Good practice

Beyond Access – Library-Based Digital Literacy Programme (Myanmar)

Myanmar · Yangon · See the Myanmar profile

Beyond Access built digital literacy across 100+ Myanmar libraries, reaching 63,000+ people and addressing a 2:1 gender gap via Tech Age Girls; an EnCompass evaluation confirmed skill gains, though the programme was disrupted by the 2021 military coup.

63,000+

Library visitors seeking digital literacy

34,000

Students reached via Ericsson partnership

600

Scholarships for girls

Details

Maturity: Discontinued
Promoter: Beyond Access (IREX) / Myanmar Book Aid and Preservation Foundation (MBAPF)
Period: 2014–2021
Keywords: digital literacy, libraries, youth, gender, mobile skills

Context

Beginning in 2014, Beyond Access (IREX) and the Myanmar Book Aid and Preservation Foundation deployed a digital-inclusion programme across 100+ libraries, with a Mobile Information Literacy curriculum and the Tech Age Girls initiative addressing a 2:1 male-to-female technology-usage gap.

Results

Over 63,000 people visited programme libraries; 39% sought to improve technical skills and 18% used the library to search for jobs. The Ericsson Connect to Learn partnership reached 31 schools, 310 teachers and 34,000 students, with 600 scholarships for girls. IFLA recognised the programme as a success story in 2018.

Conclusions

Activities were severely disrupted following the February 2021 military coup; pre-coup results are well-evidenced but post-2021 continuity cannot be confirmed.

Implementation

Implementation detail (cost, timeline, staffing, conditions for success) is not yet available for this practice.

Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

C-NAPSE web research — accessed 2026-06-27
Beyond Access (IREX) / Myanmar Book Aid and Preservation Foundation (MBAPF) — accessed 2026-06-27
1 World Connected project profile — accessed 2026-06-27
IFLA success story 2018 — accessed 2026-06-27
EnCompass LLC evaluation — accessed 2026-06-27
Ericsson partnership report — accessed 2026-06-27

Quality score: 72/100

How is this calculated?

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported

Top 31% in this catalogue (573 scored practices)

Scores cluster high, so position within the catalogue is often more telling than the number alone.

Evaluation

Evaluated by C-NAPSE

Score profile — the dimensions behind the score — how it's computed

Innovation level3/5

Mobile-first MIL curriculum adapted for a smartphone-dominant context, combined with the gender-targeted TAGs component and multi-partner public library network, was novel for Southeast Asia.

Sustainability (ongoing)0/1

Scored 0: programme activities were severely disrupted by the February 2021 military coup; prior to the coup the model was expanding, but post-2021 continuity is unconfirmed.

Evaluation evidence1/1

Independent evaluation by EnCompass LLC; IFLA recognition (2018); 1 World Connected project documentation; multiple independent academic and professional library sources.

Demonstrated reach1/1

63,000+ documented library visits for digital literacy; 31 schools and 34,000 students via Ericsson partnership; 100+ libraries across the country.

Documented learning1/1

MIL curriculum and TAGs model documented and shared via IFLA, IREX, and 1 World Connected; findings inform library-based digital inclusion approaches globally.

Cite this

Evidoria. Beyond Access – Library-Based Digital Literacy Programme (Myanmar). Persistent ID: a40ff1e9-f8be-4ad1-898f-166616948a4e.

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