At the simplest level, equity means fairness. We are interested in equity of access to opportunities and ‘resources’. When we refer to opportunity, or resources, we are talking about things like education, health, employment, protection under the law, natural resources such as water and energy, and systems of decision-making.
We want to see equity (or fairness) for all Myanmar people. This means that first we have to understand who already has easy access to resources and who has limited or no access. Then we have to work to try and increase access to opportunities and resources for those who have limited or no access.
In the picture, the people on the right need more support than the person on the left if they are to be able to get the same amount of fruit from the tree.
If all three people were treated the same, then this would happen:
The people on the right would still have less access to the fruit than the person on the left.
If we think about access to health, education, employment and other basic services—not just fruit in a tree—the same theory holds true. Some people have easy access to these things, other people do not.
Extracted from Paung Ku – Bridging Divides.
