Download or read book Sustaining Myanmar s microfinance sector during the COVID 19 economic crisis to support food security resilience and economic recovery written by Toth, Russell and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2020-04-24 with total page 10 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This note discusses the significant risks facing microfinance institutions (MFI) in Myanmar in the wake of the COVID-19 health and economic crisis and the implications for poverty and food insecurity of a serious negative shock to the MFI sector. The note is based on a desk review of the early policy responses in Myanmar, of best practices identified by international and local experts, and online discussions with leaders of MFIs operating in Myanmar. The objective is to make policymakers aware of the crucial role MFIs play in a wide range of economic activities in Myanmar, including food production, processing, trade, and marketing. A serious disruption to the MFI sector has the potential to: • Exacerbate food insecurity through damaging economic resilience in the short-to-medium term, • Lower agricultural output in the critical upcoming monsoon production season, and • Harm the potential for microfinance to contribute to economic recovery.
Download or read book Sustaining Myanmar s microfinance sector during the COVID 19 economic crisis to support food security resilience and economic recovery in Burmese written by Toth, Russell and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2020-05-01 with total page 16 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ဤစာတမ်းငယ်သည် Covid-19 ကျန်းမာေရး�ှင်စီးပွားေရးအကျပ်အတည်းေ�ကာင ့ ် ြမန်မာ�ိုင်ငံ�ှိ အေသးစား ့ ေငွေရး ေ�ကးေရးအဖွဲ�အစည်းများ ရင်ဆိုင်ေနရေသာ �ကီးမားသည့် စွန်စားရမ�များ၊ ့ အေသးစား ေငွေရးေ�ကးေရးက�ကို �ုတ်တရက် �ိုက်ခတ်လာသည့် ြပင်းထန်ေသာ ထိခိုက်မ�များ၏ ဆင်းရဲမွဲေတမ��ှင် စားနပ်ရိက�ာမလံုေလာက်မ�တို ့ ့ အေပါ် သက်ေရာက်မ�များကို ေဆွးေ�ွးတင်ြပြခင်း ြဖစ်ပါသည်။ ဤစာတမ်းငယ်ကို ြမန်မာ�ိုင်ငံ၏ ယခင်မူဝါဒဆိုင်ရာ တံုြပန်မ�များ၊ �ိုင်ငံ ့ တကာ�ှင့် ြပည်တွင်းမှ ပညာ�ှင်များမှ ေဖာ်ထုတ်ထားေသာ အေကာင်းဆံုး လုပ်ထံုးလုပ်နည်းများ�ှင် ြမန်မာ�ိုင်ငံမှ အေသးစားေငွ ့ ေရးေ�ကးေရးလုပ်ငန်းများ၏ ဦးေဆာင်သူများ�ှင် ့ အွန်လိုင်းမှေဆွးေ�ွးမ�များကို အေြခခံ ေရးသားထားပါသည်။ ဤစာတမ်းငယ်၏ ရည်ရွယ်ချက်မှာ စားသာက်ကုန်ထုတ်လုပ်ြခင်း၊ ကုန်သွယ်ြခင်း�ှင့် ေရာင်းချြခင်းများအပါအဝင် ြမန်မာ�ိုင်ငံ၏ စီးပွား ေရးလုပ်ငန်းများစွာတွင် အေသးစားေငွေရးေ�ကးေရး လုပ်ငန်းများ၏ အေရးပါမ�ကို မူဝါဒချမှတ်သူများ သတိထားမိေစရန် ြဖစ်ပါသည်။ အေသးစား ေငွေရးေ�ကးေရးလုပ်ငန်းအဖွဲ�အစည်း များ �ပိုကွဲပျက်ဆီးမ�သည်- • စီးပွားေရး �ကံ့�ကံ့ခံ�ိုင်ရည်�ှိမ�ကို ထိခိုက်ြခင်းအားြဖင် ကာလတို ့ -ကာလလတ်တွင် စားနပ်ရိက�ာ ဖူလံုမ�ကို ပိုမိုဆိုးဝါးေစြခင်း • အေရး�ကီးေသာ လာမည့်မိုးရာသီ စိုက်ပျိုးထုတ်လုပ်ချိန်တွင် စိုက်ပျိုးေရးထုတ်ကုန်များ ေလျာနည်း ့ ေစြခင်း၊ • စီးပွားေရးြပန်လည်ထူ ေထာင်ရန် အေသးစားေငွေရးေ�ကးေရးလုပ်ငန်းများမှ အေထာက်အကူေပး�ိုင် သည့် အလားအလာကို ထိခိုက်ေစြခင်းများ ြဖစ်ေစ�ိုင်ပါသည်။
