: 2010-01-31
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "...The list of high-profile foreigners heading to Burma to engage and advise the country?s military regime is about to get longer. The latest due to join that flow is Nobel economics laureate Joseph Stiglitz. The former chief economist of the World Bank will fly into Burma, or Myanmar as it is also known, on Dec. 14 for a mission aimed to examine and improve the South-east Asian nation?s rural economy, says Noeleen Heyzer, head of a United Nations regional body based in Bangkok. ?He will share his ideas on what kind of economic decision making is critical for growth in the rural economy and poverty reduction,” adds the executive secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). ?He will be there for a couple of days.”..."
Creator/author: Marwaan Macan-Markar
Source/publisher: Inter Press News Service (IPS)
2009-11-30
Date of entry/update: 2010-01-01
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "...With 70 per cent of Myanmar?s population dependent on agriculture, credit reform could help the Asian nation reach its full productivity potential and enhance development, Nobel Prize-winning economist Professor Joseph Stiglitz said after a United Nations-backed visit to the country. ?If you?re going to reduce poverty and meet the Millennium Development Goals [MDGs], a focus on agriculture is absolutely essential,? Mr. Stiglitz told reporters after his trip. Surveys, he pointed out, have shown that the cost of credit is very high in Myanmar, with many farmers and casual labourers having to borrow money at interest rates of 10 per cent or more per month. The loans are reminiscent of ?pay day? loans in the United States, he said, except that the interest rates charged in Myanmar are even more ?usurious.? While in the country, the economist met with Government officials and academics, as well as visiting projects in rural areas. Farmers, he said, told him that while irrigation had increased their productivity, ?because they could not get the credit to buy fertilizer and high quality seeds, the full potential was not being realized.?.."
Source/publisher: UN News Service
2009-12-23
Date of entry/update: 2010-01-01
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and the Government of the Union of Myanmar today held a wide-ranging dialogue aimed at boosting the country?s agricultural sector and to help it reclaim its status as the rice bowl of Asia. At the invitation of ESCAP, Nobel Prize-winning economist Prof. Joseph Stiglitz and other eminent experts discussed strategies for Myanmar to cut poverty in light of Asia?s regional and subregional experiences. ?It is my hope these ideas and analysis will open a new space for policy discussion and a further deepening of our development partnership,” UN Under-Secretary-General and ESCAP Executive Secretary Noeleen Heyzer said at the event held in Myanmar?s capital, Naypyitaw. ?These development objectives can only be achieved through the successful engagement of local experts and people who know what is happening on the ground. This development partnership, requested by the Government of Myanmar, provides a unique platform for eminent international scholars and local researchers to exchange experiences and ideas with government agencies and civil society,” Dr. Heyzer added..."
Source/publisher: UNESCAP News Services
2009-12-15
Date of entry/update: 2010-01-01
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "Joseph Stiglitz, the American Nobel economics laureate, advised Myanmar's military-run regime this week that political reform is necessary if the generals hope to revitalize the country's stagnant, mostly agriculture-based economy. Any reform of the rural sector, which employs 70% of the workforce and accounts for nearly half of gross domestic product (GDP), will run up against the widespread and largely institutionalized corruption of the military..."
Creator/author: Brian McCartan
Source/publisher: Asia Times Online
2009-12-19
Date of entry/update: 2010-01-01
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 62.49 KB
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Description: ABSTRACT: "This paper conducts an empirical investigation of the rural credit market in Myanmar to help guide policy formulation on the microfinance operations in the country. Specifically, it looks into the determinants of credit demand and of rationing loans at the household level, and identifies the similarities, differences and relationships among the various segments of the rural credit market. Data are primarily gathered through a survey covering a total of 301 households among 7 villages in the Dry Zone. The results reveal the characteristics distinguishing the different types of credit sources, implying that the formal and semiformal credit are targeted towards different sets of clientele. The findings also suggest that promoting the semiformal credit sources likewise strengthens the development of formal credit sources".....N. B. there is a confusion about the issue and date of this article -- the header says it is Vol 4, No. 1 (June 2007), while the website gives it as Vol. 3, Nos. 2 & 3 (December 2006)
Creator/author: Tomoko Kaino
Source/publisher: "Asian Journal of Agriculture and Development", Volume 4 No. 1
2007-07-00
Date of entry/update: 2010-01-01
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: Jointly organized by Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation, Ministry of National Planning and Economic Development and United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), Second Development Partnership Roundtable and Development Forum on economic policies for growth and poverty reduction: lessons from the region and beyond was held at the hall of the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation here on 15 December. Roundtable on enhancing Myanmar?s rural economy was held at 9 am...Since food security and rural livelihoods contribute to the income of the rural people, increasing agricultural productivity is the core policy for Myanmar. In order to increase agricultural productivity, promoting access to irrigation water and its sustainable uses are the main necessity. Myanmar has heavily invested and constructed 228 irrigation dams, 322 river water-pumping projects, constructing and repairing small irrigation tanks throughout the dryzone, enhancing underground water utilization through more than 7000 tube wells. In addition to promoting access to irrigation water for increasing crop production, rural electrification is also being promoted by installation of mini hydropower along canal drop structures of irrigation networks. On the other hand, regarding access to irrigation water, Myanmar is proactive rather than reactive to adapting climate change and mitigating its effects..."
