All Countries and All Sectors

Despite top-down economic and political shifts in recent years, Myanmar’s health sector still has significant ground to cover, particularly in rural communities that lack access to basic services. The government has pledged to ramp up efforts by dramatically increasing health expenditures, building new facilities and strengthening the talent...

For the most part, Myanmar’s resilient economy has grown dramatically since the easing of international sanctions, while health care expansion has been modest at best. Although the outgoing government under U Thein Sein increased spending on the sector from K92bn ($71m) in FY 2010/11 to K691bn ($533.5m) in 2015/16, Myanmar remains behind its...

While numerous education policies have been set in motion by Myanmar’s outgoing regime, the degree of implementation has varied considerably. As negotiations between lawmakers and education reformists continues to delay legislative change, the decentralisation of the Ministry of Education (MoE) is a key topic of discussion.

Deep in the south of Myanmar, the Mergui Archipelago is almost off the map. Mostly uninhabited, the islands are home to around 2000 people, mostly Moken, known as “sea gypsies”, many of whom are skilled divers and fishermen living a semi-nomadic lifestyle. Some of the roughly 800 limestone and granite islands are just rocks jutting out of the...

As little as five years ago, Yangon was a dark and crumbling city, the roads largely quiet apart from the occasional decrepit taxi. Now the streets of Myanmar’s biggest city are filled with second-hand Japanese saloons, mostly used as taxis, and the sky punctuated by cranes adding high-rise buildings. Despite rapid development, and unlike...

Hundreds of thousands of foreign tourists have visited Myanmar since relations with the West thawed and the country began to open up to the outside world in 2010. While some are eager to experience the South-east Asian nation’s rich culture and heritage, others are simply curious to see the once isolated country before it changes forever. At...