Myanmar Centre for Responsible Business

Want to read this email in your browser? click here

eNewsletter

This is the first e-newsletter from Myanmar Centre for Responsible Business. Last year we commissioned a mid-term review of the first two years of the Centre, which identified the need for us to improve our outreach and communication.

We intend to issue a newsletter approximately monthly with information on recent and forthcoming activities. If you want real times updates of new information from our website, you can also ‘Like’ us on our Facebook page myanmar.responsible.business or take an RSS feed from our website for live updates.

Please Read Burmese version here

Visit our Website

About MCRB

The Myanmar Centre for Responsible Business (MCRB) is a Yangon-based initiative founded by the UK based Institute of Human Rights and Business, and the Danish Institute for Human Rights. The Centre was launched in 2013 to serve as an effective, legitimate and neutral platform for exchange of knowledge, capacity and dialogue concerning responsible business in Myanmar, based on local needs and international standards and working close with business, civil society and government. We are supported by the governments of UK (DFID), Norway, Switzerland, Denmark (DANIDA), Netherlands and Ireland.

ICT Sector-Wide Impact Assessment (SWIA)

In September 2015, MCRB published its ICT Sector-Wide Impact Assessment (SWIA) which presents key ‘online’ (hate speech, privacy, lawful interception) and ‘offline’ human rights risks and opportunities for the Government of Myanmar, companies operating in the sector, and civil society. Follow-up activities have included inputs to government consultations and work with the Alliance for Affordable Internet.

We plan a peer-to-peer discussions for telecoms companies, including subcontractors, on labour and safety issues, in the context of the tower and fibre network rollout. Watch this space for further details, or contact info@myanmar-responsiblebusiness.org.

Read more on ICT SWIA here

Mining Sector Wide Impact Assessment (SWIA)

Field research has begun on the Mining SWIA which is expected to be published in the second half of 2016, starting in Hpa’an (Kayin State) and Hopong (Shan State) with a focus on limestone and cement. Future research sites will include tin and gold mining sites in Kachin and Karen States, and Sagaing, Mandalay and Tanintharyi Regions.

Indigenous Peoples Rights and Business in Myanmar

MCRB’s Briefing Paper on Indigenous Peoples’ Rights and Business (available in English and Burmese) analyses the limited Myanmar legal frameworks related to indigenous rights and Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC), and the Burmese terminology used, and makes suggestions for how businesses can apply international standards such as IFC Performance Standard 7 in Myanmar. Our previous briefing paper was on Land. The next one is planned to be on Children’s Rights and Business.

Read more

Thilawa Special Economic Zone

The Thilawa SEZ Multistakeholder Advisory Group (MSAG) chaired by MCRB aims to facilitate the dialogue and resolution of grievances, and monitor the implementation of the Thilawa SEZ Phase 1 and its resettlement programme, and share lessons learned for the next stages of Thilawa and Myanmar’s other SEZs in Dawei and Kyaukphyu. MCRB facilitated a panel discussion at November’s annual UN Business and Human Rights Forum in Geneva where all stakeholders from the Thilawa SEZ Management Committee, Myanmar Japan Thilawa Development Company and a representative of the “project affected people” were brought together. The discussion can be watched online (internet permitting).

Read more

MCRB’s support to Myanmar Business Coalition on Aid

MCRB continues to support the activities relating to responsible business of the Myanmar Business Coalition for Aid (MBCA), including for new offices in Dawei and Sittwe. In 2016-2018, MCRB intends to focus its own subnational work on Tanintharyi and Rakhine to follow up on the oil and gas and tourism SWIAs. A multistakeholder workshop on tourism in Ngapali is planned with Hanns Seidel Foundation for early May.

Read more

Transparency in Myanmar Enterprises (TiME) / Pwint Thit Sa

We are about to start research on our annual Pwint Thit Sa report. The report assesses the information contained on the 100 biggest Myanmar companies websites related to anti-corruption, organisational transparency (e.g. group and subsidiary ownership), and health, safety, environment and human rights. In response to requests for smaller companies who would like to prove – not least to their potential business partners and investors - that they are as transparent as the top companies in our main report, we are running a new benchmarking process for medium sized enterprises called ‘Mini’ Pwint Thit Sa. If you would like your company’s website to be benchmarked against the same 35 criteria as the big 100, please let us know (info@myanmar-responsiblebusiness.org)

MCRB’s New Deputy Director

We welcome Rosie Zhang who started in December 2015. Born and bred in Shanghai, Rosie is a commercial and FDI lawyer by training. Her rich Asian experiences and knowledge in ethical sourcing, labor and trade will make her a valuable asset for the centre to outreach and engage with Asian investors. In the past 12 years, she managed three international social compliance firms which provide third party social assessment and consultancy to brands, importers, retailers from US and EU in 16 Asian countries in various industries: garments, footwear, electronics, toys, etc. She served as the COO of International Council of Toy Industries' CARE Foundation based in Hong Kong, managed the ICTI Certificate in the whole toy industry. She holds Master’s degree in Public Policy from Harvard Kennedy School of Governance and speaks English, Mandarin and Cantonese.

Congratulations also to MCRB’s Regional Outreach Manager, Wai Phyo Myint and her husband Ko Wai Tun on the birth of their daughter Ma Devi Wai Tun in November.

If you no longer wish to hear from us, unsubscribe here