Download or read book Myanmar s microfinance sector agriculture and COVID 19 Emerging insights and new challenges written by Myanmar SSP Working Paper and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2021-12-02 with total page 39 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Working Paper takes comprehensive stock of the impacts of the first two waves of COVID-19 (in Q2 and Q4 2020) on the microfinance sector in Myanmar. We discuss potential impact pathways, review policy responses to the crisis, and present new quantitative analysis based on a set of surveys with respondents throughout the agricultural value chain. Additionally, we briefly review impacts since the military takeover on February 1, 2021. Overall, various disruptions to the microfinance sector, particularly during peak periods of COVID-19, significantly reduced overall lending from April 2020, onward. These disruptions, along with disruptions to external financing, led to greater informal borrowing, likely greater indebtedness, and lower food security. However, policy responses and financing accommodations to microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Q2 and Q3 2020 cushioned the sector against widespread insolvency. The events since the military takeover are creating new challenges, exacerbating the aforementioned impacts, and raising new risks of MFI insolvency and broader crises around food security, indebtedness, and poverty. Considering these findings, stakeholder recommendations underscore the importance of easing the movement of international and domestic goods. Efforts should be focused on meeting the MFIs’ need for loanable funds through mechanisms such as exchange rate hedging, credit guarantees, and loan enhancement, while continuing to encourage flexibility around existing financing. When the time comes for a full recovery, there should be a focus on facilitating additional financial injections so that MFIs can more effectively restart lending operations.
Download or read book Impacts of COVID 19 on Myanmar s agri food system Evidence base and policy implications written by Researchers of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2020-10-09 with total page 18 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Between April and October 2020, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and Michigan State University (MSU), with support from the United States Agency of International Development (USAID) and the Livelihoods and Food Security Fund (LIFT), have undertaken analyses of secondary data combined with regular telephone surveys of actors at all stages of Myanmar’s agri-food system in order to better understand the impacts of COVID-19 on the system. These analyses show that the volume of agribusiness has slowed considerably in Myanmar since COVID-19 restrictions were put in place. There is lower demand from farmers for agricultural inputs and mechanization services and lower volumes of produce traded, especially exports to neighboring countries whose borders are closed. All actors in the agri-food system are facing liquidity constraints and experiencing increased difficulties in both borrowing and recovering loans.
