Asian Coalition for Housing Rights

Countries

Myanmar / Burma

Introduction

ACHR /ACCA in Myanmar

ACHR has published a newsletter special issue on the exciting community-driven process that has taken off in Myanmar, since the Cyclone Nargis hit in May 2008 - much of it supported by ACCA. The full-colour, 28-page issue contains inspiring stories about the people-driven reconstruction of villages that were destroyed by the storm and the setting up of rice banks as a new kind of village-managed social safety net. There are also stories about the birth, toddlerhood and young-adulthood of Myanmar's women's savings movement, which in just a few years has created many new possibilities and new links between the country's poorest women, in both storm-hit rural villages and inner-city squatter settlements in Yangon, Mandalay and other cities.

Since the storm in 2008 and the big political changes in 2011, Myanmar has been opening up to the world at an astonishing speed. Investors are flocking in to exploit the country’s vast natural resources and cheap labor, and market forces are making land prices soar. Evictions are increasing, and problems of urban and rural landless- ness are clearly going to get worse before they get better. At the same time, consultants and development agencies of all sorts are flooding into Asia’s newest poverty hotspot. Most of the projects these agencies develop will follow the old top-down,supply- driven model, in which poor communities are passive receivers of some- one else’s idea of what they need.
In this context, the projects described in this report could not be more vital or more timely for Myanmar, for they show how much poor communities can do to solve their own problems of poverty, land, housing and livelihood, when they are given a little space, and ac- cess to very modest resources, to plan and carry out their own solutions, as communities. The solutions these communities are showing are still small in scale, but with several common elements, they show a new light

THE NEWSLETTER is downloadable (below) and covers news on Myanmar's urban poor collective rebuilding; savings, networks, rice banks, urban land & housing solutions , collective financial mangement systems and more.

May 2014: The Community Architects Network visit Mandalay and Rangoon to help with Community mapping and preparation for upgrading ..... photos from Nad.

Map presentation in the temple ....

Mapping in Mandalay

Myanmar Update December 2014

ACCA in 8 cities in Myanmar… all the news and stat.s
Cyclone Nargis opens up new possibilities for People
Post cyclone Housing
Who builds houses better, cheaper, faster?
Expanding the model to Yangon
Urban Housing: ACCA support in 3 communities
The community-driven process expands to the even more difficult city of MANDALAY
National Workshop showcases people-managed development
Understanding the problems and exploring solutions with MAPPING

on the above topics 4 page extract from ACCA 5 Year Report

As we construct the NEW ACHR website we will add more information on each country. For now please consider the Country Library section below where PDF downloads with copious information is available.

Country Library - Myanmar / Burma

2014 Community upgrading workshop in Mandalay

The four communities of Thayagong, Seeyosoo, Nadi Pancha Park and Tondon in Mandalay, Myanmar’s second largest urban area, were part of a 10-day surveying and mapping workshop in May to kickstart participatory design in their settlements and start using their ACCA budget. The local network of Women for the World (WFW) in Mandalay jointly facilitated the workshop with an ACHR team (Chawanad Luansang, Thanawin Wijitporn, and Khanittha Sakduang), hosted by Tondon community. The longer term goal is to develop a viable land readjustment scheme in partnership with the government, as an alternative to relocation for the lower-income settlements in Mandalay.

2 page extract from CAN Newsletter 592 KB

2013 NEWSLETTER SPECIAL EDITION ON MYANMAR

This newsletter is a special issue on the exciting community-driven process that has taken off in Myanmar, since the Cyclone Nargis hit in May 2008 - much of it supported by ACCA. The full-colour, 28-page issue contains inspiring stories about the people-driven reconstruction of villages that were destroyed by the storm and the setting up of rice banks as a new kind of village-managed social safety net. There are also stories about the birth, toddlerhood and young-adulthood of Myanmar's women's savings movement, which in just a few years has created many new possibilities and new links between the country's poorest women, in both storm-hit rural villages and inner-city squatter settlements in Yangon, Mandalay and other cities.

28 pages text and photos 3.3 Mgbs

Dec 2010 LEARNING BY WORKING WITH PEOPLE Yangon, Myanmar

A report by CAN coordinator Supawut Boomahathanakorn (Tee) from Ale Yaw ward, Hlaing Tar Yar Township, Yangon, MYANMAR. Comprehensive site planning's workshop with Pan Thakhin women saving group Community located in unsecured land from development pressure. Relocation to new location where near existing community : Participatory lanning ....

4 pages text and photos 682 KB

2010 Extract from the 2nd year Report: Burma and ACCA
Cyclone Nargis brings big development opportunities along with devastation ..
Burma's first ever community-planned, community-built and collectively-owned urban poor housing project.

2 pages photos & text 330 KB

2009 Visit to BURMA after Cyclone Nargis
Discussions and visits to communities, NGOs and others working on rehabilitation after the cyclone: Observations from Somssook Boonyabancha a March 21 - 22, 2009. Contrating Contrator developments with peoples' development.

6 pages, 223 KB

2004 ACHR - Exploratory Visit To Burma / Myanmar - Early Days

4 people - Fr Jorge Anzorena, Maurice Leonhardt, Jantana Benjasup and Ms.Tong Dee community leader from Chiang-mai went to see if there was potential for the rest of the region to help. It was not an intervention but an exploration - as interesting as it gets - and filled with humanity that comes through hard times.

This a large file ( 2-3 mins to DL) 5 pages text and photos 10.9 MGbs

More Information _____________

Myanmar Eleven Newspaper Myanmar Times

If you have recommendations for more links to Myanmar urban poor deveopment information and resources please CONTACT us at the link in the banner above.

Extras Myanmar Videos