Since its establishment, LIFT has worked in Myanmar’s 15 states/regions: Ayeyarwady, Bago, Chin, Kachin, Kayah, Kayin, Magway, Mandalay, Mon, Nay Pyi Taw, Rakhine, Sagaing, Shan, Tanintharyi and Yangon.
Strengthening labour migration governance: LIFT focuses on supporting policy and legislative development for internal and international migration and strengthening mechanisms and stakeholder capacity for implementation. This includes amending the Law Relating to Overseas Employment and enacting secondary legislation, and engaging CSOs and labour organizations in the development and implementation of the Second National Plan of Action on Labour Migration. Expanding on its work with parliamentarians, LIFT will provide technical assistance to develop a draft law on labour protection for domestic workers and advocate for the ratification of the ILO Convention on Decent Work for Domestic Workers (No. 189). It will develop curricula and provide training on skills development for domestic workers, leading to greater recognition and valuing of their skills. To improve access and quality of support services for migrant workers, LIFT will support civil society and labour organizations to establish Migrant Centres in key locations. It will also contribute to the development of evidence-based migration governance through research on policy coherence, options for extending social protection coverage to the informal sector and working conditions in the mining and construction sectors.
Improving the media discourse on decent work and labour mobility: LIFT will build the capacity of regional and national media agencies in Myanmar to support more informed, analytical, balanced and evidence-based media coverage of labour migration and decent work issues. Key capacity strengthening activities will include coaching and mentoring of regional media agencies, organizing training for senior editors at national media outlets to promote feature reporting on migration issues, and a series of training workshops bringing together media and stakeholders working on labour migration issues. LIFT will also produce creative and engaging multi-media broadcasts for national and regional audiences, including a range of audio-visual digital media outputs on Facebook, a radio programme on safe migration and financial literacy and a discussion program to be broadcast as series on national television networks. The television series will bring together diverse stakeholders to discuss key decent work and labour migration challenges in Myanmar, ensuring that the voices of marginalized workers are heard by decision-makers. Digital media content will also provide actionable information for audiences on safe migration, labour rights and other critical labour issues.
MS-NPAN: moving from inception to implementation phase: LIFT is committed to supporting the development and implementation of the Government’s ambitious MS-NPAN (Multi-sectoral National Plan of Action on Nutrition). Support for the core team, which led the inception phase, will continue until June 2021 and possibly beyond. LIFT’s nutrition programmes in Chin, Kachin, northern Shan, Kayin and Kayah will play important roles in contributing to the success of the MS-NPAN. LIFT, along with Access to Health and other supporting agencies are working with the MoHS, MoALI and MSWRR to clarify the support needs for the implementation phase of the MS-NPAN at subnational level. The key priority for the next phase will be the allocation of budgets to the prioritised interventions, which have been agreed as part of the sub-national planning process. LIFT engaged with parliamentarians in Nay Pyi Taw and in Kayah and looks forward to facilitating the active engagement by sub-national leadership and advocating for appropriate allocation of budget and resources for positive nutrition outcomes.
The Social and Behaviour Change Communication - National Plan of Action for Nutrition (SBCC-NPAN) Strategy: LIFT and the Access to Health Fund are working with UNICEF to support the development of the SBCC National Plan of Action for Nutrition (SBCC-NPAN) Strategy. Owned by the Ministry of Health and Sports, this strategy will complement the MS-NPAN. The objectives of the SBCC-NPAN are to 1) provide an evidence-based framework to guide all behaviour change activities relating to maternal, infant and young child nutrition (MIYCN); 2) harmonise partners’ communications work, targeting the same audience segments with same messages under a unified brand, led by MoHS; and 3) complement and support implementation of MS-NPAN interventions, including the MCCT.
Lifting restrictions on foreign purchases of agricultural produce: On 6 June 2019, the Ministry of Industry and Commerce lifted the restrictions on foreign companies purchasing rice, pulses and maize on local markets for export in value added form. Previously, only local companies were allowed to purchase agricultural commodities on the domestic market regardless of the form in which they were exported. Informed by its research on the pulses and beans value chain, the LIFT-funded Agri-food Value Chain Development in Myanmar project (AVCD) advocated with the Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Law amendment that was announced in October 2018.
Digitise and distribute nutrition messages: The LIFT-funded Koe Koe Tech's (KKT) "Shwe Kayi Lan Bawga Maymay" (Shwe maymay) - translated into 'Mother who is on the golden journey' project, aims to digitise and nationally distribute key nutrition messages for a child’s first 1,000 days o underserved populations and strengthen health systems through increased access to nutrition information for health workers and digital referral mechanisms.