Download or read book Beyond emergency relief What will it take to ensure a resilient recovery for agriculture and the rural economy of Myanmar written by Myanmar Agriculture Policy Support Activity (MAPSA) and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2022-02-02 with total page 25 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The recent history of rural economic transformation in Myanmar and the effects of COVID-19 and the military coup in February 2021 provide important lessons for the design and implementation of plans to help the country recover from these scourges. The impoverishment of farming communities in Myanmar during decades of socialist military rule, beginning in the 1960s until the turn of the century, led to an outflux of migrants to neighboring countries. As the country opened up to foreign investment through economic reforms initiated in 2011, rural wages surged and farm mechanization services expanded rapidly. Together with increased remittance flows from migrants, higher rural household incomes drove growth in a wide range of non-farm service enterprises. Nevertheless, agricultural growth was low and most crop subsectors stagnated due to underlying and unresolved structural constraints such as poor infrastructure and inequality in land access. As in many other countries in Asia, border closures and lockdowns instituted to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in early 2020 resulted in widespread employment and income losses. The Myanmar government pro-actively sought to mitigate the impacts through expanded credit to farmers and businesses. By the end of 2020, Myanmar was beginning to recover from the economic stresses of COVID-19. However, the February 2021 military coup resulted in a far more severe economic downturn than COVID-19 due to the collapse of the financial system, the massive resignations by public sector employees, and the prolonged movement restrictions. Coup-induced state failure greatly magnified the health and economic consequences of COVID-19 in terms of poverty, food insecurity, and stalled economic transformation. This paper uses a combination of macro, meso, and micro-level analyses to measure the impacts of COVID-19 and state failure on rural economic transformation through the lens of the agri-food system, and to draw lessons for policies to support broad-based and resilient economic recovery.
Download or read book Poverty food insecurity and social protection during COVID 19 in Myanmar Combined evidence from a household telephone survey and micro simulations written by Headey, Derek D. and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2020-11-10 with total page 13 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study assesses the welfare impacts of COVID-19 on households in Myanmar by combining recent high-frequency telephone survey evidence for two specific rural and urban geographies with national-level survey-based simulations designed to assess ex-ante impacts on poverty with differing amounts of targeted cash transfers. The first source of evidence – the COVID-19 Rural and Urban Food Security Survey (C19- RUFSS) – consists of four rounds of monthly data collected from a sample of over 2,000 households, all with young children or pregnant mothers, divided evenly between urban and peri-urban Yangon and the rural Dry Zone. This survey sheds light on household incomes prior to COVID-19 (January 2020), incomes and food security status soon after the first COVID-19 wave (June 2020), the gradual economic recovery thereafter (July and August 2020), and the start of the second COVID-19 wave in September and October 2020. This survey gives timely and high-quality evidence on the recent welfare impacts of COVID-19 for two important geographies and for households that are nutritionally highly vulnerable to shocks due to the presence of very young children or pregnant mothers. However, the relatively narrow geographic and demographic focus of this telephone survey and the need for forecasting the poverty impacts of COVID-19 into 2021 prompt us to explore simulationbased evidence derived by applying parameter shocks to household models developed from nationally representative household survey data collected prior to COVID-19, the 2015 Myanmar Poverty and Living Conditions Survey (MPLCS). By realistically simulating the kinds of disruptions imposed on Myanmar’s economy by both international forces, e.g., lower agricultural exports and workers’ remittances, and domestic COVID-19 prevention measures. e.g., stay-at-home orders and temporary business closures, we not only can predict the impacts of COVID-19 on household poverty at the rural, urban, and national levels, but also can assess the further benefits to household welfare of social protection in the form of monthly household cash transfers of different magnitudes. Combined, these two sources of evidence yield insights on both the on-the-ground impacts of COVID-19 in recent months and the potential poverty reduction impacts of social protection measures in the coming year. We conclude the study with a discussion of the policy implications of these findings.
Download or read book Myanmar s poverty and food insecurity crisis Support to agriculture and food assistance is urgently needed to preserve a foundation for recovery written by Myanmar Agriculture Policy Support Activity (MAPSA) and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2021-07-13 with total page 19 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: National poverty rates in Myanmar have risen dramatically due to economic disruption following the February 1, 2021 military take-over of government. Depending on assumptions about the scale of the economic impacts, household poverty rates are predicted to have risen to between 40 and 50 percent in 2021, compared to 32 percent in 2015 and just under 25 percent in 2017. Between 849,000 and 1.87 million new households are thus living in poverty in 2021 in addition to the estimated 2.86 million households already in poverty in 2015. The poverty impacts of these disruptions are significant not only in the sharp increases in the total number of households in poverty, but also in the substantial deepening of poverty for households that were already poor. By the end of the current financial year, the average poverty gap (expenditure shortfall) is predicted to have increased from 26 percent in 2015 to between 34 and 40 percent for individuals living in poor households.
