FAQ | Our Work in Myanmar

At the invitation of the government of Myanmar, Landesa is providing technical assistance and sharing its international expertise to support a multi-stakeholder, consultative process with those government officials who are working to develop a pro-poor and gender sensitive national land policy and state-led land reforms and redistribution programs. Landesa joins international agencies, NGOs, and local community groups to help ensure that the land reforms reflect the needs of Myanmar’s diverse ethnic populations and poorest rural farming communities.

Landlessness in Myanmar is broadly defined to include those who use land, but whose rights to the land are insecure, and those who are completely landless. These groups include landless agricultural laborers, tenant farmers and sharecroppers, former landholders whose land was confiscated without due process, users of customary land and pastoralists whose rights aren’t formally recognized, fishing and coastal communities who are threatened by climate change, and displaced persons and refugees. Recent research completed in 2019 in the Delta region found that 50% of all rural households are completely landless.

The current government’s efforts to eliminate landlessness began in earnest in 2016. Since then, the government has allocated land to tens of thousands of families. The majority of these families are farmers who lost their land decades ago under the former government. Many other families are ethnic minorities who have received secure rights to traditional farmland through community forest certificates. More than 1 million acres of farmland has been secured by the government from past concessions for return to farmers, and government is now working to secure an additional 2-3 million acres of farmland for this return process. In addition, more than half a million acres of forestland has been certified to the communities who are traditional owners, and the Forest Department is planning further certification of another 1.6 million acres.

Landesa supports these efforts by working with communities, NGOs, and international agencies to ensure the policies and programs reflect the needs of rural women and men of all ethnic nationalities.  These efforts include training hundreds of government officials on the development and implementation of pro-poor land law frameworks. Our policy advocacy, along with other contributors, supported the adoption of Myanmar’s 2016 National Land Use Policy and the 2018 revision of Community Forest Instruction, which together form the basis for strengthening formal legal protections for the land holdings of millions of farming families.

The law and policy development process in Myanmar still suffers from a continuation of past governance practices reliant on centralized planning, which often closes off possibilities for public participation. The recent amendments to the Vacant, Fallow and Virgin Lands Management Law (VFV Law) are an example of these flawed processes. The VFV result was a new law that endangers the tenure security of many farmers, especially those on millions of acres of customary lands that have been deemed VFV lands. Landesa has joined many other organizations in calling for suspension of this law, and its replacement to be developed through a truly open and consultative National Land Law process – one with genuine representation from all sectors, including ethnic national groups.

Landesa continues to advise the civilian government on a path forward in Myanmar that includes securing land rights for Myanmar’s diverse population, including minority ethnic groups. We currently conduct no program work in Rakhine State because of security concerns for our staff and the challenge of engaging in land reform activities in a conflict area. We join the international community in urging the Myanmar government to act to end the humanitarian crisis in Rakhine, protect the rights of the Rohingya and other ethnic minorities, and facilitate the safe return of refugees and displaced persons to their land when that is possible.

Landesa closely monitors the situation in Rakhine, as well as reports of conflict in other states. We are committed to improving the lives of all of Myanmar’s people, including minority ethnic groups, by supporting progressive, pro-poor land reform. Circumstances might dictate that we suspend our operations in Myanmar. At present, we feel we have the greatest potential to improve outcomes in Myanmar by remaining engaged in our work.

Landesa’s work is rooted in our five-decades long commitment to improve the lives of women and men experiencing hardship and poverty in some of the poorest places in the world. Land rights are an essential component in fulfilling the human rights of millions worldwide, including members of traditionally marginalized groups. For that reason, Landesa works in developing, transitional, and post-conflict countries where we perceive a window of opportunity exists to support the development of pro-poor and gender sensitive land laws and policies.  Our experience tells us that helping secure rights to the lands rural people depend upon is one important way to address historic injustices and improve human rights outcomes.

We strongly believing that upholding human rights, including respect for the rights of ethnic minorities, is vital to building peaceful and prosperous societies, and remain committed to supporting this progress in all of the places where we work.