Women farmers in Myanmar, have an important role and contributions in country’s economic growth, good production, value chain and food system sustainability. They play a diverse role in agriculture and make enormous contributions not only cultivating crops, but also helping their families, rearing animals for food or trade and working in forestry and fisheries sectors. They are involved in a range of farming activities, including planting, harvesting, processing, and marketing of crops which are important sources of nutrition for people in the country. Despite this, they are facing significant challenges such as limited access to land, credit, and technology and training, they have been able to achieve certain success in the agriculture sector through their hard work and innovation. The protracted crisis in Myanmar has severely negatively impacted agriculture sector in Myanmar.  While food insecurity is already a problem, significant reduction of food production is anticipated due to restrictions on local travels and on private transport services hampering preparations of farm operations, procurement of seeds and other agricultural inputs, rising prices of the inputs and loss of access to export market. The January 2023 data in Emergencies Monitoring brief produced by FAO and WFP found that households in conflict-affected areas, rural households, female-headed households, households with debt, and those vulnerable to economic shocks had the worst food security outcomes. 44 years old Daw Aye Aye Mon has three family members and lives in Letpadan Township, Bago region, and leads them in farming. The family has a few small businesses such as a grinding powder mill and a small biomass power plant, but agriculture is their main sources of income. She normally grows rice in the monsoon season and black gram in the winter season but due to the ongoing crisis, farmers like Daw Aye Aye Mon have had to think innovatively to try and increase food production.  Since September 2021, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) together with its partner have been implementing a pilot project in three townships of Ayeyarwady, Yangon and Bago Regions to promote double monsoon rice (DMR) cropping system in lowland areas to boost rice production for social and economic wellbeing as well as considering it as a coping mechanism for any possible disaster in the future. The project helps rice producers to establish DMR, introduce suitable varieties, provide farm inputs and agricultural techniques, linkage with possible inputs and outputs markets, technical service providers and financial institutions. What is double monsoon rice? Normally, most of the farmers grow only medium or long-term rice variety in a monsoon season. Double Monsoon Rice (DMR) is a technique in which farmers can grow two paddy crops in a monsoon season; immediately growing the second crop once the first crop is harvested.   Prior to the project, Daw Aye Aye Mon had already thought of this idea but was lacking the technique and resources to get the short-term rice variety for the first and the second crop. In early 2022, when FAO project started implementation in her village and introduced the DMR project, Daw Aye Aye Mon enthusiastically participated in pilot demonstration of the DMR cropping in two acres of her farmland. Additionally, she received farm inputs from the project such as qualified seeds and fertilizers, operation costs which includes all machinery costs and labour costs. While many other farmers are reluctant to participate in the pilot demonstration, for Daw Aye Aye Mon, the DMR pilot project came at the right time. The progressive farmer saw the potential of this technique and how it would be beneficial for her farmland.  “I was very interested to involve myself in the double monsoon rice cultivation and to understand the practice of this new system as I foresee this providing more income for my family” Daw Aye Aye Mon has shown innovation in adopting other new farming practices that would help her to increase yields and improve food security. Although she was also burdened with domestic responsibilities and managing her livelihood activities in her daily life, she has demonstrated adaptability by learning new techniques and approaches to farming. She has been able to adapt to changing environmental conditions and market demands by switching crops and implementing new technologies. “Being a housewife, a mother, a farmer and a businesswoman at the same time is not easy. Division of roles and shared responsibilities is the key for enabling an equitable environment”, said Daw Aye Aye Mon. Women farmers in Myanmar like Daw Aye Aye Mon are important for promoting sustainable agriculture practices. They are often more knowledgeable about traditional farming practices and have a deep understanding of the local environment. They play a key role in promoting sustainable farming practices that help to protect the soil, water, and biodiversity.

