Section 2 | FOUNDATIONAL FACTORS FOUNDATIONAL FACTORS: System Legitimacy This section looks briefly at foundational factors of the political economy system in Myanmar that shape the institutions and individuals that created and maintain Figure 3: Map of Major Linguistic Groups in Myanmar, 2014 the gender digital divide. They include the essentials of people and place (namely, demographics, conflict-affected areas and the natural environment); the technology ecosystem; gender and power; and the legal environment. 2.1 People and Place DEMOGRAPHICS According to the provisional results of the 2014 Population Census, nearly one-third (28 percent) of the population of 52 million is under age fifteen—a cohort that, provided equitable ICT access and digital skills, will mature into 14 million digital natives.66 Females outnumber males by nearly 2 million, with more women than men in every age cohort over age fourteen. The total fertility rate (2.2) and average age at first marriage (twenty-six for women and twenty-seven for men) are more characteristic of high-income countries. Over 70 percent of the population lives in rural areas. Myanmar has a rich demographic and historical tapestry that includes dozens of ethnic groups that speak more than a hundred languages, and multilingualism complicates access, skills, and perceived benefit for a third of the population. For example, the largest ethnic group after the majority Bamar (68 percent) is Shan (9 percent). However, the 5.8 million people who reside in Shan State represent more than a dozen different ethnolinguistic groups. For millions of citizens of Myanmar who speak and read only their native language, ICT use is restricted to voice calls and texts because the vast majority of online information is available in Myanmar language (sometimes referred to as Burmese) and, more widely, English—offering no benefit to nonspeakers. Myanmar is also marked by enormous disparities in wealth and human development that affect the affordability of ICT access and skills. Asian Development Bank data indicate that the gross national income (GNI) per capita was $1,270 in 2014, but there are significant geographic and rural/urban variations.67 For example, according to United Nations ■ Bamar ■ Chin, Kachin, Lisu, Lahu, Development Program data, the poverty incidence in Shan State was 33.1 percent in 2010. ■ Chinese, Karen At the same time, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that approximately 42 ■ Shan, Khamti percent of children under five in Southern Shan were stunted in 2009 and 2010—giving the area one of the highest levels of malnutrition in Southeast Asia.68 While most statistics on poverty feature non-disaggregated household data, proxies such as labor-force ■ Thai ■ Wa, Palaung, Mon66 participation, wage disparities, and time use indicate that women are disproportionately affected by poverty.69 Adapted from US Central Intelligence Agency, “An Ethnolinguistic Map of Myanmar,” May 2014 Ministry of Immigration and Population, The 2014 Myanmar Population and Housing Census: The Union Report. 67 ADB, Basic Statistics 2016. 68 Shannon Wilson and Naw Eh Mwee, Food and Nutrition Security in Myanmar (Washington, DC: USAID, 2013). 69 ADB et al., Gender Equality and Women’s Rights in Myanmar. 65 66 Ending the Gender Digital Divide in Myanmar: A Problem-Driven Political Economy Assessment | 26