# Introduction: The Myanmar Context

A well-functioning private sector is crucial to the growth and prosperity of all countries. The private sector is the engine of growth for a country by its contribution toward creating jobs and opportunities for people to move out of poverty and improve the quality of their lives (IFC, 2012).<sup>1</sup> The World Bank Enterprise Survey indicates that small firms (<50 employees) in developing countries have the highest job growth rates; thus, understanding how to improve employee retention, job satisfaction, and business growth, is crucial in this sector. In Myanmar, enterprises of all sizes face a range of challenges and barriers to their development, including lack of access to capital, a burdensome bureaucratic and administrative environment, a low-skilled workforce, infrastructure gaps, as well as conflict. As is the experience globally, women face similar challenges to men but often to a greater extent, thereby limiting their equal participation in the economy as leaders, entrepreneurs, employees, consumers, and community members. Given the importance of the private sector to the economic development of a country, it is fundamental that all members of society have equal access.

**Micro, small and medium-size enterprises (MSMEs) dominate Myanmar’s private sector** . According to the OECD Development Pathway Initial Assessment (2013), it was estimated that approximately 83 percent of businesses in Myanmar were in the informal sector. Of the approximately 17 percent in the formal sector, it was estimated that 99.4 percent were small and medium-size enterprises. As such, enhancing the opportunities for MSMEs to grow is a key policy area of interest for a country in transition such as Myanmar. The ongoing liberalization of the economy provides enormous opportunities for Myanmar to grow in terms of economic and social development.

**Across the world, women face numerous challenges to participate equally in the economy as leaders, entrepreneurs, employees, consumers, and community members** . Laws and regulations continue to prevent women from entering the workforce or starting a business, resulting in lasting effects on women’s economic inclusion, labor force participation, and entrepreneurial aspirations. Moreover, barriers such as the lack of familyfriendly workplace policies, care and household responsibilities, lack of training or mentoring programs, access to finance, and a lack of safe transportation, create a situation that prevents women from achieving their full potential. This, in turn, prevents the whole of society from reaching its full potential. According to a World Bank Group study,<sup>2</sup> countries are collectively losing USD160 trillion in wealth because of differences in lifetime earnings between women and men and the situation for women in Myanmar, as this study confirms, is no different to the experience of women globally.

**Currently, the benefits from growth are not being shared equally in Myanmar.** The World Bank Group’s World Development Indicators (2019) shows that the labor force participation rate among those aged 15 and over in Myanmar is 77 percent for men but only 48 percent for women. The Myanmar Annual Labor Force Survey (2017)

> 1 Private sector matters for job creation, IFC, 2012.

> 2 Unrealized Potential: The High Cost of Gender Inequality in Earnings, World Bank, 2018.

3