A Household Income and Expenditure Survey conducted in 1997 revealed that nearly one in four households had expenditures below the minimum subsistence level. Although the poverty rates are approximately the same in urban and rural areas, most of the poor live in rural areas. The rural population accounts for approximately 71 percent of the total population.

There is no comprehensive Poverty Reduction Plan in Myanmar to date although many elements of the national planning framework aim at reducing poverty. As a prerequisite to formulating a national poverty reduction plan, Myanmar needs a comprehensive household living conditions assessment and a poverty profile on which to base the design for pro-poor economic and social policies and to help orient development programmes and projects for maximum poverty reduction. Given the changes in economic and other conditions and their impact upon the people, particularly the poor, such an assessment of living conditions and a poverty profile need to be prepared, monitored and updated regularly. This will be important foundation for analysis of household well-being, which is a critical part of the process to formulate appropriate plans and policies for poverty reduction.

This project will conduct the first Integrated Household Living Conditions Assessment in Myanmar. This project is to contribute to well-informed, pro-poor decision making in order to improve living conditions for the poor in Myanmar. The immediate objective of the project is to assess the living conditions and poverty situation of the Myanmar population.

It aims ultimately to benefit most of all the poor, who should benefit from better targeting and relevant policies, programmes and projects although the population as a whole should also benefit from such appropriate policies.

The assessment will highlight the characteristics of poverty and its main causal factors in different agro-ecological zones and among the diverse population groups. The immediate outputs will include (a) a database on household well-being in Myanmar that should be updated regularly in order to assess current trends and (b) an in-depth analysis on the different dimensions of household socio-economic development and poverty that would guide UNDP future work in this area. This would enable new strategies to be formulated and adopted to ensure that UNDP activities are well targeted to the most vulnerable groups and the most pressing needs. This information will also be a valuable source for addressing the basic needs of the Myanmar population countrywide.