Description:
"This report is the culmination of a year-long research project into the activities of civil society in
and around the ongoing Myanmar peace process. This includes the negotiations taking place in
the Union Peace Conference (UPC, also known as the 21st Century Panglong Conference
(UPC/21st CPC) the Union Peace Dialogue Joint Committee (UPDJC), and the Joint Implementation
Coordination Meeting (JICM). It also includes civil society peacebuilding outside of the peace
negotiations and parallel structures. The research project aimed to identify:
• the drivers of confict in Myanmar,
• the civil society actors involved in peacebuilding in Myanmar,
• the types of peacebuilding activities performed by these CSOs, and to classify these activities into types,
• the contributions of these activities to ofcial and unofcial peacebuilding,
• as well as any factors enabling and constraining civil society peacebuilding.
The research was funded by the Joint Peace Fund Myanmar, and was conducted in partnership
between the Enlightened Myanmar Research Foundation (EMReF) and the Inclusive Peace and
Transition Initiative (IPTI).3 The research team conducted interviews with 160 individuals from 123
organizations, including from civil society (including CSO networks and local and international
CSOs), donors, members of parliament, as well as representatives of EAOs, members of the Union
Peace Dialogue Joint Committee (UPDJC), members of political parties, and government representatives.4
The CSO sample was built by asking CSOs to nominate other CSOs working on peacebuilding,
hence the sample is shaped by these individuals’ understanding of peacebuilding in Myanmar. The
research was guided by the Civil Society and Peacebuilding (CS&PB) framework, developed by
Pafenholz and colleagues.5
In the context of Myanmar, the term peace process is generally used to refer to a sequence of
high-level peace negotiations and associated consultations and other supporting institutions. This
process began in 2011, under the government of U Thein Sein, and led to the Nationwide Ceasefre
Agreement (NCA) in 2015. The structure and sequence of the current negotiations were set out in
the NCA and the Framework for Political Dialogue (also negotiated and signed in 2015). These
negotiations are projected to lead to a permanent ceasefre, disarmament and demobilization of
non-state armed groups, government and constitutional reforms. Since 2015, the main forum for
these negotiations has been the UPC (21st CPC). The UPDJC acts as the secretariat for the UPC and
has responsibility for important aspects of the process such as pre-negotiations and consensus
building on issues to be brought before the UPC. This means that many issues are essentially
decided by the UPDJC, with the UPC frequently acting to confrm decisions taken in the UPDJC
(although this is not the sum total of its role)..."
Source/publisher:
Enlightened Myanmar Research Foundation (EMReF) (Yangon) and Inclusive Peace & Transition Initiative
Date of Publication:
2019-01-21
Date of entry:
2020-02-17
Grouping:
- Individual Documents
Category:
Countries:
Myanmar
Language:
English
Local URL:
Format:
pdf
Size:
3.31 MB (101 pages)
Resource Type:
text
Text quality:
- Good