As Myanmar proceeds on its path of economic and political reform, it will experience escalated mobility of its population in the next couple of decades. To manage the impacts and consequences of such unprecedented flows there is a need for stakeholders at local, regional and national levels to have evidence-based knowledge and strategies to minimise the risks and maximise the benefits for those who migrate, as well as for those who are affected by migration.

In recognizing such reality, Livelihood and Food Security Trust Fund (LIFT), a multi-donor trust fund to improve the lives and prospects of smallholder farmers and landless people in rural Myanmar, established a funding window dedicated to support efforts that increase the developmental impact of labour migration. The project entitled ‘Capitalising Human Mobility for Poverty Alleviation and Inclusive Development for Myanmar’ (CHIME) is funded by LIFT’s Migration Programme, and is developed to achieve two objectives:

1) To create common, evidence-based narratives on migration with national and local stakeholders in Myanmar

2) To provide technical backstopping to LIFT’s Migration Programme.

CHIME is implemented by a consortium of agencies, consisting of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the University of Sussex and Metta Development Foundation, each offering its unique expertise to maximize this rare opportunity to demonstrate concrete whole-of-society discussions, reflections, learning and actions to capitalize human mobility for poverty reduction and inclusive development in this extremely timely environment of Myanmar’s economic transformation.

^{Photo, directly above (men pushing boat) credit: Phyu Thaw 
Photo, above right, mid-page (hand-dug wells) credit: Nyein Nyein San}