| Abstract | The Dry Zone, one of the poverty-stricken areas in Myanmar, occupied approximately 13 percent of the country's total land area. About 23 percent of the total population lives in this region and the majority of population rely on agriculture and allied activities for their livelihoods. The upland area of the study suffers from land degradation and receives low annual rainfall ranging from 500 to 800 mm, with high variability and frequent occurrences of drought. It is an accepted fact that rural poverty situation in Myanmar is not fully understood, due to lack of appropriate data and weak political interest in the situation. A limited number of poverty related studies are available at national and local levels but are rather inadequate in providing the real situation of poverty in Myanmar. The national/regional poverty lines are not set up. Poverty estimation even as per the international poverty line (one dollar per person per day) is still unavailable in Myanmar. The broad objective of this study is to make a comprehensive rural poverty study in the dry zone of Myanmar focusing on the gender dimension and developing strategies and programs for combating poverty. Information was collected from primary and secondary sources. Primary information was collected through household survey, observation, group discussions, key informants interview and reconnaissance survey. Secondary information was collected from relevant government offices, UNDP, books, journals, maps and reports. Firstly, the Cost of Basic Needs method was used in constructing the food poverty line in accordance with the recommended daily energy intake of 2100 calorie per capita per day. The food poverty line was estimated at 215 Kyats per person per day and non-food poverty line was estimated at 37 Kyats per person per day. Without household size adjustment, the headcount Index (HCI) of female-headed households (57 percent) was higher than the HCI of male-headed households (39 percent) in the study area by applying absolute poverty line of 252 Kyats per person per day. With household size adjustment, the HCI of female-headed households ( 46 percent) was also higher than the HCI of male-headed households (22 percent) at the poverty line. The poverty estimates of the male and female-headed households were not different at the food poverty line, assuming everyone in the household enjoys equal amount of food. When the household size was adjusted with the common assumption of one child is equivalent to calorie consumption of 0.65 adult, the female-headed households' poverty incidence (52 percent) was significantly higher than the male-headed households (35 percent). From the focus group discussions (participatory approach) in the selected six sample villages, the rural poverty was defined as 'food deficiency' of the household. The people pointed out that those food deficient households were unable to visit the doctor and cannot send their children to school. The wealth-ranking exercise estimated that around 35 and 42 percent of households can be classified as poorest and poor respectively in terms of own assets criteria, around 30 and 40 percent of households can be classified as poorest and poor respectively in terms of housing condition criteria, and around 80 percent of households can be classified as poor in terms of access to health care criteria in the community.The association between various indicators and composite indices showed that the poverty index was significantly and negatively correlated with the composite indices of education,health, and aggregate development. The significant determinants of pove1iy were gender of head, family size, land holding size, number of labor force, number of crops grown per year, loan (debt) amount, frequency of visiting the doctor, frequency of training attendance of head, and access to electricity supply. The multivariate analysis revealed that female-headed households have significantly less per capita consumption than the male-headed households. The ranking of Weighted Average Index of the perceived causes of poverty showed that the rural households were suffering from low income, landless, high indebtedness, and lack of capital at a 'very strong' level. The female-headed households were suffering from low income, landless, unemployment, and high indebtedness at a very strong level while the maleheaded households were suffering from low income, high indebtedness, low crop production, and lack of capital. The comparison of opportunities between women and men indicated that both poor and nonpoor women were more disadvantaged than the men in access to land and employment. Especially poor female were more disadvantaged in access to education and health services. The regression analysis on the children's educational attainment showed that family size and daughter dummy were negatively and significantly associated with the children's educational attainment. The children's age and age squared, land-holding size, and average daily per capita income variables were positively and significantly associated with the children's educational attainment. Even if household's land holding size or per capita income were higher, daughters would receive lower educational attainment than the brothers would. Only daughters with better-educated household heads would receive more schooling years. Application of different approaches (consumption vs. participatory) to poverty analysis in the Dry Zone revealed that female-headed households were more disadvantaged than male-headed households in terms of poverty measures (headcount, poverty gap and squared poverty gap indices) and poverty related indicators (land holding size, earned income, capital amount, rice sufficiency period, number of children death under five years old, frequency of visiting the doctor, primary education enrolment, literacy, access to safe drinking water, access to electricity supply, access to production technology information, and participation in decisionmakings, etc.). At the individual level, both poor and non-poor female have less access to land, employment, and receive lower income. The poor female are more illiterate, less in enrollment at primary education, more dropped out from school, they rely on traditional health treatment, have less access to training, and less participation in decision-making process of a group. In order to promote the poverty reduction with gender equity, the poverty reduction strategy must address gender mainstreaming through sectoral policies with direct attack on poverty reduction programs focusing on promotion of productive assets (land redistribution and employment generation), health sector development (provision of health service and trainings on reproductive health care), rural institution and infrastructure development (provision of credit, provision of trainings for skill enhancement, and promoting participation in Self Reliance Group and local authority). |