Download or read book Poverty and food insecurity during COVID 19 Telephone survey evidence from mothers in rural and urban Myanmar written by Headey, Derek D. and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2020-10-07 with total page 28 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Myanmar had one of the lowest confirmed COVID-19 caseloads in the world in mid-2020 and was one of the few developing countries not projected to go into economic recession. However, macroeconomic projections are likely to be a poor guide to individual and household welfare in a fast-moving crisis that has involved disruption to an unusually wide range of sectors and livelihoods. To explore the impacts of COVID-19 disruptions on household poverty and coping strategies, as well as maternal food insecurity experiences, this study used a telephone survey conducted in June and July 2020 covering 2,017 mothers of nutritionally vulnerable young children in urban Yangon and rural villages of Myanmar’s Dry Zone. Stratifying results by location, livelihoods, and asset-levels, and using retrospective questions on pre-COVID-19 incomes and various COVID-19 impacts, we find that the vast majority of households have been adversely affected from loss of income and employment. Over three-quarters cite income/job losses as the main impact of COVID-19 – median incomes declined by one third and $1.90/day income-based poverty rose by around 27 percentage points between January and June 2020. Falling into poverty was most strongly associated with loss of employment (including migrant employment), but also with recent childbirth. The poor commonly coped with income losses through taking loans/credit, while better-off households drew down on savings and reduced non-food expenditures. Self-reported food insecurity experiences were much more common in the urban sample than in the rural sample, even though income-based and asset-based poverty were more prevalent in rural areas. In urban areas, around one quarter of respondents were worried about food quantities and quality, and around 10 percent stated that there were times when they had run out of food or gone hungry. Respondents who stated that their household had lost income or experienced food supply problems due to COVID-19 were more likely to report a variety of different food insecurity experiences. These results raise the concern that the welfare impacts of the COVID-19 crisis are much more serious and widespread than macroeconomic projections would suggest. Loss of employment and casual labor are major drivers of increasing poverty. Consequently, economic recovery strategies must emphasize job creation to revitalize damaged livelihoods. However, a strengthened social protection strategy should also be a critical component of economic recovery to prevent adversely affected households from falling into poverty traps and to avert the worst forms of food insecurity and malnutrition, particularly among households with pregnant women and young children. The recent second wave of COVID-19 infections in Myanmar from mid-August onwards makes the expansion of social protection even more imperative.
Download or read book Maintaining food and nutrition security in Myanmar during the COVID 19 crisis Lessons from India s lockdown written by International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2020-04-09 with total page 6 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The recent sudden imposition of a stringent 21-day lockdown in India in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic has adversely affected the food security of many vulnerable Indians. These impacts highlight the many challenges that this kind of anti-COVID intervention can pose in other settings where the labor force is mostly informally employed with poor job security and low wages, and where the agri-food systems is similarly informal with widespread use of open-air markets. Myanmar is such a setting. India’s chastening experience with food security during its lockdown suggests the following actions would be imperative for maintaining food security in Myanmar: • Allow the free movement of all goods. A stable and reliable agri-food system requires free movements of a wide range of food products (including micronutrient-rich fruits, vegetables and animal-sourced foods) as well as essential non-food goods. • Monitor food markets and agricultural value chains as closely as possible to address problems when they do arise. • Reduce risk of COVID-19 contagion by improving hygiene in Myanmar’s food markets. • Issue clear directives to police, military, and local authorities not to impede the movement of goods. The Government of Myanmar should learn from the mistakes made in India and other developing countries. We must recognize that basic food and nutrition security must be maintained at all times through this complex health and socioeconomic crisis.
