Myanmar
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Myanmar

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Contacts
James Grall
regional director
jgrall@pactworld.org
Peter Newman
program officer
pnewman@pactworld.org
Smart Power Myanmar
Smart Power Myanmar, launched with funding from The Rockefeller Foundation, is accelerating access to renewable energy for poor and vulnerable people in Myanmar by building a viable, decentralized renewable energy ecosystem, with a focus on customer-centered solutions, long-term socio-economic development and systemic change. With three years of funding from GEAPP, Smart Power Myanmar is transforming access to affordable and clean energy for Myanmar’s commercial and industrial businesses in the agricultural value chain. In collaboration with GEAPP, Smart Power Myanmar will support commercial and industrial enterprises by partnering with local banks and offering technical expertise to enable financing for rooftop solar power systems. The project is working to enable the development of 100 new solar projects across Myanmar, sustain 72,000 jobs in the agricultural value chain, and improve the livelihoods of more than 600,000 people who directly or indirectly depend on reliable access to electricity. Learn more at smartpowermyanmar.org.


Advancing Community Empowerment Past Project
The Advancing Community Empowerment in Southeastern Myanmar project, supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)/Burma, works with communities to bolster their ownership, capacity and action to meet the needs of the most vulnerable; broaden participation for more inclusive decision making; and strengthen mechanisms for more responsive and accountable local governance. Pact is implementing Advancing Community Empowerment in partnership with Community Partners International, Mercy Corps and Save the Children. The five-year project also partners with a broad range of local and regional organizations, service providers and actors to address community development priorities.


Empowerment for People in Need (E4PIN) Past Project
Working in Myanmar's Mon State, Empowerment for People in Need is building economic resilience and recovery from the negative impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as the economic empowerment of vulnerable groups including women, migrants, youth and people living with disabilities. The project also focuses on addressing personal and environmental factors related to disabilities, including negative attitudes toward people living with disabilities, inaccessible transportation and public buildings, and limited social support. It is scaling up community WASH and waste management activities to encourage the creation of safe, clean and productive communities that promote health and livelihood outcomes for rural and vulnerable populations. The project is also delivering an advocacy curriculum rooted in empowerment principles to educate community members on topics important to their success as business owners and members of their respective communities.




Ahlin Yaung Past Project
Within funding from Shell, Chevron, ABB and the Cogan Family Foundation, Pact provided technical and financial support for improving energy access, promoting productive use of energy and enabling electrification of community-prioritized places such as schools and health clinics. Central to Ahlin Yaung’s approach is a governance foundation leading to the formation of Village Electrification Committees (VECs), who decide on electrification priorities and manage a revolving fund, which provides financing to households for purchasing solar home systems and productive use equipment. This project improved access to energy for 293,355 people and electrified 690 community-prioritized places. 74% of project beneficiaries were women.

Yaung Chi Past Project
Funded by Chevron, Pact worked with 70 unelectrified villages in the Mandalay Region of Myanmar to advance economic opportunities for rural women and village entrepreneurs over a two-year period. This project supported energy innovation through the development of captive solar systems for businesses and facilities (schools and health clinics). Support was provided for building the local governance capacity for administering loan schemes for productive use equipment and the operations and maintenance of roof-top solar projects for facilities by community members. Through the Yaung Chi project Pact provided job training and business skills development to ensure that entrepreneurs can start and successfully run businesses that productively use energy, with a focus on women’s entrepreneurship, ensuring greater gender equality and female empowerment. Pact also provided support for assessing the feasibility of solar projects, procurement and construction of solar installations – supporting competitive procurement.

Mekong Connections: Supporting Governance, Transparency and Local Voices
Mekong Connections is building an engagement network of key stakeholders to foster transboundary collaboration and information-sharing among local voices on key policy challenges facing the Mekong region. The network will focus on governance and transparency projects from the perspectives of community actors, enhance and develop regional networks to connect community perspectives to central policy debates in the Mekong, share global lessons learned and best practices on transboundary challenges in the region and beyond, and propose concrete policy approaches to these challenges. Ultimately, small-grant awardees and fellows funded through Mekong Connections will strengthen community voices and civil society directly.

Sustainable Infrastructure Partnership
The Sustainable Infrastructure Partnership works with governments in the Lower Mekong region to build capacity for managing the impacts of environmental change. The program supports planners and policymakers in the use of technical and conceptual tools to better understand how pressures on land and water resources are affecting local populations. SIP provides training in applying cumulative impact assessment, enables collaboration for monitoring and managing socioeconomic data, and promotes sharing of data and information about water resources. The program serves as a platform for countries to cooperate in addressing transboundary development challenges, including the impacts of upstream hydropower dams on the Mekong. Through training, dialogue and partnerships, countries are better able to anticipate and manage issues such as reduced fishery yields, salinity intrusion, and groundwater depletion. SIP is implemented by Pact and is part of the Mekong-US Partnership, which builds on the work of the previous Lower Mekong Initiative in strengthening water security in the region. Learn more here.

Fish for Livelihoods
Led by World Fish, the Fish for Livelihoods (F4L) project is improving the availability of diverse, safe, affordable, nutrient-rich foods, especially for women and young children from poor and vulnerable households. F4L is helping families prioritize nutritious-conscious decisions, and the project will leverage fish culture technologies to generate employment and increase local incomes and the availability of fish to eat. The project’s aquaculture activities include improved land and water use, increased access to high-quality feed, seed and equipment, capacity development and research into production, and access to credit. Nutrition and WASH education will ensure food-safe aquaculture.
Swan Yi Past Project
Swan Yi, which closed in 2021, used Pact’s award-winning savings-based women’s economic empowerment model, WORTH, to help women better support themselves and their families. In addition to helping women save money and access credit, WORTH provides intensive training and support to build members' capacity as successful entrepreneurs. The project incorporated leadership skills to support the health and education of women, their families, and communities. Swan Yi also incorporated an advocacy curriculum rooted in empowerment principles, educating members on topics including labor laws, domestic violence, divorce, and children’s and land rights. Continuous self-learning helped women develop business literacy and numeracy skills to start, manage and sustain their businesses. Later project components included creating a healthy physical environment at the community level by improving water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) in schools, and promoting improved waste management practices through a participatory community action planning process. Pact also built connections between recycling-based SMEs and WORTH groups to explore new income generation opportunities for women.


Essential Health Past Project
Essential Health is a five-year project working in four townships to improve maternal and child health outcomes by increasing the availability and quality of equitable health services for Myanmar's poor and vulnerable populations. The project is supporting these communities to effectively demand such services, strengthening health system governance and improving the efficient delivery of health services by public and private service providers at the township level and below. Pact is implementing this project with Jhpiego.
