The EU Energy Initiative - Partnership Dialogue Facility (EUEI PDF) is an instrument developed and
funded by a number of EU member states and the European Commission in the context of the EU
Energy Initiative (EUEI). The overall objective of the EUEI PDF is to support partner countries and
regions across Africa, Southeast Asia, Latin America and the Pacific in developing policies and
strategies for the promotion of access to energy.
Since early 2011, Myanmar has shown noticeable signs of potentially moving away from the
authoritarian rule. The government has committed itself to reforms and some significant steps have
been taken already. Furthermore, several European countries have recently sent high-level
delegations to Myanmar, pledging their support to the political, social and economic development of
the country. These changes are opening up new prospects for development cooperation between
Europe and Myanmar – potentially also in the energy sector.
Several countries and international organizations have started preliminary scoping activities. The
United Nations Development Programme UNDP has undertaken an energy sector scoping which is
scheduled for completion by May 2012. EUEI PDF has had discussions with the energy unit of the
UNDP Regional Centre. Both parties agreed that an initial scoping would be timely and that synergies
should be used to the fullest in order to allow for successful future donor coordination for a general
scoping of the energy sector in Myanmar. Given the low access rate to modern energy services and
the high dependency on biomass for cooking energy EUEI PDF and UNDP deemed it useful to provide
additional expertise to the general scoping in order to undertake more in-depth analysis on energy
access issues in general and biomass energy issues in particular.
The objective of the scoping mission therefore is to establish a sound information basis for future
(donor) activities in Myanmar from an energy sector policy perspective, to identify possible areas of
intervention, and to contribute to successful donor coordination. Recommendations for potential
future support of EU member states to Myanmar’s energy sector shall be provided and possible,
early stage activity options for the EUEI PDF in Myanmar be identified.
The present document reports on the Scoping Mission in Myanmar, undertaken by EUEI PDF in
cooperation with UNDP in the period from 22.04.-03.05.2012. The scoping consisted of the following
core steps:
? Preparatory analysis of documents & identification of stakeholders
? Meetings1
? Field visit
with representatives of parliament, ministries, NGOs, private sector & international
organisations
The assessments and findings drawn from the extensive literature analysis, the more than 20
meetings, and the field visit are presented as consolidated tables on “fact & figures” and “SWOTanalysis”
complemented by short texts. Recommendations for potential future development
interventions are provided in the form of separate “Option Papers”.