About the Myanmar Centre for Responsible Business

The Myanmar Centre for Responsible Business was active in Myanmar between 2013 and 2024, with the aim of encouraging responsible business activities by providing a trusted and impartial forum for dialogue, seminars, and briefings to relevant parties as well as access to international expertise and tools.

It was a joint initiative of the Institute for Human Rights and Business (IHRB) and the Danish Institute for Human Rights (DIHR). MCRB’s Theory of Change was intended to lead to Impacts relating to the Protect, Respect, Remedy framework of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, which underlay all of its activities.

The operating environment in Myanmar, following the military coup on February 1, 2021, became increasingly difficult, but MCRB was able to continue some activities. Since MCRB’s funding, provided by the governments of UK, Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, Netherlands and Ireland, ended in 2024, MCRB will no longer undertake new activity.

However, this website will remain online. It contains a history of MCRB’s work and its many publications. These may be useful for those working for responsible business in Myanmar, both now and in the future. They may also be valuable for those seeking to operate responsibly in other ‘challenging contexts’ who may find inspiration in the work of MCRB and its operating model. Researchers in the rapidly expanding field of business and human rights may also find them useful.

MCRB’s achievements included the development and implementation of a new approach, the Sector Wide Impact Assessment (SWIA), anchored in the UN Guiding Principles. These involved extensive field research, and were undertaken in the sectors of oil and gas, mining, tourism and ICT between 2013 and 2017. English versions of each have been downloaded over 10,000 times. They are also available in Burmese. A more limited assessment of the private security sector was published in 2022 (available in English, Burmese and Chinese). Further guidance was provided on the linkage between biodiversity, business and human rights in some of these sectors.

Each SWIA served to inform advocacy for human rights protection in the emerging regulatory framework, particularly investment regulation and Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA). They also provided elements of the agenda for local multistakeholder dialogue, such as the Myanmar Digital Rights Forum and the in-country working group of the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights.

Another MCRB innovation, the Pwint Thit Sa (Transparency in Myanmar Enterprises) report incentivised Myanmar companies to improve their disclosure, and recommended improvements to the corporate governance regulatory framework, drawing on international standards. Pwint Thit Sa reports will continue to be produced by MCRB’s partner Yever, and are intended to support the work of another MCRB partner, Myanmar Institute of Directors.

MCRB also researched the local context and convened and advocated for the adoption of international human rights standards on a wide range of issues, including discrimination against people with disabilities and LGBT+ communities. MCRB also researched and analysed how business and government should respect and protect the rights of Indigenous Peoples in Myanmar.

MCRB’s website contains resources on these and many other topics, by MCRB and other authors, including in Myanmar language.

Following the military coup in February 2021, MCRB provided guidance on heightened human rights due diligence to companies seeking to navigate multiple challenges, including whether to stay or leave, and facilitated collective action, including public statements.

Other collective action initiatives which MCRB contributed to include the Myanmar Sustainable Business Network, the work of EuroCham Myanmar on heightened human rights due diligence, and the EU-funded MADE in Myanmar initiative in the garment sector. MCRB also supported the continued activities of local civil society groups, particular labour rights defenders and those working on disability rights, and facilitated their engagement with business.

While MCRB’s activities in Myanmar have wound up, the UK entity, MCRB Ltd will continue to exist. MCRB Ltd is a private limited company registered in the UK (registration 08732191) incorporated in October 2013, whose single shareholding is held by the Institute of Human Rights and Business Ltd, one of MCRB’s founding members. Vicky Bowman, MCRB’s Director and one of the Directors of MCRB Ltd, will continue to be available for guidance and media commentary on responsible business in Myanmar, as well as about the previous work of MCRB. She can be contacted here.

The Directors of MCRB Ltd would like to thank all those who contributed to the success of Myanmar Centre for Responsible Business and engaged in its work, particularly all those who worked in the Centre or passed through its doors as interns, advisers and partners. We are grateful to our funders, above all the UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office, whose willingness to collaborate with flexible pooled funding was essential to the Centre’s success.

We also thank the companies, civil society groups, business associations, government officials and diplomat missions and UN agencies who came together to make responsible business real in Myanmar, and put the UN Guiding Principles into practice.

We are confident that, despite the challenges, this work will continue, incentivised by new regulatory approaches including the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD). We believe that the analysis, regulation and networks that MCRB has helped to build can contribute to Myanmar’s democratic federal future, and that the lessons learned can be shared far beyond Myanmar’s borders.