Thirteen years ago, Debbie Aung Din and Jim Taylor moved to Myanmar with their two children to launch Proximity Designs. The nonprofit aims to a make rural families more prosperous by designing, creating, and selling products that boost the productivity and incomes of farmers. The 555,000 households they have reached typically earn an additional $250 a year, which they invest in feeding their families, improving their farms, and sending their kids to school.

“We treat people as customers,” she said. “They’re not charity recipients or aid beneficiaries. It’s a relationship of mutual exchange and power. You see, if you give something away free you never know whether it’s used or valued.”

More systematic and long-term support, as well as increased cooperation between government, development partners, and enterprises, will be needed to support the rise of the social entrepreneurship sector beyond its nascent stage, [Henrich Dahm] said.

Read the full article by Catherine Cheney about Myanmar's social entrepreneurs from Devex International Development