Suchergebnisse

As the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded in early 2020, Myanmar avoided an early wave of infections. However, even before its first cases were confirmed, the country faced a related economic crisis. Border closures, movement restrictions, and reduced international demand for Myanmar's goods and services severely affected the nation's forecasted economic growth. In late 2020, Myanmar also experienced two waves of COVID-19 infections and lockdown measures, followed by a political crisis beginning in February 2021. This combination of widespread COVID-19 and political turmoil has had substantial negative impacts on the nation's population. ; Non-PR ; IFPRI4; CRP4; MAPSA; MyanmarSSP; CRP2; Feed the Future Initiative ; DSGD; PIM; DGO; A4NH ; CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH); CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM)

COVID-19-related trade disruptions hit several sectors in Myanmar as early as January 2020, but it was the appearance of the country's first cases in March 2020 and the subsequent lockdown in April that really hurt the economy. Nonessential businesses shut down, workers and traders could not leave home, and demand for labor dried up. The initial COVID-19 prevention measures worked well — resulting in only a few hundred infections in a country of over 50 million by June — but led to a sharp spike in poverty rates followed by a modest economic recovery in mid-2020. However, by September 2020, the country had faced a second, far worse phase of the crisis, with another wave of infections emerging in Rakhine in August 2020 and quickly spreading out of control to Yangon and other regions. Myanmar went from a few hundred confirmed cases in early August to more than 80,000 by late November (though this was surely a large underestimate, given low testing rates), despite widespread lockdown measures starting in mid-September. Then, just as the economy was showing signs of recovery in early 2021, the military took control of the government on February 1, 2021, sparking wide-scale protests and strikes, withdrawal of major foreign investments, crippling financial instability, and a collapse of economic confidence. To make matters worse, mid-2021 saw the Delta wave sweep through Myanmar, producing even higher rates of infection. ; Non-PR ; IFPRI4; CRP4; CRP2; MAPSA; MyanmarSSP ; DSGD; PIM; DGO; A4NH ; CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH)

AbstractThe COVID‐19 pandemic resulted in severe income losses, but little is known about its impacts on diets and nutritional adequacy, or the effectiveness of social protection interventions in mitigating dietary and nutritional impacts. We first assess the likely impacts of COVID‐19 shocks in Bangladesh and Myanmar on poverty and food and nutrient consumption gaps. We then analyze the estimated mitigating effects of five hypothetical social protection interventions of a typical monetary value: (1) cash transfers; (2) in‐kind transfers of common rice; (3) in‐kind transfers of fortified rice enriched with multiple essential micronutrients; (4) vouchers for a diversified basket of rice and non‐staple foods; and (5) food vouchers with fortified rice instead of common rice. The simulation results suggest modest effectiveness of the cash transfers for mitigating poverty increases and little effectiveness of all five transfers for preventing increasing food and nutrient consumption gaps among the poorest 40%. Rice fortification is, however, effective at closing key micronutrient consumption gaps and could be a suitable policy instrument for averting "hidden hunger" during economic crises.

AbstractMyanmar experienced multiple COVID shocks as well as a military takeover in February 2021. Impacts on household poverty remain uncertain, however, because large‐scale in‐person surveys were impossible during the pandemic and heightened internal conflict. We use ex ante simulation models and phone survey evidence to estimate the poverty effects of these shocks and identify factors correlated with them. While each approach has limitations, and cannot explicitly validate each other, they both indicate rising rural and urban poverty and capital‐depleting coping mechanisms. Wider use of simulation modeling could help mobilize social protection faster than waiting for survey results in emergencies.

The objective of this contribution is to report the initial impacts of measures taken to contain the COVID-19 pandemic on Myanmar's agri-food system. Myanmar is one of several late-transforming low-income countries in Southeast Asia where agriculture still plays a large role in rural livelihoods, and where food prices are a key factor affecting nutrition security for poor urban and rural households. Whereas the economic impacts of COVID-19 disruptions on tourism and manufacturing were obvious to policymakers, the impacts on the agri-food system were less evident and often more indirect. This resulted in the rural sector being allocated only a very small share of the government's initial fiscal response to mitigate the economic impacts of COVID-19. To correct this information gap, a suite of phone surveys covering a wide spectrum of actors in the agri-food system were deployed, including farm input suppliers, mechanization service providers, farmers, commodity traders, millers, food re ; PR ; IFPRI3; ISI; CRP2; 2 Promoting Healthy Diets and Nutrition for all; 4 Transforming Agricultural and Rural Economies; MyanmarSSP; IFPRIOA; UNFSS ; DSGD; PHND; PIM ; CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM)