Welfare And Vulnerability Findings From The Second Round Of The Myanmar Household Welfare Survey April June 2022

The second round of the Myanmar Household Welfare Survey (MHWS), a nationally and regionally representative phone survey, was implemented between April and June 2022. It follows from a first round that was carried out between December 2021 and February 2022. This report discusses the findings from the second round related to shocks, livelihoods, coping strategies and food security. We find that 19.6 percent of households reported security and climatic shocks in the three months prior to their interview. Further, there is an uptick in reported crime, violence,and insecurity across communities in the second round, compared with the first. Theft is also an important issue, with 3.2 percent of households burglarized. Fifty-five percent of households report a lower income in the beginning of 2022 compared to 12 months earlier. Eighty-three percent of households use at least one coping strategy to meet daily needs during the month prior to the survey. The three most common copying strategies are spending savings, reducing nonfood expenditure, and reducing food expenditure. Seventeen percent of households have poor or borderline food consumption, more than in round one (R1), when the share was 9.4 percent. This change is in part driven by a decrease in animal-sourced food consumption, from 5.0 days a week in R1, to 3.9 days a week in round two (R2). Finally, hunger is an issue for 4.0 percent of households. Regression analysis reveals that self-reported community insecurity and climatic shocks are strongly associated with negative outcomes for income, coping, and food security. Finally, households in Kayah and Chin are the most vulnerable; they report insecurity, violence, and crime in their communities and compared to the other states/regions are more likely to have income loss, poor food consumption and hunger.

The third round of the Myanmar Household Welfare Survey (MHWS), a nationally and regionally representative phone survey, was implemented between July and August 2022. It followed from a second round that was conducted between April and June 2022 and a first round that was carried out between December 2021 and February 2022. This report discusses the findings from the third round related to shocks, coping strategies, and income poverty. During the third round of data collection, the security situation in Myanmar continued to decline. Increasingly, households felt insecure in their communities, as reported by 21 percent of rural households and 25 percent of urban households, an increase compared to previous rounds. This is because crime and violence continued to increase, affecting 10 and 8 percent of communities, respectively. Further, 6 percent of households were directly affected, either through violence against a household member, robbery, or appropriation and/or destruction of their assets. Households also continued to earn less income. In July and August of 2022, 46 percent of households reported lower income compared to the previous year. Disruptions in banking, internet, and electricity also negatively impact household wellbeing and livelihoods. Further, households struggled to receive medical services. Finally, while school attendance recovered, it was still under 50 percent in some states/regions. Eighty-two percent of households used at least one coping strategy to meet daily needs during the month prior to the third-round survey. The three most common coping strategies used were spending savings, reducing non-food expenditure, and reducing food expenditure. Further, some households exhausted some or all of their coping strategies. Finally, income poverty increased during the third round; 62 percent of households were income poor. Casual wage earning and asset poor households were particularly vulnerable. Compared to the other states/regions, households in Kayah and Chin were the most vulnerable. They were more likely to be impacted by conflict, have income loss, and be income poor. Households in Rakhine, Kachin, and Tanintharyi were also vulnerable; more than 70 percent of households in those regions were income poor.

The fourth round of the Myanmar Household Welfare Survey (MHWS), a nationally and regionally representative phone survey, was implemented between October and December 2022. It follows from three rounds that were carried out quarterly beginning in December 2021. This report discusses the findings from the fourth round related to shocks, coping strategies, and income poverty. The security situation in Myanmar continued to deteriorate during the fourth-round recall period. Increasingly, households felt insecure in their communities, as reported by 22 percent of rural households and 27 percent of urban households, an increase compared to the previous rounds. This is because crime and violence continued to increase, affecting 12 and 8 percent of communities, respectively. Further, 8 percent of households were directly affected, either through violence against a household member, robbery, or appropriation and/or destruction of their assets. Households faced multiple disruptions besides insecurity. Disruptions in banking, internet, and electricity also negatively affected household wellbeing and livelihoods. Further, households struggled to receive medical services. Finally, while school attendance recovered, it was still under 70 percent in some states/regions. Eighty-four percent of households used at least one coping strategy to meet daily needs during the month prior to the fourth-round survey. The three most common coping strategies used were spending savings, reducing non-food expenditure, and reducing food expenditure. This has been consistent across rounds. Further, some households exhausted some or all of their coping strategies. Remittances were the only factor inversely associated with households’ probability of having lower income compared to last year, being income poor, and using coping strategies. In R4 income-based poverty increased by 30 percent compared to R1 (15 percentage points) and 7 percent compared to R3 (4 percentage points). Sixty-six percent of the population was income poor. The rise in income poverty between R3 and R4 was largely attributable to changes in urban poverty. Casual wage-earning households, both farm and non-farm, had the highest levels of income poverty. Compared to the other states/regions, households in Kayah, Chin, and Sagaing were the most vulnerable. They were more likely to be impacted by conflict, have income loss, and be income poor. Despite reporting comparatively less conflict, households in Rakhine were also vulnerable; nearly 80 percent of households in Rakhine were income poor and many were mortgaging/selling assets to cope.