Source/publisher: "The New Light of Myanmar"
2009-12-18
Date of entry/update: 2010-01-01
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 55.87 KB
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Description: "Nobel Economics Laureate Joesph Stiglitz has told a forum in the Burmese capital, Naypyidaw, that revenues from oil and gas, if well used, could open up a new era for the country. If not well used, valuable opportunities would be squandered, Stiglitz told the forum on ?Restoring Burma as the Rice Bowl of Asia.” The forum on Monday was organized by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and Burma's Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation and Ministry of National Planning and Economic Development. A UN press release said the former World Bank chief emphasized the inseparable nature of economics and politics. Before his visit, some analysts questioned the wisdom of giving economic advice to military generals who had a bad reputation for ignoring the input of experts. For Burma to take a role on the world stage and to achieve true stability and security, there must be widespread participation and inclusive processes, Stiglitz said..."
Creator/author: Ba Kaung
Source/publisher: IRROL
2009-12-17
Date of entry/update: 2010-01-01
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 57.96 KB
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Description: "...There was general consensus that there were seven issues where ESCAP and the international community could be helpful, and I can share a partial list with you of those priorities that were identified for immediate follow-up. First and foremost is an examination of the country?s credit policies. It is imperative that farmers have access to capital so they can buy seeds and fertilizers and other implements. Research was presented that indicated informal lenders are charging up to 10 per cent a month for credit, which in a matter of a few months, negates all the farmer?s income for that year. So we need to look at what kind of credit is needed and where it is needed. Second, we will look at employment and income security, and human capacity building. Myanmar needs to shift from a labour intensive system to one that is more technologically-based and knowledge-based, which requires education. We also need to look at how the large number of casual labourers is utilized as well as some forms of social protection for farmers, including things like crop insurance and employment guarantees. How do we build the social foundation of more resilient households and communities in Myanmar? And finally, there is a need to take a look at the national revenues, and how to ensure that financial systems are transparent, and revenue is allocated to where they are needed..."
Creator/author: Joseph Stiglitz, Noeleen Heyzer
Source/publisher: UNESCAP
2009-12-21
Date of entry/update: 2010-01-01
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: CONTENTS: v Abbreviations... vi Acknowledgment... 1 Introduction: 1 Agroecological Zones and Administrative Divisions... 1 Land Use... 1 Workforce in Agriculture... 3 Expansion of the Irrigation Network... 3 Food Security Situation... 4 Rationale and Objectives..... 6 Energy Market and Outlook: 6 Energy Supply and Demand... 18 Potential Alternative Sources of Energy... 21 Justification of Biofuel as an Alternative Energy Source... 22 Obstacles to the Development of Biofuels in Myanmar..... 23 Resource Base for Biofuels Production: 23 Energy Security and Sustainability... 23 Biofuel Options... 24 Biodiesel Production... 27 Bioethanol Production... 33 Biomass Energy Consumption from Wood Fuel..... 38 Prioritization of Feedstocks: 38 Priority Feedstocks for Biodiesel Production... 40 Priority Feedstocks for Bioethanol Production..... 42 Agribusiness Models: 42 Existing Biofuel Business Model... 42 Opportunities and Constraints to Biofuel Business Development... 45 Integration of Small Farmers into the Agribusiness Chain and Options... for Promoting Biofuel Business Ventures..... 47 Case Studies of Biofuel Ventures in Myanmar..... 56 Policy, Regulatory, and Institutional Support for Biofuel Development: 56 National Policies and Strategies for Biofuel Development... 57 Development Program and Plans to Address Agriculture Sector Objectives... 58 Institutional Analysis for Biofuel Development... 60 Investment and Financing Arrangements... 60 The Way Forward..... 61 Appendix 1: Oil Content of Different Land Races of Jatropha Curcas..... 62 Appendix 2: A Proposed Institutional Structure and Implementation Mechanism for Biofuels Development..... 63 Appendix 3: Indicative National Biofuel Program for Myanmar.
