Dr Joanne Raisin is a Livelihoods and Conflict Advisor at the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID). She has previously worked for a number of development institutions including USAID, World Bank and the EU before joining DFID in 2005. A specialist in the transition out of emergencies and tackling hunger globally, Jo spent 14 years working in the Horn of Africa.
She has worked extensively on cash transfers programmes to the poor and was the principal architect of many of Africa’s new wave social safety nets. In 2003, she received the US Meritorious Honour Award for her outstanding contribution in saving the lives of 14.2 million people threatened by famine, and in 2005, she received the UK’s Africa Achievement Award in recognition of her work to change the way the world responds to hunger.
Jo is an active member of the Livelihoods and Food Security trust Fund (LIFT) and chairs the LIFT Donor Consortium. She is based in Yangon with DFID. You can reach her at j-raisin@dfid.gov.uk
In this first in a series of blogs clarifying LIFT's updated strategy, Jo explains why LIFT is 'stepping out' in 2015.
A huge welcome to 2015 everyone! This is going to be an exciting year for Myanmar and for LIFT as we move forward with our new strategy.
This year, a big part of LIFT’s new approach is about how we can help people ‘step out’ of farming and into jobs and opportunities in the wider rural and urban economy. This might include openings in manufacturing and services, such as rural transport, farm inputs supply (e.g., fertiliser, seeds, technology), or in new agricultural processing enterprises.
For many people, ‘stepping out’ will be local - a move to nearby towns or a gradual absorption into urban areas as villages and market centres converge. Set in this context, people will maintain close links with their ‘village’ home, travelling daily or returning at weekends. For others, ‘stepping out’ might mean migration to more distant urban centres, main cities or abroad. Many moves are not permanent, but temporary and circular, as we see for Delta and the Dry Zone in Myanmar.
Supporting ‘stepping out’ can be contentious. There is a lot of political pressure to keep people on farms and out of towns. Governments often try to stem migration from rural areas because it adds pressure to strained basic services, creates slums, and can create political discontent. But restrictive policies have not stopped people moving. On the contrary, around the world, millions of people are crowded together in urban slums without access to healthcare or education, or rights – a penalty of ‘stepping out’.
But supporting people to ‘step out’ is one way to ensure that the poor are part of Myanmar’s economic transformation. While agriculture is around 35-40 % of GDP now, and employs around 60% of the population, experience from the fast growing economies of Asia suggests that agriculture’s share of both will need to fall for Myanmar’s economy to grow. For example, Vietnam’s share of agriculture in GDP has fallen from 50% to 20%. It is thought that the reallocation of labour away from agriculture contributed around one third of Vietnam’s overall productivity growth between 1990 and 2008. This did not mean agriculture was neglected. The right investment in agriculture also saw Vietnam’s agricultural productivity grow by over 3% in the same period. In this way agriculture is still part of the growth story: we need to invest in increasing agricultural productivity to free up labour to move into sectors where productivity is much higher. For example, in 2008, Malaysia’s non-agricultural output per worker was 26 times that of its agricultural sector, Thailand’s 13 times, and the Philippines’ 3 times.
The economic transformation will not benefit everyone in the shorter term. Finding work in the rural non-farm economy or through migration is easier for better-off households who are more likely to have the education, skills, social contacts and capital to take advantage. Women especially may face disadvantages in ‘stepping out’ as they have fewer and less attractive opportunities, and options like migration can increase vulnerability and risk of trafficking and sexual abuse. When men ‘step out’, women’s workload may increase, although this might be off-set by greater financial decision-making options.
Much of how the transformation plays out for people will depend on their prior circumstances and how they are supported to adapt to structural change. Some households cannot ‘step out’ even though they might be those most in need. These households will need to ‘hang in’ agriculture until they have more resources and capacity to make the shift. In addition to helping these households to increase their productivity, LIFT will put more emphasis on supporting this group with social protection and nutrition interventions – building resilience and capacity for future generations to step out in the future. The evidence is clear – fighting undernutrition is a development best buy. Every dollar spent on a bundle of nutrition interventions has a $15 return. Improved nutrition is estimated to boost wage rates by 5%-50% and estimates are that it will boost GNP by 11% in Asia.
There is a lot to learn here from the region. Recent Asian experiences suggest that the transitions from agrarian to industrial, from rural to urban can be made relatively benignly and without smallholders being forced off the land, if the policy and investment environment protects their interests. What the outcome will be depends largely on the policy and investment environment. Here, LIFT’s new knowledge platform will be instrumental in bringing in the regional expertise to help inform policy and best practice to ensure we are not ‘leaving people behind’.
Of course we are not neglecting agriculture. This will continue to have a big role to play in Myanmar’s growth and poverty reduction. Over the next few weeks, we will also be taking a closer look at LIFT’s work on ‘stepping up’. This will focus on how LIFT will support small-holder farmers to increase agricultural productivity and to connect with new markets and the private sector.
Dr Joanne Raisin
Chair, LIFT Donor Consortium
