Local economic development in Yangon: Demand side survey

As Yangon develops and expands, ensuring a suitable supply of jobs and economic opportunities will be important for inclusive growth. In addition, interventions and policies aimed at addressing the main barriers preventing individuals from acquiring decent work can go a long way in solving Yangon’s urban poverty challenge. To date, however, little is known about the main challenges which prevent prospective workers from finding decent jobs or vice versa the barriers which prevent enterprises from finding suitable workers. This work, qualitative in nature, aims to uncover some of the main factors at play to help think about how to frame future policies and interventions in this area.

Doing so requires an investigation of the current economic situation of the urban poor: what skills do they have, what day-to-day challenges do they face, and what types of work are they seeking. In addition, we aim to look at the same types of questions but from the perspective of enterprises: what skills are they looking for in workers, what are the main challenges constraining business, and more.

Together with staff from the Urban Planning Division of the Yangon City Development Committee (YCDC) we will explore these questions in a variety of townships across Yangon. The core exercise will be a series of qualitative data gathering (interviews, case studies) to try and uncover the main constraints and challenges present.