Not long ago, 46-year-old Than Than Win and her husband eked out a living by working the fields of landowners in Kangyi, a small village about half a day's journey from Rangoon. Along with many of Burma's poor, Ms Win had little means to improve her life or those of her six children.

But Ms Win says receiving microfinance loans to buy a flock of ducks through the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in 1998 changed her life.