This is forcing people to adopt coping strategies that threaten their health and wellbeing, including cutting down on how much they eat and consuming less nutritious food, selling assets, such as vehicles, and forgoing medical treatment.  These insights come from a survey of 3,000 people in Yangon, two-thirds of which are from eight townships where a new joint initiative between UNDP, UN Women and UN-Habitat will work to improve the wellbeing of the most economically marginalized. The report found people living in these eight areas are worse on every economic and social indicator when compared to the rest of Yangon.   The collapse of the economy in 2021 and only very modest growth last year has had a devastating impact on Yangon's urban poor. Foreign investors pulling out of Myanmar, leading to the closure of businesses and factories, has severely reduced both working hours and employment opportunities, while rising food and fuel prices have further squeezed people's spending.  Coping strategies in Myanmar as incomes fall  With incomes reduced, 27.5 percent of respondents to the survey from the eight urban resilience project townships reported that in the last 12 months there was a time when someone in their household could not eat nutritious food due to lack of money and more than a third (35.7 percent) said they were eating less.  With the public healthcare system weakened, the survey found that people are now reliant on more expensive private hospitals and clinics to meet their medical needs. Yet, with incomes squeezed, many people in Yangon are simply forgoing healthcare. Over a quarter of all respondents (26.6 percent) said they or their family often or sometimes go without treatment or medication, and three-quarters said it is the higher charges that makes accessing healthcare more difficult.  More than two-fifths (43.4 percent) of respondents from the eight townships reported selling assets in the last 12 months. When these assets are used to generate income, such as vehicles, it can make it even more difficult to earn money and recover.  One of the most extreme coping mechanisms was how families interrupted their children's education in order to work, cited by a quarter of households in the eight surveyed townships who had reported taking their children out of school since March 2020. These lost years of education will impact their ability to seek better employment in adulthood.  "Urban poverty in Yangon has dramatically escalated, and at the heart of this is a loss of jobs and reduced incomes. Supporting people to earn more money through stable employment is a long-term and sustainable way to improve people's health and wellbeing," said Titon Mitra, Resident Representative at UNDP Myanmar.  How can we help Yangon's urban poor?  The new UNDP Urban Resilience Project will aim to improve people's income and employment opportunities, with a focus on vocational training for young people, support to micro and small enterprises, and improved access to healthcare services and clean drinking water.  Pilot activities in Yangon's Hlaingtharya township over the last year saw significant success. Together with the Step-in Step-up Academy (SISU), UNDP supported 400 students to complete vocational training programmes in areas such as hospitality, healthcare and office work. All the students who graduated have now secured full-time employment.   "To work in hospitality has always been my career goal. But the biggest challenge for me is that I do not have any related work experience, nor do I have any qualifications or connections in this field. And I cannot afford to attend the training, not even some short courses. I have been so lost and hopeless," said Yan Naing Tun, 24-year-old current SISU student.  "Now, I have a lot of plans for my career and the future. I would like to use half of my salary to support my family as there are six of us. My two youngest siblings really could use that money to help with their education."  The project also builds upon our UN partner agencies' work in urban Yangon. UN-Habitat has been increasing the availability and quantity of water through improving drainage and wastewater management. UN Women, meanwhile, has been connecting marginalized women with basic services and offering coaching to improve their access to income.  The Urban Resilience Project will reach more than 450,000 people in 2023, helping to reduce their reliance on humanitarian assistance. It is part of a wider UNDP response in Myanmar that has supported one million people across 11 states and regions, and aims to reach seven million by the end of 2024.  All UNDP's activities are impartial, neutral and independent, and delivered directly to communities.  Read the Helping Communities Weather the Socio-economic Downturn: Building Urban Resilience report in full. 

Rakhine State, Myanmar – Daw Mya Mya Aye, 60, could not hide her joy as she joined fellow villagers in sharing how the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) breathed hope into their vulnerable families. Speaking at the launch of this year’s International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women on 25 November in Matkalar village in Rakhine state, Daw Mya Mya Aye and her fellow beneficiaries explained how through the assistance from CERF they are now slowly rebuilding their lives after the COVID-19 pandemic and the escalation of the armed conflict following the military takeover in February 2021.    “I am happy that the programme gave my life back,” said Daw Mya Mya Aye, a single mother of two. “I received business training, cash, 17 piglets and stock feed to revive my pig business, which had collapsed. The training has improved my pig rearing skills, and the animals are healthier than my previous stock.” After the armed conflict intensified, risks of gender-based violence increased, including child, forced and early marriages, and human trafficking. Daw Mya Mya Aye said she had seriously considered leaving her country out of desperation. “But I decided to stay here because I could not bear the thought of staying in a refugee camp with my small children.” The military takeover has seen more than 1.4 million people, 200,000 in Rakhine state alone, internally displaced in Myanmar, while more than 950,000 have sought refuge in nearby Bangladesh, Thailand and India. However, after some weeks of sleepless nights pondering her next move to survive the effects of the conflict, she said a representative of one local women-led organization informed her about a new programme that intended to support vulnerable women. “That was my turning point.” It is the plight of many women such as Daw Mya Mya Aye that required UN Women and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) to join hands in the CERF-funded global multi-country programme to provide essential services to gender-based violence survivors and enhance their protection from exploitation and abuse. The programme also aimed to help women build back their small businesses for economic independence. The initiative targets 7,192 women and girls in Rakhine and Kachin states, focusing particularly on survivors of, or those at risk of, gender-based violence. Through this joint programme, UNFPA is also improving communities’ access to quality and comprehensive prevention and response services for gender-based violence. On the other hand, UN Women is complementing these efforts through provision of cash, business trainings and livelihood support to prevent women from opting for negative coping mechanisms such as selling family livelihood assets, exhausting savings for children’s education and other necessities, transactional sex and forced and child marriages. Support will ensure that women do not respond to difficulties using strategies that may provide a temporary means of survival, but seriously undermine their long-term wellbeing. The cutting edge of this programme is that UN Women and UNFPA are not working alone. To further promote the localization agenda and expand the reach and access of services, the programme is partnering with 15 local women-led organizations and women’s rights organizations. This partnership is facilitating the capacity development of the women’s organizations for better engagement in humanitarian action, for them to promote reporting of gender-based violence incidents and increase accessibility of essential services such as mental health and psychosocial support and legal aid for delivery of justice. Working in the camps for internally displaced persons and resettlement sites, the women’s organizations are engaging with various groups of people including community and religious leaders, men and boys to raise awareness on the negative effects of GBV and to improve local capacities to influence behaviour change and address social norms and gender stereotypes that fuel gender-based violence. In Rakhine state, where Daw Mya Mya Aye stays with her family, the programme is supporting 227 women, including 50 female-headed households. The women were provided with business trainings to help improve their livestock production capacity for economic resilience, as well as in-kind support, namely piglets, chicks, stock feed and cash. The acting interim UN Women representative in Myanmar, Karin Fueg, emphasized the importance of investing in multi-sectoral gender-based violence services and livelihood opportunities that can strengthen the protection of women and girls in conflict. She said expanding activities that can create opportunities for people to challenge gender norms and address unequal power relations between women and men can help prevent gender-based violence. Humanitarian actors, she said, should work as a collective and put survivors and women and girls at risk of gender-based violence at the centre of protection efforts, while ensuring that life-saving services are delivered in a timely manner through different mechanisms, such as partnering with local women’s civil society organizations to ease access.  

Since February 2021, the humanitarian situation in Myanmar has deteriorated with the United Nations estimating that 1.5 million people displaced as of December 2022. Across the country, civilians are being displaced due to armed conflict. Many of them are also unable to move to safer locations due to insecurity. In Myanmar’s northeastern Kachin and northern Shan States, over 121,000 people remain displaced. While the number of people forced to flee in these areas have increased since February 2021, the vast majority have lived in displacement for several years as the result of protracted conflict.  UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, remains committed to supporting displaced people across Myanmar. With the financial support of the European Union, UNHCR provides a comprehensive range of programmes in the country’s northeast, from life-saving assistance to resilience-building projects among displaced and conflict-affected communities. This is done through community-based protection activities, camp coordination and management and support (CCCM), and shelter and non-food items assistance, as well as support for initial returns and relocation that pave the way for longer term solutions. Through building resilience and cohesion, UNHCR works towards lasting solutions so that men, women, boys and girls of all ages, background and abilities have a safe place to call home and build a better future. In Kachin and northern Shan States, camps and sites for internally displaced people are often set up on a spontaneous basis. Host communities are typically the first responders and take the lead in supporting the displaced. By accommodating the displaced and extending goodwill to support them, these host communities provide an essential lifeline to those fleeing armed conflict. UNHCR’s approach is to complement the extensive support provided by host communities. At this host community in Waingmaw Township, Kachin State, UNHCR and partners supported a recently displaced community by providing them with zinc sheets so that IDPs are able to construct their own makeshift shelters. When displacement occurs, those who flee often carry little possessions with them. Across Myanmar, core relief items, consisting of basic household items such as mosquito nets, kitchen sets, jerry cans, clothing items, sleeping mats, blankets and solar lights, are prepositioned like this one in Lashio, northern Shan State. When the need arises, these items are handed over to emergency teams on the ground so that they can quickly reach displaced populations. Udi Doi Ra, 56, and her family of nine were displaced in 2011 when armed