LIFT’s 2014 strategy highlights social protection, including cash and asset transfers that can help the rural poor ‘hang in’ (ensure basic subsistence) and ‘step out’ (move out of marginalised agriculture).
On 12 May, social protection specialist Sharlene Ramkissoon presented LIFT Fund Management Office staff with findings from the work she is doing with HelpAge to support government social protection systems in Myanmar. Ramkissoon has been working in hand with the Department of Social Welfare to conduct the feasibility study, ‘Technical Options to Implement a Universal Social Pension in Myanmar’.
Her talk focused on the current position of the Myanmar government with social protection; what is needed in terms of technical resources and infrastructure, and how development agencies can assist the government in implementing the new National Strategic Plan on Social Protection.
Given that social protection is at an early stage in Myanmar, Ramkissoon recommends that a small-scale social pension cash transfer is piloted in two States in order to launch government cash transfers. The social pension is one of four types of cash transfers identified as flagship programmes in the National Strategy Plan, along with universal maternal and child allowance to age 2, allowance for persons with disabilities, and universal allowance to age 15. Once operational and institutional arrangements are in place, the other types of cash transfers can proceed via the Department of Social Welfare.
You can find Ramkissoon's presentation here.
The LIFT-funded ‘Strengthening the Ministry of Social Welfare to Fulfil its Role in Expanding Social Protection’ project is providing capacity development assistance and technical advice to the Department of Social Protection in Naypitaw. This is in order for it to frame its mandate on social protection, design social protection instruments, and deliver national policies, action plan and law for the aged in Myanmar. Dr. Dharmapriya Wesumperuma, who is HelpAge’s team leader for the project, and Ms Capucine Loo, Deputy DIrector of HelpAge Myanmar, also attended the talk.
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LIFT funds a number of projects that involve social protection. Some are linked below:
1. Sowing Seeds for Future of Person with Disability in Dry Zone Area
2. Inclusive Livelihoods & Social Protection Research
3. Mobilising Action for the Advancement of Women in Myanmar 2012-2015
4. Socio Economic Development Network for Regional Development
Additional reading on social protection in Myanmar:
1. Ageing and Vulnerability: Evidence-based Social Protection for Older Persons
5. Using vulnerability mapping to identify and quantify dimensions of Child Poverty
