Cash transfers lift poor families out of despair

Ma Nilar’s[1] husband Ko San used to be able to support her and their three children with the income he earned as a motorbike taxi driver in Hlaing Thar Yar, the country’s most populous township in Yangon.

But that was before the lockdowns caused by COVID-19 in 2020, which had a devastating impact on people like Ko San, whose livelihoods depend on people needing transport.

The situation became more desperate, when the current crisis began last year with people’s movements restricted even further.

Today Ko San is lucky if he earns 5,000 MMK (almost US$ 3.00) per day. “These days there are many checkpoints for motorbike taxis, and we have less income,” says Ma Nilar. “We have to prioritize food for our children; sometimes my husband and I eat only rice and curry paste.”

Ma Nilar’s family are among the increasing number of people who now need assistance to survive, worsening the already grave humanitarian situation caused by conflict and displacement.

To help Ma Nilar’s family, and many like hers, UNICEF and partners launched a maternal and child cash transfer programme in June 2021. The scheme aims to reduce household poverty and improve access to basic services (health, nutrition and hygiene) so that families are not forced to resort to risky or harmful coping strategies to survive. The programme targets pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers as well as mothers and caregivers of children under the age of two.

The programme focuses on poor families living in urban areas affected by the current conflict, such as townships in Yangon and Mandalay. Here many families, like Ma Nilar’s, share a bed in one-roomed homes – typically measuring around two by six metres – with inadequate drainage systems.

The programme provides MMK 20,000 (about US$ 11.00 dollars) as an unconditional transfer per child every month, and an additional 4,000 MMK (just over US$ 2.00) for children with disabilities.

UNICEF has partnered with, and trained, non-governmental organizations to administer the programme, including identifying and registering vulnerable families. Once registered, eligible families are alerted about their payments through text messages, and then use their identity cards to collect the money from one of the agents registered in the programme every month.

Ma Nilar says the assistance has made a huge difference to the family – and many like hers. “I was so happy and relieved when I saw the SMS message about the cash,” she says, after receiving 42,800 MMK (around US$ 24.00). “I don’t know how to read and write, but I can see the numbers.”

[1] All names in this story have been changed to protect confidentiality.

“We bought rice and other items for our family, and we bought exercise books for my 6-year-old son so we could send him to school,” adds Ma Nilar. And when her 18-month-old son was sick, she was able to use some of the cash to see a doctor.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, conflict in Myanmar had already left 370,400 internally displaced people in need of humanitarian aid, including adequate shelter and relief items, as well as access to services, including health and education. In 2022, the worsening security situation displaced an additional 453,000 people, putting pressure on host communities, including already congested urban areas. Poverty has soared. The United Nations Development Programme estimates that nearly half of the 54 million people in Myanmar are living in poverty and more than 13 million people are experiencing moderate or severe food insecurity.[2]

[2] United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, ‘Myanmar Humanitarian Update No. 15’, 15 February 2022, <https://reliefweb.int/report/myanmar/myanmar-humanitarian-update-no-15-15-february-2022>.