Empowering women in Myanmar’s nascent garment value chains

Participation in garment global value chains has positively affected the condition of women with many moving out of the informal sector to industrialised salaried employment. Harnessing the social upgrading potential of Myanmar’s growing garment industry for women’s economic empowerment will require targeted and comprehensive action from private and public actors in the value chain. Myanmar has been identified as a “new hotspot” among least developed countries entering the industrialisation process. An important part of Myanmar’s integration into the global economy following the lifting of international sanctions in 2013 has taken place through the development of an export-oriented garment industry. The garment industry is currently the only domestic manufacturing export activity that is integrated in a global value chain (GVC). Thanks to a significant inflow of foreign direct investment – primarily driven by preferential access schemes to Western markets, low wage labour, and risk diversification on the part of buyers – Myanmar’s garment exports have increased from US$300 million in 2005 to US$2.5 billion in 2017. The growth of Myanmar’s garment industry has created new jobs, supporting the realisation of UN Sustainable Development Goal 1 (SDG 1) related to poverty reduction. The International Labour Organization estimates that 380,000 workers were employed...

Written by Violante di Canossa