"What Have We Achieved So Far? Reflections on 2nd anniversary of the Myanmar Centre for Responsible Business", 18 March 2015

It is nearly two years since we established the Myanmar Centre for Responsible Business (MCRB) with our partners at the Danish Institute for Human Rights...[H]ow do we know if we are making progress? First, it is clear to me that MCRB is firing on many cylinders. Its initiative to rank local companies on their performance (Transparency in Myanmar Enterprises or TiME)intrigued both the international companies I spoke to and the embassies. It seems the need to “know your local business partner” is one of the main drivers for foreign investors and one where MCRB is now very well positioned. And importantly, the TiME project continues to be a great way to engage Myanmar businesses in improving their own transparency with the public. Equally important, our joint work to look in detail at the potential and actual human rights impacts of specific industry sectors through our SWIAs programme has also formed a solid basis for ongoing local engagement...One question in my head before this visit was how local civil society perceived MCRB. I was encouraged to find that my colleagues’ efforts, including on the SWIAs and TiME, have convinced many organizations that we are indeed serious about disclosure and transparency – and that our activities benefit civil society as much as they do business or government. MCRB has clearly earned a significant profile and level of trust from all sides. And in terms of real impact, it was gratifying to see that the most frequent and complete responses to the recent BHRRC survey of international companies were in the three sectors where we have been active with SWIAs (Oil and Gas, Tourism and ICT).  This might be dismissed as chance had several respondents not cited to BHRRC the relevant SWIA as one of the main reasons they had developed in-country human rights policies...