Librarian's Choice

အဓိကအကြောင်းအရာ

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Title: Local Economic Governance in Myanmar (English)
Description/subject: "Local economic governance is a critical dimension in Myanmar?s drive to reform, decentralize and achieve more inclusive and stable development. How businesses and individuals engage with the government in their income and revenue generation efforts and creating employment in the local communities in the process is pertinent to larger economic reforms that are being implemented and further proposed by government and experts. In the context of a country coming out of decades of military rule, any reform that can lead to greater transparency, fairness, and improved state-society relations will contribute significantly to the country?s long term democratic transition and economic prosperity. More specifically, reforming economic governance at the local level is essential if the benefits of Myanmar?s transition are to reach the majority of the country?s people."
Jared Bissinger
Source/publisher: Asia Foundation
Date of publication: 2016-02-22
Date of entry/update: 2016-03-06
Type: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 613.67 KB
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Title: Schooling and Conflict: Ethnic Education and Mother Tongue-based Teaching in Myanmar (Burmese မန်မာဘာသာ)
Description/subject: "Education and language policies and practices are at the heart of ethnic conflicts in Myanmar. For decades, the state has emphasized a centralized, Myanmar language only education system that many ethnic groups felt provided no place for their own languages to be practiced which by extension, threatened their cultures and ethnic identities. The country?s democratic transition of the past few years, however, has enabled issues of mother tongue-based education (MTB) to be discussed more openly, and growing acceptance of decentralization within the government at all levels and among the wider public is providing an opening for consideration of how MTB education can be productively integrated into the education system. In this context, The Foundation is pleased to present this research report on the state of MTB education in contested areas in Myanmar, specifically in the Kachin, Mon and Karen context, by Ashley South and Marie Lall who have long been engaged in researching this important topic."
Ashley South, Marie Lall
Source/publisher: Asia Foundation
Date of publication: 2016-02-22
Date of entry/update: 2016-03-06
Type: Individual Documents
Language: Burmese (မြန်မာဘာသာ)
Format : pdf
Size: 3.11 MB
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Title: Schooling and Conflict: Ethnic Education and Mother Tongue-based Teaching in Myanmar (English)
Description/subject: "Education and language policies and practices are at the heart of ethnic conflicts in Myanmar. For decades, the state has emphasized a centralized, Myanmar language only education system that many ethnic groups felt provided no place for their own languages to be practiced which by extension, threatened their cultures and ethnic identities. The country?s democratic transition of the past few years, however, has enabled issues of mother tongue-based education (MTB) to be discussed more openly, and growing acceptance of decentralization within the government at all levels and among the wider public is providing an opening for consideration of how MTB education can be productively integrated into the education system. In this context, The Foundation is pleased to present this research report on the state of MTB education in contested areas in Myanmar, specifically in the Kachin, Mon and Karen context, by Ashley South and Marie Lall who have long been engaged in researching this important topic."
Ashley South, Marie Lall
Source/publisher: Asia Foundation
Date of publication: 2016-02-22
Date of entry/update: 2016-03-06
Type: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 1.84 MB
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Title: Beyond the Toolkit: Supporting Peace Processes in Asia
Description/subject: "Beyond the Toolkit: Supporting Peace Processes in Asia posits that existing peace process support models do not reflect what we know about the nature of conflict, how it ends, and how peace processes are sustained and peace consolidated. The new paper highlights a more politically-informed approach to supporting peace, including examples from the Foundation?s activities in the Philippines, Myanmar and Nepal. This is the fourth paper in the "Working Politically in Practice" paper series.
