On May 2, 2008, Cyclone Nargis struckMyanmar’s Ayeyarwady Delta and swept across the regiontoward Yangon. By the time the storm had passed, it hadkilled over 140,000 people, tearing apart families,destroying homes, and shattering livelihoods. In the monthsand years following Nargis,communities, supported by thenational and international aid community, worked to rebuildtheir lives and repair the devastation that the cyclone hadcaused. Homes were rebuilt, paddy field walls repaired, andnew fishing boats purchased. However, even as the process ofrecovery inched forward, villagers have had to contend withnew and diverse shocks and changes that have both enabledand slowed their efforts to rebuild. Among others, climatechange has led to unpredictable weather, hamperinglivelihoods, while the migration boom to Yangon andelsewhere has provided economic opportunity even as it hasaltered the local social fabric. These more recent issueshave had a complex inter-relationship with changes wroughtby Nargis. As time has passed, they have become the primaryconcern of most villages studied by the social impactsmonitoring (SIM) research. But the long-term effects ofNargis remain visible, combining with newer issues to createnew challenges,exacerbate old problems, and, in some cases,even hasten the recovery process. By focusing on a panel of40 Nargis-affected villages across time, five rounds of SIMhave been able to track how village life has changed bothpost-Nargis and, in more recent years, as villagers facedboth new challenges and continued recovery from Nargis. Thisfifth round of SIM (SIM 5) provides a snapshot of villageeconomic and social life in 2017 and analyzes change overmore than nine years since Nargis. It assesses three mainareas: (i) This focus area examines the conditions oflivelihoods and the local socioeconomy in the context ofNargis’ destruction and the evolving context of the ruraleconomy across Myanmar over the past five years. It looks atthe three main livelihood groups (farmers, fishers, andlandless laborers) and at key issues such as debt, land, andhousing and local infrastructure; (ii) This area assesseshow communities have dealt with both the long-term socialupheaval caused by Nargis and the more recent (but no lessdramatic) changes that have accompanied Myanmar’s politicaland economic transition; (iii) New to this round of SIM, thefinal analytical focus area identifies what recovery andresilience mean for households and communities in theAyeyarwady Delta, what factors are most important in therecovery process and in building resilience, and to whatextent villagers have had and have the capacity to developboth; SIM 5 placed particular emphasis on understandingchange over time, both since 2013 (when the SIM 4 researchwas conducted) and prior to Cyclone Nargis. As much aspossible, SIM 5 draws causal links between exogenous events(such as cyclones, other natural disasters, politicalchange, and national economic development) and household andcommunity actions.
PDF
download
878987797
028-85220240