Creator/author: U Hla Kyaw, Thandar Kyi, San Thein, U Aung Hlaing, U Tin Maung Shwe
Source/publisher: Asian Development Bank (ADB)
2009-00-00
Date of entry/update: 2009-12-17
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "The SPDC has continued to militarise larger and larger swaths of Toungoo District under the false banner of ?development?, subjecting local villagers to forced labour and extortion and forcing others to flee into hiding. Life is hard for villagers both under and outside of SPDC control: villagers living within SPDC-controlled areas are often forced to work for the SPDC rather than focus on their own livelihoods while villagers in hiding continue to struggle with a shortage of food. Ultimately, many residents of Toungoo face a mounting food crisis that is a direct result of SPDC policy. This report discusses incidents that occurred between May and September 2008..."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group Field Reports (KHRG #2009-F1)
2009-01-13
Date of entry/update: 2009-10-31
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "...This study will examine the food (rice) availability at the national level using the official and FAO data. Second, a case study in the rice deficit region (Dry Zone) will present the characteristics and food security status of the farm and non-farm rural households (landless) and the determinants of food security. The Dry Zone was chosen to study because the EC & FAO (2007) classified this region as the most vulnerable area of the country. Furthermore, the FAO projected that the Net Primary Production would be decreased significantly in the Dry Zone in the next two decades. It is essential to collect the primary and secondary data on food availability, access, stability and utilization for understanding the current reality of food security at both macro and micro level... Objectives of the Study: > To assess the food (rice) availability at the national level by using indicators of trend of production index, growth rate of sown area, production and yield, average availability of rice, average per capita rice consumption, rice surplus, dietary energy supply of rice, share of food expenditure in total budget, self-sufficiency ratio, trends in domestic prices of rice and the estimated effects of the Nargis cyclone on rice self-sufficiency. > To investigate the rural household?s access to food in terms of human capital, food production, household income, asset ownership, and income diversification of farm and non-farm (landless) households. > To examine the farm and non-farm household?s food security status by applying the national food poverty line and the index of coping strategies method along with some indicators such as food share in the household budget, percentage of food expenditure in the total household income, and nutrition security indicators of access to safe drinking water, sanitation, diseases, and number of children death.
Creator/author: Dolly Kyaw
Source/publisher: Institute of Developing Economies, Japan External Trade Organization (V.R.F. Series No. 444)
2009-02-00
Date of entry/update: 2009-08-10
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: A Japanese study illustrates how farmers created an agricultural market in spite of the military government?s bureaucrats... "Economic Disparity in Rural Myanmar" by Ikuko Okamoto. National University of Singapore Press, 2008... "THE devastation caused by Cyclone Nargis and spiraling global food prices have placed even more pressure on the agricultural sector of Burma, once the world?s largest rice exporter and potentially one of Asia?s most prodigious producers of agricultural staples. The majority of the Burmese labor pool is in farming, and rice production remains not just a national priority but an obsession of the junta. Successive regimes have attempted a number of initiatives to increase agricultural production, first through disastrous socialist policies, and since 1988 with piecemeal open market reforms which have continued to stifle the true promise of the agricultural sector. Ikuko Okamoto?s book looks at one success story in this sad litany of state failure. Economic Disparity in Rural Myanmar is an academic analysis of the rapid increase in production of pulses in one township close to Rangoon. A pulse is a bean, in this case one called pedishwewar, or golden green gram, otherwise known as the mung bean. It is a close study of the relationship between Burmese farm laborers, rural traders, tractor dealers, some available land, rice paddy crops and a fortuitous gap in the global rice market that produced a pulse market where before there was none. The sting is that most of the people on the lower rungs—the farmer-laborers—profited least from their labors. Pulses brought in a total of 3.6 billion kyat (US $3 million) in 2007, mainly due to India, which reduced pulse cultivation, allowing farmers and traders in Burma to fill the demand. Okamoto, a researcher at Japan?s Institute for Developing Economies, spent several years studying production techniques in Thongwa Township, east of Rangoon and home to 64 villages and about 150,000 people. In this well-designed and detailed study, she looks at how the dramatic growth in green gram production produced an export success..."