Lisa Denney, Patrick Barron
Source/publisher: Asia Foundation
Date of publication: 2015-12-17
Date of entry/update: 2016-03-06
Type: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 548 KB
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Title: Videos featuring Johan Galtung (videos)
Description/subject: Videos featuring conflict analysis and resolution pioneer Johan Galtung
Source/publisher: Youtube
Date of entry/update: 2016-03-02
Type: Websites/Multiple Documents
Language: English
Local URL:
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Title: Videos featuring John Paul Lederach (videos)
Description/subject: Videos featuring conflict analysis academic and practitioner John Paul Lederach
Source/publisher: Youtube
Date of entry/update: 2016-03-02
Type: Websites/Multiple Documents
Language: English
Local URL:
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Title: Videos of founders of the field of conflict analysis and peace research (videos)
Description/subject: "In 2003 we started to undertake a project we had long talked about and planned, namely to record visually the recollections and views of some of the individual scholars and practitioners who initiated the field of conflict analysis and peace research in the 1950s and 1960s.... Many of these ?parents of the field” were now in their 70s and 80s, but most were still working and researching. Some were continuing to teach the next generation of students in the field, while others were still pursuing the ideal - first enunciated by one of the pioneers from the 1940s, Kurt Lewin - of becoming ?practical theorists,” that is, scholars who actually used some of their skills and knowledge to help resolve conflicts in the real world. The original idea was limited in scope, namely to video-tape interviews with 15 ?key? figures in the development of ?conflict and peace research.” The issue of what to call the field [or the discipline] became one of the questions on which we sought enlightenment, as it rapidly became clear that the early days had seen much discussion about what the new field of study should be called, what its main focus should be, and how it might best have an impact on the world of problems and policy...".....Interviews with Chadwick Alger, Landrum Bolling, Elise Boulding, John Burton, Anthony De Reuck, Morton Deutsch, Asbjorne Eide, Roger Fisher, Johan Galtung, Walter Isard, Herbert Kelman, Chris Mitchell, James O?Connell, Betty Reardon, Paul Rogers, Gene Sharp, J. David Singer, Paul Wahrhaftig, Ralph White, Peter Wallensteen.
Source/publisher: School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution via Youtube
Date of entry/update: 2016-03-02
Type: Websites/Multiple Documents
Language: English
Local URL:
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Title: Land Confiscations and Collective Action in Myanmar?s Dawei Special Economic Zone Area
Description/subject: Abstract: "The recent political and economic liberalization in Burma/Myanmar, while indicative of some positive steps toward democratization after decades of authoritarian rule, has simultaneously increased foreign and domestic investments and geared the economy toward industrialization and large-scale agriculture. In rural areas, new institutional frameworks governing land, including a new Farmland Law (2012) and Vacant, Fallow and Virgin Lands Management Law (2012) have effectively created a land market through private land-use property rights and a new registration system with new land administration bodies. In a country permeated by legacies of corruption, coercion and military-linked cronies, land governance procedures and implementation tend to favour the more powerful and well-connected, with little protection mechanism for the majority smallholding farmers in the country. The Dawei Special Economic Zone (SEZ), in the southern Thanintharyi division of Myanmar, to be developed trilateraly with Thai, Myanmar and Japanese investment, is set to become one of the largest industrial zones in Southeast Asia, covering an area of approximately 200km. The project plan includes a deep sea port, industrial estate, power plant and cross-border road and rail link to Thailand. The development of the SEZ, together with land speculation in surrounding areas and other confiscations linked to agricultural concessions, mining and military constructions has been met with collective mobilizations. The paper argues that although resistance against land confiscations are increasingly linked to global trends, such reactions are also responding to an expanding opportunity structure in the national political context. Collective action in the Dawei area takes advantage of histories of activism linked to democratic movements as well as human rights repertoires, social networks and trainings across the border in Thailand. Smallholding farmers, in alliance with activists, are also contesting land confiscations conducted by the military in the 1990s, encouraged by a greater political liberalization and testing the grounds for protest and engagement with the state. These contestations have implications for democratization and the transition of state-society relations more broadly. Although embedded locally, this process engages with transnational networks and alliances as well as global frameworks such as human rights, livelihoods and sustainable development."
