UNDP Myanmar August 2022

Quick impact and big results

A 95 percent increase in monthly income doesn't happen often - but that's exactly the result of one of a series of quick-impact projects UNDP has delivered in Rakhine State.

Young people, women and families have been trained and supported across a diverse range of livelihood activities, from goat and chicken rearing to snack making, tailoring, and masonry.

The impacts have been significant. Almost 500 people were trained in carpentry, motorcycle mechanics, steel welding, and tailoring. As a result, their average monthly income almost doubled - a 95% increase.

Singay Dorji heads UNDP's sub-office in Maungdaw and manages the delivery of quick impact projects in Rakhine.

"What we expected was to improve skills, create community cohesion and restore the basic capacity of households to cover their costs of living. What we got was so much more."

"Beneficiaries are reporting their family relationships have improved, as well as their self-esteem and health," says Singay.

More than 1,100 families - about 5,000 people - were trained in running micro businesses, such as selling vegetables, running tea and snack shops, or selling clothing and pharmacy supplies. For these families, monthly incomes increased by almost 70 percent.

"People supported through our small business and livestock rearing activities reported a 78 percent increase in food security and a 49 percent increase in self-esteem and happiness. When people have a resilient future, then everything looks better."

Yu Moe* shares this view. The 29-year-old Muslim woman from Ah Bu Gyar village knows the importance of UNDP's quick impact projects. A widow with four children under the age of 11, Yu Moe received 45 days of tailoring training, a sewing machine, and a start-up grant.

Yu Moe invested the grant in cloth and materials to start an at-home tailoring business. She now earns around 90,000 kyat per month which goes towards family expenses, including health care for her young children.

"Life is difficult being the female head of a household, and especially in these harsh living circumstances," she says.

Yu Moe says thanks to UNDP and CARE Myanmar, she is empowered, and her life has improved. Before the training she left her children at home while she worked casual labour to make ends meet.

"Despite the challenges, I feel a bit relieved... I can stay at home, take care of my children, and earn a small income from sewing. [Before] my mind was never at peace, and I had to worry about my children."

The delivery of quick impact projects was possible after UNDP secured the reinstatement of its Tripartite Memorandum of Understanding in March 2022. The joint MoU re-affirms the role of UNDP and UNHCR to support the voluntary, safe, and dignified return of refugees and to ensure general resilience-based development.

The UN agencies were assigned this role under an MoU signed in 2018, which remains unchanged. The agreement calls for solutions that link humanitarian assistance, resilience, and sustainable development, in line with relevant General Assembly resolutions.

After securing the agreement, UNDP moved quickly to assess and respond to community needs in Rakhine, rolling out a Rapid Needs Assessment to clarify challenges and assess urgent needs. From there, a series of quick impact projects were designed and delivered.

To date, more than 20,000 people in 42 villages of Maungdaw and Buthidaung townships have benefited from UNDP's projects. This includes 1,100 families trained in micro business start-up, 3,000 families supported in farming and livestock rearing, 480 young people and women provided with vocational training, and 800 families supported with fuel-efficient cook stoves.

Quick impact projects are also ongoing in 12 villages, targeting 7,300 people. These include support in animal rearing, fish farming, small business start-up, and welding. A further 18,000 people from 3,000 households in 18 villages of Maungdaw and Buthidaung will also benefit from vegetable home gardening support.

Growing life's necessities

Returning home does not mean everything returns to normal.

UNDP - in partnership with other UN agencies - has supported the safe return of IDPs from 21 villages displaced by armed conflict between 2018 and 2020. However, the reality is that home is not what it was.

Vulnerability assessments of Rakhine returnees in early 2022 found that returning IDPs faced major difficulties in securing a livelihood for themselves and their families, in addition to their humanitarian needs.

In response, UNDP provided 13,700 bags of paddy seeds to 8,000 villagers, 9600 bags of fertilizer to 6,600 villagers, and more than 15,000 sets of fishing inputs - such as fishing nets and crab traps - to 7,300 villagers.

The livelihood interventions were designed by the communities with support from civil society organisations. The most vulnerable households were targeted. They received agriculture and fishery livelihood assets, with training to support value-adding and market links. The goal is to help communities end their reliance on humanitarian aid and other types of ad-hoc or short-term assistance.

UNDP Senior Project Officer in Rakhine, Tun Tun, says monitoring and evaluation of previous agricultural livelihood support shows how critical the work is in improving harvests, incomes, and cooperation.

"Our beneficiaries report the ability to harvest more and make better use of their land. They also appreciate being part of our community-based Livelihood Recovery Forums which help to build trust, acceptance, and encourage women into community leadership roles."

"We also see that families have more income to spend on education and health care and they take a more active role in village development planning."

UNDP has also measured an increase in value-adding and market access through its work, such as the delivery of seven large greenhouse-type solar dryer domes. Thanks to access to the domes, local farmers and fishing families have made more than 600,000 kyat in profits by adding value to their crops and harvests and contributing to the growth of local value chains.

Farmers also attended market fairs organised by UNDP to connect local producers with potential buyers and traders operating in and through Sittwe.

A series of livelihood support interventions have been delivered across 6 Rakhine townships since April 2022 by UNDP, directly reaching 22,000 beneficiaries in 133 villages, delivering benefits to more than 100,000 people.

Flood recovery and resilience

Monsoon floods across Rakhine State in 2021 washed away the hopes and prospects of thousands of already-vulnerable people.

