Cyclone Nargis struck Myanmar in May 2008, leaving more than 84,000 people dead and more than 50,000 missing, including many skilled fishers and fish processors. The majority of families living in the delta are poor, with the main sources of income being fishing, casual labor, livestock and agricultural activities and small-scale trade in fish and rice products.
Most houses in the area were made of thatch with leaves for walls. People’s ability to cope with the cyclone’s damage is limited, as food stocks were washed away and borrowing from wealthier families is no longer possible as those families have also lost income and assets.
Save the Children in Myanmar and Practical Action Consulting conducted this pilot of the EMMA toolkit in the Ayeyarwady Delta in July 2008 in order to explore how the tools and guidance could be applied in a real humanitarian emergency. The study focused on two market systems for analysis: small-scale fishing nets, which are critical for livelihoods and food security, and dhani-thatch panels, which are critical for shelter.
Most vulnerable people in the affected area depend on fisheries and household-level aquaculture for their livelihoods. As such families tend to own smaller nets and boats, this study focuses on the market system for small fishing nets. Such nets are mainly imported from Thailand with a slight seasonal variation in price due to demand changes.
Competition between traders on the supply side appears to be healthy. Credit appears to be a critical service in this market system, especially for poor fishing families. Lastly, fishing licenses, which are auctioned annually, are required in the delta.
Cyclone Nargis struck the Ayeyarwady Delta in Myanmar on 2 and 3 May, leaving over 84,000 people dead and more than 50,000 missing. Over 450,000 houses were completely destroyed and 350,000 partially. More than 600,000 hectares of agricultural land were flooded, killing up to 50% of draft animals. Many skilled fishers and processors died in the flooding and the storm.
This report covers the second pilot test of the EMMA Toolkit, conducted in Ayeyarwady Delta during July 2008, in the aftermath of the cyclone. Save the Children hosted the assessment with the dual goals of contributing to the development of EMMA and better understanding critical market systems for the population affected by the cyclone in order to program more effectively.
The EMMA pilot took place 11 weeks after Nargis, when the humanitarian response was still in an early operational phase. A number of livelihoods and emergency needs assessments and other surveys were taking place around the same time, which meant that quite a lot of information became available during the pilot test about the impact of Nargis on households and producers. The assessment focused on the fishing net and roofing material market systems.
As a result of post-election violence (PEV), a large number of small-scale farming households in the Endebess area of Kwanza District were displaced. In the process of displacement and violence, households lost key productive assets and structures as well as savings and access to income.
This report presents the results of a pilot of the nascent EMMA approach with two main purposes: better understanding critical market systems for the population directly and indirectly affected by PEV, and gaining experience that could be used to improve the toolkit itself.
The study examined the impact of the crisis on the area’s microfinance market system in order to evaluate the appropriateness of a cash-based response to support poor, small-scale farming households and to identify any necessary additional market support interventions. Target groups of this study include poor small-scale farmers who were driven deeper into debt as a result of the PEV.
