Local development assessment in Dagon Seikkan Township, Myanmar

The assessment found that the economic situation of marginalised households in the two wards is precarious. The available money of interviewed families with child labour issue is often not enough to pay the daily expenses like food and housing. Even with children and young adults working full-time, in sometimes hazardous workplaces, the income is not sufficient to bear the costs for living. It became obvious that the income of working children is an essential part of the household income. In some interviewed households, children or young workers are the only income earners. A stable income is the exception, many parents and also children are working casually and depend insofar on the availability of work. This insecure and not manageable situation is pushing many families in a credit trap situation in which they have to borrow money from local money lenders with tremendous interest rates of 20% to 30% per month. Many households have been identified being over-indebted. They do not have a chance of paying back the credit amount since a high share of their income is already spend on the interest rates. The debt burden is regarded as a major constraint in the economic situation and development of these households.

The assessment makes the following recommendations for interventions: (1) Provision of microfinance services with reasonable interest rates to indebted and over-indebted households; (2) Provision of vocational training or skill development measures to unskilled workers to get better paid jobs or to enter different career levels; (3) Support to home-based sewers in both wards in establishing sewing groups to get direct access to the wholesale markets and to create more margin and profit through cooperation and organisation; (4) Support to MEs in the two wards by providing training in e.g. entrepreneurship or credits for investments for business expansion.