Yukari Sekine
Source/publisher: Transnational Institute (TNI)
Date of publication: 2016-02-04
Date of entry/update: 2016-03-01
Type: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 490.57 KB
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Title: Joseph Siglitz (videos on economic issues)
Joseph Siglitz
Source/publisher: Youtube
Date of entry/update: 2016-03-01
Type: Websites/Multiple Documents
Language: English
Local URL:
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Title: Policies for Shared Prosperity in Myanmar (English, Burmese မြန်မာဘာသာ)
Description/subject: INTRODUCTION: "The November 8, 2015 elections in Myanmar marked a historic milestone in the country?s political and economic transition that began in 2011. Incoming policy makers are preparing to pick up the baton and deliver on the people?s strong aspirations for a harmonious and prosperous Myanmar. In this series of policy notes, the World Bank Group seeks to promote dialogue on critical development challenges and on options for policies and reforms that can contribute to shared prosperity for the people of Myanmar. Myanmar has strong medium-term growth potential. Efforts to open up and liberalize the economy over the past 4 years have revealed pent up demand, brought in new investments, and increased productivity from a very low base. Between 2011 and 2014 Myanmar?s economy grew at an average real rate of 7 percent per year, which is among the fastest in East Asia, and comparable to other high performing countries in their initial phase of liberalization. In the coming years, further removal of economic controls could help Myanmar to maintain a strong pace of growth. Myanmar has a real opportunity in ensuring that growth is also inclusive. This not only means sustaining a strong pace of growth, but doing so through a diversified economy that can absorb the labor force into higher productivity sectors. The agriculture sector, which suffers from low productivity, contributing on average only 10-15 percent to annual real GDP growth over the past 4 years, employs over half of the country?s labor force. The manufacturing and construction sectors on the other hand, which have the highest value added per unit of labor, employ only 10-15 percent of the labor force. Policies that can enable a structural shift to more productive and labor intensive activities could make a big dent on poverty and inequality in Myanmar. These would include expanding access to essential public services. This could enable a bigger share of the population to benefit from the agglomeration of economic activities around Myanmar?s growth poles, namely Yangon and Mandalay, which account for roughly 35 percent of national GDP. The sound governance and use of Myanmar?s natural resource wealth are also critical to inclusive growth. Around 10 percent of Myanmar?s official GDP is derived from natural resources, though some estimate unofficial trade in natural resources at more than 20 percent of official GDP. This not only concentrates wealth from non-renewable national assets in the hands of a few, but also finances conflicts, which have created vicious cycles of poverty that are geographically and ethnically concentrated. Policy reforms since 2011 have started to promote inclusion so that a growing share of Myanmar?s people can take advantage of new opportunities and benefit from economic growth. Higher tax collections from non-agriculture sectors and rising natural resource rents have enabled Myanmar to reprioritize public spending towards critical economic and social service needs. Foreign exchange, trade and investment liberalization have opened up economic opportunities and the space for investment beyond a small group of highly protected sectors. Increased public sector transparency and decentralization have started to gradually bring the state closer to the people. Given this context, how can Myanmar advance reforms to close the disparities across its geography, ethnic communities, and income groups; and to promote productivity and competitiveness? This is the question that this series of policy notes, ?All aboard! Policies for shared prosperity in Myanmar,” aims to generate debate and ideas. The theme ?All aboard” is meant to reflect inclusivity and imminent departure on a positive journey. The policy notes focus on six interconnected areas that are likely to be high priorities for shared prosperity (figure 1). The first is on closing the gap in access to social services for improving Myanmar?s human development outcomes. This could help to strengthen the productivity and employability of Myanmar?s current and future labor force, which is the critical input to inclusive growth and a precondition to success in all the other areas. The second policy note is on growing together by reducing poverty in rural areas. Policies to boost agriculture productivity and accelerate the delivery of essential services in rural areas, where they lag the most, could help to supply the much needed labor and food for the rapidly expanding industrial, manufacturing and service sectors. Investment in higher productivity sectors is also likely to require breaking business as usual to foster competitiveness and a dynamic environment for private sector growth across the country, which are discussed in the third policy note. These include policies that are targeted at reducing the costs of doing business and engaging in international trade. The relative impact of these could be enormous in terms of incentivizing private sector investments, expanding access to economic opportunities for rural and urban populations, and diversifying the sources of growth. Enabling these to drive major structural transformations in the economy is likely to require policy reforms in two important areas. The fourth policy note therefore looks at options to expand Myanmar?s ability for financing the future through an open, modern, and inclusive financial system. This is important not only for channeling savings to large private investments, but also to finance public sector operations and service delivery, facilitate the expansion of international trade, and enable the transfer of increased remittances to rural areas. The fifth policy note is on energizing Myanmar by enhancing access to sustainable energy for all. Myanmar?s growing economy will need more energy than is currently supplied ? not only for productive sectors, but also for the delivery of public services across the country."