Download or read book The continuous rise during economic growth the COVID 19 Pandemic and conflict in the adoption of labor saving agricultural technologies in Myanmar Evidence and implications written by Myanmar Agriculture Policy Support Activity (MAPSA) and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2023-09-27 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After decades of isolationism and economic stagnation, Myanmar opened its economy in the beginning of the 2010s, leading to rapid economic growth (Myanmar’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was almost 50 percent larger in 2020 than in 2011). But the COVID-19 health crisis that started in 2020 and a military coup in the beginning of 2021 – and the subsequent increase in conflicts, forced displacements, and migration – dramatically reversed that outlook, with Myanmar’s GDP in 2022 estimated to be 13 percent smaller than three years earlier. The agricultural sector also changed accordingly during this period.
Download or read book Poverty and food insecurity during COVID 19 Evidence from the COVID 19 Rural and Urban Food Security Survey RUFSS June and July 2020 round written by Headey, Derek D. and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2020-09-11 with total page 13 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered a global economic crisis from which very few countries will be spared. As a result of few COVID-19 cases, a relatively short-lived lockdown, and economic momentum prior to COVID-19, Myanmar is one of the few developing countries that the World Bank (2020) forecasts will not go into recession in 2020 – a very modest expansion of just 0.87 percent is forecast. A Social Accounting Matrix multiplier analysis by IFPRI projected a 0.50 percent expansion under a fast economic recovery scenario, but a 2.00 percent contraction under a slow economic recovery scenario (Diao et al., 2020). The IFPRI study projects massive declines in GDP across a range of sectors during lockdown periods, including large increases in unemployment (5 million during the lockdown period) and declines in household income of 20 to 30 percent for April to June, albeit with fast recovery thereafter.
Download or read book Monitoring the impact of COVID 19 in Myanmar Agricultural production and rural livelihoods in two irrigation schemes October 2020 survey round written by Lambrecht, Isabel and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2020-12-02 with total page 9 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The persistent and worsening effects of the COVID-19 crisis on rural household incomes are alarming. The onset of the second wave of infections and mitigation measures in Myanmar is continuing to depress household incomes. Key findings: Almost three-quarters of the households surveyed reported lower household income than usual in August and September. In addition to a drought and lack of irrigation water limiting crop production in August and September, 22 percent of farmers experienced difficulties accessing inputs and 28 percent invested less than usual in their farm due to financial constraints. A quarter of farmers experienced difficulties selling their produce, which is lower than the share that reported having such difficulties in previous months. However, farmers anticipate further difficulties hampering sales in coming months, mainly due to expected restrictions on mobility. Landless households have been the most adversely affected by the crisis, largely due to lost nonfarm employment, lower remittances, and further negative impacts on rural enterprises. To cope with reduced incomes, 61 percent of households reported having reduced food expenditures, 36 percent sold assets, and 37 percent took loans. Households maintained the diversity of their diets but reduced the amount of meat and fish consumed. More households reported meat and fish to be less available than in previous rounds. Government transfer programs reached 99 percent of households in the study area, mostly in the form of income assistance. Recommended actions: Assistance to rural households should be continued to soften the impact of reduced income during the COVID-19 crisis and prevent households from jeopardizing future food security and health by depleting savings and assets, acquiring debt, and reducing food expenditures. Supporting rural non-farm businesses and employment will be key to building resilience in household livelihoods and to achieving a faster overall economic recovery.
Download or read book Supporting Post COVID 19 Economic Recovery in Southeast Asia written by Asian Development Bank and published by Asian Development Bank. This book was released on 2022-05-01 with total page 150 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report identifies well-established sectors needing transformation or improvement (tourism, agro-processing, and garments), along with evolving sectors with high potential for growth (electronics and digital trade) as Southeast Asian countries hammer out policies to boost post-COVID-19 recovery and secure a greener future. The first in a four-part series, the report looks at the pandemic’s impact on these five sectors across Cambodia, Indonesia, Myanmar, the Philippines and Thailand. It identifies reforms and strategies to help core industries recover and grow over the medium term. This report underscores how deepening regional cooperation can help policy makers boost their countries’ COVID-19 recovery and build more resilient economies and societies.