This working paper explores the state of food security and nutrition in Myanmar using 5 rounds of nationally representative household panel data collected from December 2021 to June 2023. Overall, the state of food security and nutrition has deteriorated in Myanmar in 2022-23. More than 3 percent of households were in moderate to severe hunger in April-June 2023. Hunger was highest in Chin (10.1 percent), Rakhine (7.6 percent), and Kayin (5.9 percent). Households with a low food consumption score increased from 9.4 percent in December 2021-February 2022 to 17.7 percent in April-June 2023. The shares in April-June were highest in Chin (48.4 percent), Kayah (27 percent), and Kachin (22 percent). Inadequate diet diversity among adults rose from 20.6 percent to 27.1 percent over the same period. Women saw a faster decline in diet quality from December-February 2022 to April-June 2022 (9.1 percentage points increase in poor diet quality vs 3.8 percentage points for men). Decreases in diet quality among adults are driven by lower consumption of milk and dairy products as well as Vitamin A rich fruits, meat, fish, and eggs. 40 percent of all children aged 6-23 months and nearly a quarter (24.9 percent) of children aged 6-59 months had inadequate diet quality in the latest round of survey. Regression analysis reveals low income and limited assets to be important risk factors for food security and adequate diet quality. Wage workers and low wage communities are found to be particularly vulnerable. Rising food prices, conflict and physical insecurity increase the likelihood of poor diet quality. Receiving remittances is a source of resilience; remittance-receiving households are less likely to experience hunger or poor dietary diversity at the household, adult, and child level. To avert a full-blown nutrition crisis in Myanmar, effective multisectoral steps are required to protect nutritionally vulnerable populations. Expanded implementation of nutrition- and gender-sensitive social protection programs, including maternal and child cash transfers, particularly to vulnerable groups is called for. Further, given the importance of remittances as an effective coping mechanism, supporting migration and the flow of remittances would help to improve the welfare of the Myanmar population.

The fifth round of the Myanmar Household Welfare Survey (MHWS), a nationally and regionally representative phone survey, was implemented between March and June 2023. It follows from four rounds that were carried out quarterly beginning in December 2021. This report discusses the findings from the fifth round related to livelihoods, shocks, asset and income poverty, and coping strategies.

The state of food security and nutrition has deteriorated in Myanmar in 2022. Four percent of households were in moderate to severe hunger in October/December 2022. Hunger was highest in Chin (10%), Mon (6.8%), and Kayin (6%). Households with a low food consumption score increased from 9.4% in December 2021/February 2022 to 15.7% in October/December 2022. The shares in October/December were highest in Chin (48.3%), Kayin (23.1%), and Magway (22.7%). Inadequate diet diversity among adults rose from 20.6% to 25.1% over the same period with rates higher for women, especially in rural areas. Decreases in diet quality among adults is driven by lower consumption of milk and dairy products as well as Vitamin A rich fruits, meat, fish, and eggs. More than a third of all children aged 6-23 months and 15.9% of all children aged 24-59 months have inadequate diet quality. Regression analysis reveals low income and limited assets to be important risk factors for food security and adequate diet quality. Wage workers and low wage communities are found to be particularly vulnerable. Rising food prices, conflict and physical insecurity increase the likelihood of poor diet quality. Receiving remittances is a source of resilience; remittance-receiving households are less likely to experience hunger or poor dietary diversity at the household, adult, and child level.

In this research note, we provide an overview of the state of food security and nutrition in Myanmar using a recently collected household dataset. We examine food security using a household hunger scale and a food consumption score. To examine the state of nutrition, we examine the diet quality of individuals across Myanmar for three separate but important sections of population: (1) adults (18+ years), (2) women of reproductive age (15-49 years), and (3) children (6-23 and 6-59 months). We explore these indicators using three rounds of the Myanmar Household Welfare Survey (MHWS) collected over the phone in the first three quarters of 2022 – hereafter Q1, Q2 and Q3 – among over 12,000 households in 310 townships of Myanmar. MWHS is a nationally, urban/rural and state/region representative phone survey (MAPSA 2022a). We use standard food security and diet diversity measures for each of the three subpopulations to examine trends over the three rounds as well as explore heterogeneity with respect to gender, location of residence, and asset and income-based welfare indicators. We also look at disaggregated consumption of the different food groups that constitute the diet diversity measures to investigate the change in the consumption pattern of individuals. Finally, we use regression analysis to look at predictors of food insecurity and inadequate diet diversity, including household wealth and income, self reported shocks, food prices, and household characteristics.

Remittances are a critical source of household income in Myanmar and are significantly associated with positive welfare outcomes. In 2022, 33 percent of the households surveyed in the Myanmar Household Welfare Survey (MHWS) received remittances at least once in the twelve-month period. Remittances made up 7 percent of the average monthly per capita income of households in 2022. Among households that received remittances, 40 percent of their average monthly per capita income was from remittances. Considerably more households received remittances in 2022, compared to 2017, the last year for which there is nationally representative data (World Bank 2017). Despite the increase in the number of households receiving remittances, compared to 2017, the income share from remittances has decreased for all households. Even with internal lockdowns and border closures because of the COVID-19 pandemic, remittance senders migrated internally in 2020 and 2021. As a result, domestic remittance flows appear to have increased steadily since 2012. International remittance flows, on the other hand, decreased substantially during the first two years of the pandemic. They are now increasing rapidly. In 2022, households in Rakhine, Chin, Mon, and Kayin received the most remittances of the states/regions. Households in Chin, Kayin, Tanintharyi, and Mon received a greater percentage of remittances from international senders rather than domestic senders. Most international remittance flows were from Thailand, Malaysia, and China. Households in Kachin, Ayeyarwady, and Mandalay received the most remittances from domestic senders. Most domestic remittance flows were from Yangon, Mandalay, and Shan. Receiving remittances has a positive and significant association with improved welfare outcomes. Households that receive remittances are less likely to have lower income compared with last year and more likely to have a better food consumption score and a higher dietary diversity score. Households who receive remittances use fewer coping strategies. Finally, households who receive remittances are more likely to have an improved house made of brick, brick/wood, or semi-pucca.