Pact has been implementing development programs in Myanmar for over a decade. Despite the moderate success of Myanmar's economic reforms in the 1980s, the absence of affordable capital in rural areas is an enormous constraint to economic growth for the nearly 80 percent of the population who live at a subsistence level and rely on small and microenterprise activities for income and employment.

Until 1997, there was no financial institution in Myanmar offering financial services to the rural poor without collateral. This forced the poor to borrow from local moneylenders, who charged extremely high interest rates. To address this need and to increase the economic opportunities for Myanmar's rural poor, Pact began operations in Myanmar in July 1997 in collaboration with UNDP/UNOPS, and introduced credit, savings, and small and microenterprise development to community-based groups in the Dry Zone. In 2008 the success of this program brought an extension by UNDP for another two years.

Now reaching nearly 300,000 rural poor in the Ayerwaddy River Delta, the Dry Zone, and Shan State, and with a staff of almost 1000, Pact's poverty alleviation efforts in Myanmar address livelihoods security and health issues, including HIV/AIDS,TB, and Primary Health Care (PHC). In 2001 Pact expanded its poverty alleviation operations to include the provision of PHC services in the Dry Zone based on experience gained working with rural communities over the years.

In 2003 Pact further expanded health activities by adding a HIV/AIDS component. In 2005, Pact introduced a health and financial services integrated project. The rationale for integrating health in financial services was that while improvements in income are generally linked to economic conditions for improved health, the converse is equally true. Without a foundation of health, income-generating activities become less viable.

Aiming to improve access to economic and health opportunities for Myanmar's poor, Pact builds and strengthens existing community associations or groups to enable community members to provide for their own basic needs. This approach contributes to the sustainability of Pact's programs while meeting three interconnected needs:

• Providing access to financial services—credit and savings for productive investments.
• Organizing communities for self-help initiatives—skills training and awareness raising for informed decision-making;
• Improving health related knowledge in the community—education focusing on preventatives practices;

Pact was also able to play a valuable role in responding to the destruction in the aftermath of the 2008 Cyclone Nargis by providing access to drinking water, medical care, food and shelter to the hardest hit areas. As a result of the disaster many Pact programs were put on hold and much of Pact's staff took part in emergency relief being coordinated by the United Nations.

Currently, Pact's programs in Myanmar receive funding from the UNDP, Chevron/UNOCAL, and the Danish International Development Agency.

Staff contacts

Jan Schollaert
Country Director
Myanmar
jschollaert@pactworld.org

Sarah Sitts
Program Officer
Washington, DC
ssitts@pactworld.org