Debbie Aung Din is Co-founder of Proximity Designs, a social business operating in Myanmar that delivers affordable and innovative products and services for farm families living in poverty. Aung Din has been engaged in design and economic research in Myanmar since 1995. She has also lived and worked in Mississippi, Cambodia and Indonesia. She has worked for NGOs, USAID, the UN and the World Bank. Aung Din holds a MA from Harvard University in public policy and development economics. She received social entrepreneurship awards from the Schwab Foundation (World Economic Forum) and the Skoll Foundation.
Proximity Designs is a non-profit social business operating in Myanmar since 2004 and focused on the small farm sector. Proximity has developed a unique platform composed of financing, small farm irrigation technologies and climate smart agronomy services – that delivers affordable and innovative products to small farmers in their journey out of poverty. Products and services are specially designed to support regenerative farming while boosting farm productivity and household incomes by an average of USD 250 per year. Proximity’s operations serve more than 100,000 new farm customers annually. Since 2004, Proximity small-farm services have spanned over 10,000 villages and enabled four million people in rural Myanmar to grow their farm enterprises and afford basic food, health care and education for their families.