As the floodwaters receded UNDP quickly stepped in to provide emergency support to flood-affected townships and is now delivering the second phase of that assistance.

Since January 2022, UNDP has been using a humanitarian-development-peace nexus approach to shift from recovery to resilience. The approach has already benefited 5,000 households and created new livelihood opportunities and better futures for at least 20,000 people.

Projects include cash-for-work to renovate and construct 11 village roads, renovation of water ponds and drainage systems, and construction of 2 water supply systems, a cyclone shelter, a small bridge, and a jetty.

UNDP has also supported small scale farmers, fishing families, and micro business owners, and village groups have been trained in disaster risk reduction, WASH, and nutrition improvement to encourage greater resilience for families in the future.

UNDP has reached 500,000 people across townships in Rakhine with livelihood and income generating opportunities. With increased investment, UNDP plans to expand its support to all 17 townships in Rakhine State, home to 3 million people. The support would include projects to boost economic inclusion, social cohesion, and the protection of fundamental rights.

In the first phase, UNDP focused on emergency support for vulnerable flood-affected communities in northern and central Rakhine, including communities with different religious and ethnic backgrounds. Coordinating with CSOs, UNDP rapidly assessed the needs and delivered humanitarian assistance to 3,000 households - directly benefiting about 12,000 people.

UNDP's Senior Projects Officer in Sittwe, Tun Tun, says: "Working through three CSOs, we leveraged our in-house capacity in risk management, disaster risk reduction and community development.

"We monitored and approved beneficiary lists and supported the process to ensure interventions promoted social cohesion and were conflict-sensitive."

Working with local non-profit entities, including Youth and Community Development Network, the Rakhine Ethnic Congress, and the Kyaukphyu Rural Development Organisation, UNDP provided food and hygiene items to people living in 3,300 households across 4 townships.

U Maung Kyaw Tun* from Kanyintaw village in Kyaukphyu township, says the support was essential for his family, including his wife and three children.

"After the floods, roads are damaged, transportation is rough - for the villagers trying to keep their livelihoods and for the children going to school."

"The support from UNDP greatly helped us to solve the family's food shortage during the flood time."

U Maung Kyaw Tun says he hopes UNDP support can extend to installing a village drain.

"During the rainy season we have always been affected by the flood... there is no drain for the village main road and nowhere for the water to flow.

"If UNDP can help the village community to solve the flooding issue it would be very helpful in solving our livelihood challenges and the difficulties of going to school."

UNDP has been working in Rakhine since 1996. UNDP’s Tun Tun says:

“As in other parts of Myanmar, we have a local presence and are connected to a network of community service organisations.

"When the floods hit, we were already there, and able to scale-up quickly by working with our local partners. We also worked with fellow UN and humanitarian agencies. We identified and responded to the immediate needs while also thinking ahead to a transition from recovery to resilience."

Access to justice in Rakhine

The detention of children, gender-based discrimination, people smuggling, and domestic violence are just some of the cases being dealt with by UNDP's legal partners in Rakhine State.

Since 2018, UNDP has been working with the International Legal Foundation (ILF), the Legal Clinic Myanmar, and the Thazin Legal Institute to provide legal aid and awareness around gender-based violence and housing, land and property rights.

Zaw Min Htet coordinates UNDP's access to justice initiatives.

"We've directly helped almost 25,000 people in Rakhine with direct legal services, whether that be in person, via our hotline or through legal training."

Among them was a young Muslim woman who was detained - along with her infant - for more than four months without access to legal representation. She was accused of causing grievous injury and making threats.

Through UNDP support, an ILF lawyer filed an application to release the woman and her child on a personal bond. When this was refused - due to a lack of guarantors - the lawyer went to the IDP camp where the woman had lived and found people who were willing to act as guarantors. The young woman was eventually granted bail.

"Without access to legal representation this woman and her child could have been left in the court lockup for a very long time," says Zaw Min Htet. "A lack of access to legal representation especially impacts poor and marginalised people, and this is where we aim to help."

In addition to providing direct legal support through partners, UNDP has worked to raise awareness of legal rights through social media and the distribution of information materials.

"Our education and outreach have garnered more 500,000 views, helping the community know more about their rights and who to contact when they are being violated."

In Rakhine, UNDP has established legal aid clinics providing mobile legal services in seven townships: Kyaukphyu, Ann, Thandwe, Mrauk-U, Taungup, Pauktaw and Kyauktaw. It has also mentored 180 lawyers and trained 550 paralegals, and delivered community-level awareness activities on land rights to more than 260 people.

Securing social protection

Social protection systems, policies and programs protect the most vulnerable. People are better able to cope with crisis, human rights are better protected, and pathways to jobs, economic growth and human development become more accessible.

To help build better social protection systems in Myanmar, UNDP is working with an international expert to map what is happening and the gaps.

Using a dual focus, the UNDP assessment will look at the structural protections in place, as well as the community demand for them.

UNDP's Rakhine Field Office lead, Alessandro Caselli, says the analysis will be used to develop better and more robust programs and interventions in Rakhine State.

"We want to better understand the social protection landscape, as well as focusing on the most critical and essential needs of the community, how they are meeting them, and where they are not being met."

The first findings from the assessment are expected in early September. UNDP will then work with stakeholders and partners to prioritise programs that best protect the community.

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*Names of UNDP beneficiaries have been changed. The quotes reflect the real stories and statements of UNDP beneficiaries.