[{"bbox": [83, 106, 1145, 210], "category": "Text", "text": "The garment industry and industries that encourage circular economy practices are specifically targeted by this action. This choice is based on the positive experiences from the EU's [SWITCH-Asia programme](#) of five years implementation in Myanmar, as well as the \"Responsible Supply Chains in Asia\" project under the EU Partnership Instrument:"}, {"bbox": [83, 218, 1145, 351], "category": "Text", "text": "**The garment industry creates jobs with a decent income that are redistributed to the country.** The ILO estimates that at least 10% of Myanmar women were directly employed in the garment sector pre-pandemic²¹. Garment workers' average salaries is about 200,000 MMK which is the double of the agricultural sector, and three times higher than the poverty line. Finally, at least 6% of the Myanmar population relied on the garment sector for a portion of their family income."}, {"bbox": [83, 356, 1145, 513], "category": "Text", "text": "**The EU is a crucially important player in the garment sector in Myanmar.** Between 2012 and 2018, the value of garment exports rose 500% from around USD $900 million to USD $4.6 billion by 2018. In 2019, the Myanmar apparel industry exported US$5.7 billion worth of garments and a further US$1 billion of footwear and handbags, an increase of 26% on the previous year. A critical factor behind this growth has been tariff free access to European and North American markets. More than half of the apparel exports produced in Myanmar are now sent to the European Union."}, {"bbox": [83, 521, 1145, 576], "category": "Text", "text": "The UN Fact-finding mission of 2019 and an assessment of Amnesty International in 2020 saw no **direct ties between the garment industry and the Tatmadaw.**"}, {"bbox": [83, 581, 1145, 738], "category": "Text", "text": "**The EU has experience in this sector in Myanmar.** The [SMART project](#) originated from the EU's SWITCH Programme in 2013. Co-funded by private sector partners (brands, retailers and factories) and implemented by sequa GmbH, it aims at improving working conditions, promoting labour and environmental standards and reducing labour right abuses in the textile and garment industry. The ILO-led Vision Zero Fund project that improves occupational safety and health conditions in the garment (and ginger) sector has also provided valuable insights into the functioning of these sectors."}, {"bbox": [83, 747, 1145, 827], "category": "Text", "text": "**The EU has expertise and best practices to share in terms of circular economy.** The EU's **Circular Economy Action Plan** promotes initiatives along the entire life cycle of products in order to modernise and transform the economy, while protecting the environment."}, {"bbox": [83, 832, 1145, 886], "category": "Text", "text": "**The EU has experience in this sector in Myanmar.** Past SWITCH-Asia projects both aimed to promote clean production and consumption practices across industrial sectors."}, {"bbox": [83, 926, 1145, 979], "category": "Text", "text": "Identification of main stakeholders and corresponding institutional and/or organisational issues (mandates, potential roles, and capacities) to be covered by the action:"}, {"bbox": [122, 1006, 547, 1032], "category": "Section-header", "text": "## 1. Resilient agricultural and rural systems"}, {"bbox": [83, 1033, 732, 1058], "category": "Text", "text": "*UN agencies, EU member states and other international organisations*"}, {"bbox": [83, 1065, 1145, 1251], "category": "Text", "text": "There is ample presence of UN agencies working for the agriculture and rural sector in Myanmar, especially after 2015 and the adoption of the country's Agriculture Development Strategy and a multisectoral National Action Plan for Food and Nutrition Security. With a specific mandate on food and nutrition security, WFP, FAO and UNICEF maintain large relief and development support programmes covering vulnerable areas of Myanmar and mostly relying on international and national NGO for the delivery of services to the population. This action will adopt a Humanitarian-Development-Peace nexus approach to food security and nutrition, by ensuring coordination with these organisations as well as with ECHO."}, {"bbox": [83, 1256, 1145, 1442], "category": "Text", "text": "In addition, UNOPS manages the **Livelihoods and Food Security Fund (LIFT), a multi-donor fund** established in 2009 to improve the lives and prospects of smallholder farmers and landless people in rural Myanmar. LIFT is funded by seven donors: Australia, Canada, the European Union, Ireland, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. To prevent the sharp increase in hunger and malnutrition in the wake of the coup, LIFT has engaged with partners to scope out immediate needs. Partners are mobilising to support a series of social protection interventions such as in-kind transfers, vouchers and/or cash transfers, nutrition counselling, breastfeeding support and treatment of severe acute malnutrition in the absence of functional public services."}, {"bbox": [83, 1448, 1145, 1529], "category": "Text", "text": "Other stakeholders include several EU member states and other international organisations which are also very active in the agriculture and rural sector in Myanmar. These include the Agence Française de Développement (AFD) providing grants to NGO in support to pro-poor agricultural value chains."}, {"bbox": [83, 1562, 388, 1587], "category": "Text", "text": "*INGOs/Civil society in Myanmar*"}, {"bbox": [73, 1637, 180, 1661], "category": "Footnote", "text": "²¹ ILO, 2020"}, {"bbox": [1051, 1663, 1157, 1687], "category": "Page-footer", "text": "Page 7 of 20"}]