Myan Ku Emergency Fund for Garment Workers

Myanmar garment factories have been impacted since end of 2019/early 2020, by a disruption of the supply chain from China where the COVID-19 pandemic started. Just as the supply chain started to come into gear again, the industry was hit much more severely by cancelled orders from European and US brands where the epidemic shifted. Cancelled orders can burden factories with an immediate financial loss of over EUR 500,000 per large order result in many factories closing down or trimming their workforce rapidly. The Myan Ku Fund provides direct cash transfers to terminated and laid-off garment workers employed in locally-owned, joint venture or foreign owned factories to help them through the months of May, June and July. The payments are disbursed through the mobile money app Wave Money 1) to workers in crisis who are jobless and/or face eviction from their homes; 2) to workers whose con-tracts were illegally terminated, thereby also countering irresponsible practices, and; 3) to workers of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) who agree to retain workers and to provide at least a matching support. Recipients are selected in consultation with trade unions and local civil society organisations. Myan Ku is financed through the EU’s Humanitarian Development Peace Nexus Response Mecha-nism (NRM), managed by UNOPS, and is coordinated by sequa’ EU funded SMART Textile & Garments project team and their affiliated partners and associates.