Assessment of the development policy and its impacts : A case study of Chin State in Myanmar

Andrew Laitha

Master's thesis

Abstract:

Although Myanmar is endowed with natural resources, almost six decades of civil war and economic mismanagement has led to it being ranked as one of the poorest countries in Asia. The country has lagged behind its’ peers in the Association of Southeast Asia Nations (ASEAN) countries, even as the recent economic and political reforms in Myanmar have opened the opportunity to the poorest and most marginalized inhabitants for improving their livelihoods. Among the seven states and seven regions of Myanmar, Chin state remains the poorest state with 71.5 per cent of the population living in poverty. This is solely due to successive oppressive military rule and basic human rights violations, that has purposely neglected the wellbeing of the people, which has negatively impacted economic opportunities for the poor. This research attempted to evaluate Myanmar’s Framework for Economic and Social Reforms (FESR). The research further tried to investigate and determine whether the civil society organizations (CSOs) operating in Chin state are collaborating with the Government in the efforts to implement FESR. This research employed a mix of quantitative and qualitative methods considering the different aspects of the country’s development status. The Poverty and Social Impact Analysis (PSIA) was utilized comparing the development progress variation between the Union and Chin from 2012 to 2015. This research concluded that even though there were considerable improvement in the livelihoods of the poor people at the Union level, there was development disparity among the regions. Especially, the Chin state was not able to benefit. At the same time, the study highlights weaknesses in collaboration between the development actors and Chin State Government.

Keywords

FESR, impact evaluation, poverty social impact analysis, stakeholders, Myanmar

Language used: English

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 27. 4. 2018

Thesis defence

• Supervisor: Ing. Jiří Hejkrlík, Ph.D.

Czech University of Life Sciences Prague

Faculty of Tropical AgriSciences

Master programme / field:
Tropical Agriculture / International Development and Agricultural Economics