Creator/author: David Scott Mathieson
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" Vol. 16, No. 7
2008-07-00
Date of entry/update: 2008-07-15
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: Abstract: CONTENTS: Introduction; concepts and rationale; concept of diversification; rationale for diversification; significance for IMR; Structural features of IMR and their relevance to diversification; evidence of diversification in the IMR; trends in areas and production of crops and meat production; agricultural exports; future challenges and guiding principles; references....Keywords: Agricultural diversification Economic aspects.; Indochina Economic policy.; Poverty alleviation.; Myanmar Economic policy.; Meat industry and trade.
Creator/author: Francesco Goletti
Source/publisher: International Food Policy Research Institute
1999-00-00
Date of entry/update: 2008-04-22
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: Abstract "This paper reviews the development of the agricultural sector in Myanmar after the transition to an open economy in 1988 and analyzes the nature as well as the performance of the agricultural sector. The avoidance of social unrest and the maintenance of control by the regime are identified as the two key factors that have determined the nature of agricultural policy after 1988. A major consequence of agricultural policy has been a clear difference in development paths among the major crops. Production of crops that had a potential for development showed sluggish growth due to policy constraints, whereas there has been a self-sustaining increase in the output of those crops that have fallen outside the remit of agricultural policy."
Creator/author: Koichi Fujita, Ikuko Okamoto
Source/publisher: IDE Discussion Paper No. 63
2006-06-00
Date of entry/update: 2006-07-16
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English (also available in Japanese(?)
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Description: The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of marketing reforms implemented in the late 1980s in Myanmar. Particular emphasis is placed on the impact of the reform on the rural economy and its participants, namely farmers, landless laborers and marketing intermediaries. The reform had a positive effect on all these participants through the creation of employment opportunities and increased income. The driving force of this success was "market forces,"absence of bad policy" is emphasized as a key for the success in the context of Myanmar, where excessive and murky government intervention often resulted in failure to induce private sector development.
Creator/author: Ikuko Okamoto
Source/publisher: IIDE ( Institute of Developing Economies)
2004-01-28
Date of entry/update: 2005-01-08
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 89.3 KB
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Description: "Mudon Township agriculture authorities forced farmers to grow subsidiary crops on farms irrigated by the Win-Pha-None Dam, according to villagers in the area. ?A group of township agriculture authorities came to the villages and gathered villagers to grow subsidiary crops such as rice and beans,” a villager said. According to Nai Jorn, a reporter, villagers are dissatisfied with authorities because they were forced to grow crops in previous years and received no benefits for growing them..."
Source/publisher: Independent Mon News Agency (Mon State)
2004-11-20
Date of entry/update: 2004-12-24
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : htm
Size: 8.03 KB
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Description: Abstract: "This paper looks at the case of Myanmar in order to investigate the behavior and welfare of rural households in an economy under transition from a planned to a market system. Myanmar?s case is particularly interesting because of the country?s unique attempt to preserve a policy of intervention in land transactions and marketing institutions. A sample household survey that we conducted in 2001, covering more than 500 households in eight villages with diverse agro-ecological environments, revealed two paradoxes. First, income levels are higher in villages far from the center than in villages located in regions under the tight control of the central authorities. Second, farmers and villages that emphasize a paddy-based, irrigated cropping system have lower farming incomes than those that do not. The reason for these paradoxes are the distortions created by agricultural policies that restrict land use and the marketing of agricultural produce. Because of these distortions, the transition to a market economy in Myanmar since the late 1980s is only a partial one. The partial transition, which initially led to an increase in output and income from agriculture, revealed its limit in the survey period."...There are 2 versions of this paper. The one placed as the main URL, which also has a later publication date, seems to be longer, though it is about 30K smaller.
Creator/author: Ikuko Okamoto, Kyosuke Kurita, Takashi Kurosaki, Koichi Fujita
Source/publisher: IDE ( Institute of Developing Economies) Discussion Paper No. 23
2004-03-00
Date of entry/update: 2003-12-05
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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