The Department of Social Welfare provides cash transfers to eligible mothers to improve nutrition in the first 1,000 days of life in the maternal and child cash transfer programme (MCCT) and to the elderly, aged over 85 in the social pension programme. With an eye to modernisation, growth, and efficiency for these programmes, a policy workshop on electronic cash transfer (ECT) was held in Nay Pyi Taw on 18 December to benefit financial inclusion and social welfare programming in Myanmar.
Opening remarks at the workshop were given by Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement, USoe Aung, and by the UK Ambassador to Myanmar Daniel Chugg. The workshop was attended by more than 60 representatives from government, international non-governmental organisations, the UN and the private sector. The workshop was organised by the Department of Social Welfare (DSW) with LIFT’s support.
DSW began the workshop with a presentation on the social pensions they deliver to elderly people. This programme was piloted by LIFT in 2016, and was taken nationwide by the DSW in 2017 for all people over the age of 90. In 2018, the age was dropped to 85 and plans are in place to continue growth of the programme by dropping the minimum age to 80 in the coming years. DSW’s goal is to provide 40 per cent of their transfers electronically by 2022. DSW also oversees MCCT programmes in Chin and Rakhine States to over 25,000 women and plans to rollout the MCCT programme to Kayah and Kayin States in 2019. DSW is exploring how to deliver the cash electronically in the future. The purpose of the workshop was to consider the challenges identified in ECT, ways to overcome them and ways to improve the efficiency of ECT. DSW stated that in order to continue to grow cash transfer programmes at their current rate ECT must be considered for sustainability and efficiency.
DSW’s MCCT programme covers the whole of Chin State and began in 2017, funded by LIFT. LIFT has funded MCCT programmes in the Rakhine since 2014, and the Delta and Dry Zone since 2017. In 2017, LIFT’s implementing partner Save the Children began a pilot project in the Delta to deliver cash electronically through Wave Money to women in more than 200 villages in Labutta. In 2018, ECT to the elderly was piloted by LIFT’s partner HelpAge, with funding from LIFT, to around 1,000 beneficiaries in Myingyan. Additionally, Koe Koe Tech, a tech company working to improve health, has produced a free app called MayMay which pairs well with MCCT because it gives mothers information timed to their pregnancy and baby’s life on health and nutrition plus puts them in contact with local doctors.
Representatives from HelpAge International, Save the Children, the World Food Programme and Koe Koe Tech participated in a panel discussion at the workshop discussing what they had learned about delivering cash electronically from their projects. They also took questions and made suggestions for future changes.
They explained challenges with community awareness of mobile money and a lack of technical knowledge associated with it. They also expressed a need to improve reach into rural areas as well as advance monitoring capabilities and security. Mike Lwin, founder and director of Koe Koe Tech, spoke about the need to modernise software and share data across departments and organisations. He also suggested integrating cash transfers with existing widespread software in order to simplify the process for beneficiaries.
A second panel discussion was held featuring service providers, including representatives from Ooredoo, Wave Money and True Money. They discussed many of the same challenges as the previous panel and expressed optimism about the potential for infrastructure growth and cooperation in coming years. They also discussed consumer confidence in electronic currency and the need for better access to banks in remote areas.
Short presentations were made by the World Bank, KBZ, the Budget Department and the Auditor General’s Office. KBZ discussed their mobile service, KBZpay and the World Bank stressed the need to improve awareness and financial inclusion. The Budget Department then presented on budget allocation and the Auditor General’s Office on financial monitoring and efficiency.
Useful group discussions centered on the strengths and challenges of ECT, as well as ways to overcome these challenges. Many suggested solutions included improved awareness, communication, and education campaigns in both urban and rural areas. Other suggestions included improved integration across banks and service providers, updated regulations and software, and a simplified technical process.
U Kyaw Linn Htin, Director from the Department of Social Welfare, and leader for MCCT programmes, ended the workshop by thanking participants and emphasising that no single government body, NGO, or private company could overcome all the ECT challenges and find success alone. He also said that he was looking forward to further cooperation with implementing partners, private sector providers, UN, and other government bodies moving forward.
