Social Enterprise Landscape in Myanmar

This report aims to understand the broad contours of Myanmar’s emerging social enterprise (SE) space for both ‘formal’ and informal SEs, zooming into the regulatory environment, financing environment as well as key challenges and opportunities. Awareness of the concept of SE is starting to emerge and the space in Myanmar has begun to take shape as existing entities in the NGO or private sector are beginning to identify themselves as SEs. However, there exists an ‘informal’ SE sector where its constituents have yet to be accounted for in the current SE literature. In response to that gap, the report will examine the state of ‘informal’ SEs that presently operate as NGOs, associations, cooperatives, or private entities but that could play a role in growing the Myanmar SE community. At this stage delineation between different donors is required to define their potential contribution to SEs and will serve to guide the discussion in this report. ‘Donors’ are defined as governmental and intergovernmental development institutions such as USAID, and UNDP. Other donors are categorized as foundations (institutional) and charitable donations (individual).