Business Innovation Facility, Myanmar

Asper was selected by PwC to provide leadership, technical delivery, programme management, staff management and local capacity building and quality management for the 5.5 year UK Department for International Development (DFID) in Myanmar. BIF is part of a commitment to build stronger partnerships with business.

BIF was scaled up following a successful pilot which ran from 2010 to 2013 and was operating in Myanmar, Malawi and Nigeria. The scale up builds on lessons learned from the BIF pilot. It aims to improve the performance of market systems that provide livelihoods and access to basic services to many poor people.

BIF Myanmar identified the garment, tourism and bamboo sectors as markets with high potential to benefit poor producers, employees or consumer at scale. It then sought to understand what is constraining these markets from meeting their potential to serve the poor and, through the provision of technical assistance, support businesses, or other market players, to innovate in ways that address these constraints.