Quality, reliable data is vital in enabling development, humanitarian and peace-building organizations to monitor trends and deliver projects that reach the most marginalized people and address their most significant needs. However, decades of political instability and conflict, weak infrastructure and limited capacity have long made it challenging to access this information in Myanmar, and the military takeover in February 2021 has exacerbated the issue by further hindering data collection and sharing. 

At the same time, the coup, which came amid the economic struggles caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, has pushed more people into poverty, reduced access to vital services such as healthcare and education, and unwound years of development progress. Now more than ever, there is a critical need for accurate data and information about what is happening in Myanmar. 

Working with partners to collect, analyze and disseminate quality data, UNDP’s Myanmar Development Observatory (MDO) aims to fill this gap to better understand the impact of these rapid social, economic and political changes on people and communities.  

The MDO’s insights are shared in a range of ways, including analytical reports, baseline surveys, policy briefs, dashboards and maps. These products are made available to all partners, improving access to high-quality data and analysis, enabling evidence-based decision-making and programming to better support the people UNDP and other agencies reach. Recent publications have explored urban poverty in Yangon, regressing gender equality and struggles within the garment sector. 

MDO’s activities focus on three pillars: 
 

• Socio-economics: Gathering and publishing survey data on areas including economic vulnerability, small-scale business activity, food security, education, health, unemployment and migration.
• Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Using the SDGs framework to monitor the vulnerability of the most marginalized people in Myanmar and keep track of changes toward meeting targets.
• Conflict: Monitoring evolving conflict dynamics in Myanmar to inform the development of conflict-sensitive programming and ensure a strong nexus approach.

Through working with civil society in Myanmar, UNDP is also strengthening organizations’ ability to impartially collect, organize, interpret, visualize and use data, and produce their own relevant and accessible data-based products in the future.