Download or read book Strengthening smallholder agriculture is essential to defend food and nutrition security and rural livelihoods in Myanmar against the COVID 19 threat Elements for a proactive response written by Boughton, Duncan and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2020-04-16 with total page 11 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There is an urgent need to anticipate and mitigate the threat posed by COVID-19 to Myanmar’s agricultural sector and to rural households that depend on farming for income and for food and nutrition security. We evaluate options to address the threat and to support farmers to prepare their land and plant their crops on time in the short window before the start of the 2020 monsoon cropping season. Recognizing that no single intervention can address the full range of vulnerabilities faced by rural households, we recommend a combination: • Expansion of access to seasonal farm credit with extended loan repayment schedules; • Limited agricultural input subsidies targeting certified seed; and • Implementation of a cash transfer program to smallholder farmers. Despite the high cost of a cash transfer program, there are good reasons to expect that the benefits of such support to farm households will outweigh program costs in monetary terms – even more so if the economic benefits from the consequent lower incidence of malnutrition to which the program would contribute can be measured.
Download or read book Livelihoods poverty and food insecurity in Myanmar Survey evidence from June 2020 to September 2021 written by Myanmar Agriculture Policy Support Activity (MAPSA) and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2021-12-23 with total page 15 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Key Findings Nine rounds of the Rural-Urban Food Security Survey (RUFSS) have been conducted between June 2020 and September 2021 to assess the impacts of Myanmar’s economic, political, and health crises on various dimensions of household welfare. RUFSS interviews about 2000 mothers of young children per round from urban Yangon, the rural Dry Zone, and recent migrants from these areas. Key Findings ▪ Myanmar has experienced four distinct economic shocks since early 2020. The most recent of these shocks–the spread of the Delta variant–was devastating, with 63 percent of respondents stating that at least one household member had experienced COVID-like symptoms and almost all cases occurring in the May-September 2021 third wave. ▪ 16 percent of interviewed households moved townships between their first interview and September 2021. Around two-thirds of these were from the Yangon sample. ▪ Physical insecurity has emerged as a key impact of political instability, with 53 percent of responde
Download or read book Financing Sustainable and Resilient Food Systems in Asia and the Pacific written by Asian Development Bank and published by Asian Development Bank. This book was released on 2021-11-01 with total page 73 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has highlighted food security issues and nutrition gaps in Asia and the Pacific, where various risks and fragilities have continually affected the food and agriculture sector. There is a clear need to integrate sustainable management of natural resources, nutritional considerations, and the economic dimensions of food supply chains to enhance resilience and mitigate climate change. This publication explores how innovative financing and transformative knowledge solutions can help address the financing gaps and other challenges of food systems in the region.
Download or read book Livelihood resilience and the agrifood system in Myanmar Implications for agriculture and a rural development strategy in a time of crisis written by Myanmar Agriculture Policy Support Activity (MAPSA) and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2023-08-24 with total page 18 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Myanmar’s agrifood system has proven surprisingly resilient in the face of multiple crises—COVID 19, the military coup, economic mismanagement, global price instability, and widespread conflict—with respect to production and exports. Household welfare has not been resilient, however. High rates of inflation, especially food price inflation, have resulted in dietary degradation across all house hold groups, especially those dependent on casual wage labor. Among household members, young children experience the highest rates of inadequate dietary quality. Expanded social protection to improve access to better-quality diets for vulnerable households and individuals is therefore needed. Beyond the current political crisis, increased public and private investment in a more efficient and dynamic agrifood system should be a high priority. This will help drive down poverty rates and ensure access to healthy diets in the near term, while laying the foundation for sustained growth and structural transformation of the economy.