conflict forced them to flee their village and seek safety elsewhere. Prospects for return to their village remain slim due to continued fighting and insecurity. Despite challenges, displaced people like them remain resilient and find ways to continue living their lives while hoping to return to their homes one day. Displaced people have the right to adequate shelter so that they can live in dignity. In situations where people are displaced for six months or longer, UNHCR provides targeted shelter support. At this camp for displaced people in Waingmaw Township, Kachin State, new homes are constructed for families to better protect them from the elements, provide space to live and store belongings as well as privacy, comfort and emotional security. Solar street lights are also installed to illuminate pathways and provide a sense of security. Ah Chi Mee, 38, a camp committee member, observes the construction of new shelters for her community. Grateful for a roof over her head, she helps to organize basic services within her community. Many facilities, like water pumps, are communal and require care and maintenance. Daily life in a camp for internally displaced people in Waingmaw Township, Kachin State. A woman is preparing food to feed her pigs. While humanitarian assistance remains important, especially for newly displaced families, there are others who are rebuilding their lives and seeking to achieve a greater degree of self-reliance, including through small plot farming and by rearing chickens and pigs. To support his family, he runs a small provision shop selling basic supplies in the camp and also takes on odd jobs outside for additional income. Employment has, however, been harder to come by due to ongoing conflict and economic hardships facing Myanmar. A woman holds a solar lamp provided by UNHCR inside her home in Namtu Township, northern Shan State. Many camps in northeastern Myanmar are not connected to the electrical grid. Solar lamps give residents a few additional hours in the evening to carry out family tasks, including household chores, studying at home, charging phones and accessing washrooms safely at night. Lum Zawng lives at a camp for internally displaced people in Waingmaw Township, Kachin State. Together with other volunteers from his community, he assists with shelter support when repairs or rehabilitation are needed. Such self-help groups form the backbone of community resilience in many camps. Life must go on. Marip Kai serves lunch to volunteers next to her shelter in Waingmaw Township, Kachin State which is being repaired. The temporary shelter she lives in require maintenance following several years of use. To help ensure displaced people continue to live in dignity, UNHCR works with partners to carry out shelter maintenance. These can range from simple repair work such as changing of door locks and repairing damaged windows, to more comprehensive renovation work, which includes a complete change and replacement of walls and roofs.  Much more is needed for repair and maintenance of shelters in many of the IDP camps around Myanmar, especially as communities remain displaced, and new displacement puts greater pressure on limited funding resources. Community empowerment is a key tenet of UNHCR’s assistance to displaced people in northeastern Myanmar. Displaced people are actively involved in service projects to support their communities. While humanitarian agencies like UNHCR provide basic support such as small grants and materials, communities have organized themselves to identify and prioritize projects based on their own needs. Community volunteers at a camp in Kachin State come together to help reconstruct a community hall, a venue frequently utilized for meetings and other communal events. The initiative was kickstarted by the members of the Kachin IDP Youth Committee, consisting of youth volunteers from different camps in Myitkyina and Waingmaw Townships. UNHCR trained the committee in 2022 as part of efforts to include youths in community leadership and decision-making processes within camps. Thomas, 22, gives a tour to show infrastructural improvements initiated by youths at a camp in Myitkyina, Kachin State. Rather than making referrals to camp management agencies, youths have been trained to use their local knowledge to improve the camp environment in a cost-effective way through small grants disbursed by UNHCR. An active member of the Kachin IDP Youth Committee, Thomas is proud of the improvements made to the camp which he has lived in for over a decade. “We discuss ideas and share knowledge with each other to help develop ourselves and our community,” he says. Community members from Sen Ja village in Namtu Township, northern Shan State, pose for a photograph in front of a newly completed community hall. The building was constructed as part of efforts to promote social cohesion between displaced families and their host community. Seng Ja, a largely Christian community, is home to some 500 families, of which a minority are Buddhist and internally displaced. Mindful of the needs of the displaced families, community leaders approached UNHCR and a local partner to request for a hall to be built so that there could be an inclusive space for the community to hold meetings. By accommodating the displaced and extending goodwill to them, host communities like Seng Ja provide an essential lifeline to those seeking safety. Ndau La Raw, 46, poses in front of a small grocery shop adjacent to his new home in Maina Sut Chyai - a new village in Waingmaw Township - set up by internally displaced people in Kachin State. To help them restart their lives, UNHCR constructed houses for each relocated family. Examples of displaced communities finding opportunities to move out of camps and into areas like Maina Sut Chyai, where they can better integrate, are increasingly common across Kachin State. A child pumps water out of a hand pipe installed by community members of Maina Sut Chyai, a new village set up by internally displaced people in Waingmaw Township, Kachin State. To secure a real future for the village, residents have also been proactive in advocating for assistance with key infrastructure. Apart from constructing shelters and a community hall, UNHCR and its partners are also assisting the community to install latrines.