Introduction The problem-driven PEA framework is designed to understand the drivers of change behind a specific development challenge, particularly the political and economic incentive systems that favor the status quo or proposed reforms. This lens is particularly useful to dissect the gender digital divide in Myanmar for three reasons. First, colonialism, geopolitics, and a military dictatorship conspired to create loyalty-based incentive systems in Myanmar that have long been opaque and often function in parallel to formal institutions and processes.32 Second, official governance structures and actors appear to be experiencing unprecedented fluidity, which warrants a closer look at the shifting rules of the game. Finally, discrepancies between evidence of gender inequality presented by local and international researchers and assertions by political leaders and government-organized “non-governmental” organizations (GONGOs) that equality has been achieved indicate that gender in Myanmar is an overtly politicized subject, lending itself well to an analysis of incentives for stasis versus change at both the household and macro level. Thus, a gendered PEA surfaces both new opportunities to embed policies, practices, and norms to close the gender digital divide— and new constraints that all stakeholders must consider carefully for progress to be possible. “Exploring the politics, history, social, and economic dimensions of a given development problem can help unpack the dynamics and incentives that structure actors’ choices and ultimately determine development success or failure.” —Lessons Learned Using USAID’s Applied Political Economy Analysis Framework, 2016 As framed by the USAID field guide,33 in examining systemic incentive structures, applied political economy analyses look closely at foundational factors, or the deeply embedded structures that define the legitimacy of a state, such as class systems and international borders, and characteristics of an economy, such as natural resource endowments; the rules of the game, or the formal and informal, state and nonstate institutions and rules that shape actors’ behaviors, relationships, incentives, and capacity for collective action, such as legal codes and social norms; and the here and now, or recent events and actions of individual and group stakeholders in response to shifting political and economic dynamics, such as leadership changes and international sanctions. In addition, this study draws heavily upon gender analysis tools that effectively highlight informal power dynamics that govern men and women’s differential access to and control over resources and decision-making processes. Stability / Security Education Prestige / Respect Employment Informal ICT Training Access Prescriptive Control Power Agricultural Safety and Security Online Professional Gender Norms “Women are more interested in sharing mobiles, and think it better for men to have phones because they leave the house. It doesn’t matter who holds the phone— the right person gets the message.” —Urban ICT industry representative Affordability Public vs Private Communication / Information Boys / Sons Incentives Employment Students Information Unpaid Care / Household Labor Ownership of ICT Device CSO Use of ICT Device ICT Industry Control Male Tourism / Service Formal ICT Training Office / Admin Job Businesses Girls / Daughters Productive vs Reproductive Roles Female Physical 32 33 Income / Money Thant Myint-U, The River of Lost Footsteps (New York: Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 2006). Cammack, USAID Applied Political Economy Analysis. Ending the Gender Digital Divide in Myanmar: A Problem-Driven Political Economy Assessment | 14