Governing Disasters Risk in Myanmar: Institutions and Policy Pathways during 1885- 2015

Abstract

Unlike many disaster-prone countries in Southeast Asia, such as Indonesia and the Philippines, there is a lack of study on the history of institutions, governance and policy on Myanmar’s experience dealing with disasters. A substantial increase in the literature on Myanmar disaster management policy can be observed only after Cyclone Nargis 2008. However, most of the literature dealt with the post-disaster and humanitarian response context in Myanmar as it also spiked again recently in a gloomier mood after the Humanitarian crisis in Rakhine State. There is barely systematic research on long-term changes in disaster management policy in Myanmar. Most researchers treated Myanmar’s pre-Nargis period as a monolithic period when disaster policy measures were either a full set of reactive responses or nothing. Furthermore, there is a lack of an appreciative approach to understanding Myanmar's disaster risk management policy, for example, from a historical overview. Using a descriptive research strategy, this paper examines the evolution of institutions and policies related to emergency planning and disaster risk management in Myanmar during 1885-2015. This paper employs a secondary data collection method, including historical archives, policies, reports and other documents, to establish a historical trajectory of the evolution of Myanmar disaster and emergency management-related policies in Myanmar in a 140-year timeframe from 1885 to 2015. While Cyclone Nargis has been a game changer in Myanmar's disaster management history, the results suggest that the pathways dependency theory remains the best predictor for long-term policy pathways. This research contributes to the study of disasters by documenting Myanmar's disaster policy history from the British Colonial period up to the pre-Cyclone Nargis period,

Keywords: Myanmar, disasters, disaster risk reduction, disaster policy, emergency management, disaster governance

JEL Classification: H84, Q01, Q59, Z18