Habib Rab + team
Source/publisher: World Bank
Date of publication: 2016-02-23
Date of entry/update: 2016-03-01
Type: Individual Documents
Language: English, Burmese (မြန်မာဘာသာ)
Format : pdf pdf pdf pdf
Size: 1.5 MB 2.1 MB 1.37 MB 1.57 MB
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Title: Gender & conflict analysis toolkit for peacebuilders
Description/subject: About this toolkit: "The gender & conflict analysis toolkit for peacebuilders provides practical guidance to peacebuilding practitioners on using gender and conflict analysis. Integrating gender into conflict analysis can increase the inclusivity and effectiveness of peacebuilding interventions. It does this by enhancing the understanding of underlying gender power relations and how these influence and are affected by armed conflict and peacebuilding. It sheds light on the drivers of conflict, (potential) agents and opportunities for peace, as well as practices of exclusion and discrimination including in peacebuilding interventions themselves. There are some very useful gender and conflict analysis resources available (see list of references, p. 58) but few are short and practical. Conciliation Resources? intention in producing this toolkit is to fill a gap in guidance available to peacebuilding practitioners on how to do gender-sensitive conflict analysis and to provide this in an accessible way, sharing insights from our own work. The toolkit can be used in a variety of ways: to deepen understanding of the concept of gender; to conduct peace and conflict analysis in a given context; or as conflict analysis training materials. The toolkit consists of three main parts: 2 Part I (p. 8) explores the concept of gender and its relevance to peacebuilding. It also details the ?what?, ?why?, and ?how? of gender-sensitive conflict analysis. The textboxes included provide examples of how Conciliation Resources engages with gender and the lessons it has drawn from mainstreaming gender in its work, including in relation to conflict analysis. 2 Part II (p. 24) consists of a list of guiding questions on gender-sensitive conflict analysis. It is illustrative of the types of questions that could be asked, rather than an exhaustive checklist to work through. The first set of questions focuses on how to go about Conciliation Resources | Gender & conflict analysis toolkit 5 gender-sensitive conflict analysis, while the second set focuses on what to analyse. Please note that these questions are not necessarily meant to be taken straight from the document and used in conflict analysis workshops; rather, they are to be reflected upon in advance of a conflict analysis exercise. 2 Part III (p. 32) provides a set of exercises to help explore gender in relation to peacebuilding. These exercises can be used to further understanding of gender and its relevance to the field of peace and security, and/or to explore gender in relation to peace and conflict in a particular context. A quick summary of the key points of the toolkit can be found in the section ?Gender & conflict analysis: the essentials? (p. 6). This toolkit is based on Conciliation Resources? experience in conflict-affected contexts and draws on our participatory approach to conflict analysis. It was developed over a two-year time frame and informed by research, reflection and discussion, involving various colleagues and partners and also numerous external experts (see Acknowledgements for further details). This is a first edition of the gender & conflict analysis toolkit for peacebuilders. We aim to further test and update this document in light of further experience and evidence-based learning. Please note that the toolkit was written with an organisation like Conciliation Resources in mind: an international peacebuilding NGO with a strong focus on inclusiveness and support to peace processes. It aims to complement rather than replace existing tools for conflict analysis. While gender-sensitive conflict analysis is key to gender-sensitive programming, on its own it is not likely to produce gender-sensitive programming. Reflection and action is required, for example, to ensure buy-in for work at all levels of peacebuilding organisations, to promote inclusion in all the phases of peacebuilding, and to address specific risks in practice, or to engender data..."
Source/publisher: Conciliation Resources
Date of publication: 2015-11-30
Date of entry/update: 2016-02-24
Type: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 1.23 MB
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Title: ?Nationwide? pact turns into disaster
Description/subject: "The surge in fighting in northern Shan State in recent weeks has highlighted what a disaster the nationwide ceasefire agreement has been. International organisations who supported it must answer questions about their role, but right now urgent help is required for those suffering the consequences...Hostilities have broken out between previously cooperating ethnic armed groups ? the Ta?Ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) and the Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS) ? in the wake of last October?s ceasefire part with the government and the Tatmadaw. While the RCSS signed the agreement, the TNLA was excluded from doing so by the government. The greatest fears about the NCA have become manifest: Rather than being a step toward peace, the NCA has exacerbated conflict in this country, split ethnic relations and started what has been described as a ?new war”..."
Fiona Macgregor
Source/publisher: "Myanmar Times"
Date of publication: 2016-02-19
Date of entry/update: 2016-02-22
Type: Individual Documents
Language: English
Local URL:
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Title: Study of Upland Customary Communal Tenure in Chin and Shan States - Outline of a Pilot Approach towards Cadastral Registration of Customary Communal Land Tenure in Myanmar
Description/subject: Outline of a Pilot Approach towards Cadastral Registration of Customary Communal Land Tenure in Myanmar....."...The objectives of the study were to identify legal ways using the Farmland Law 2012 and Association Law 2014 to protect through land registration the untitled agricultural uplands, including the fallows of upland shifting cultivation that are possessed by ethnic nationalities that manage their lands under customary communal tenure. The risk of possible alienation of the fallows through agribusiness concessions posed by the Vacant, Fallow and Virgin Lands Management Law, 2012 (VFV) spurred the study. Customary communal rights in Myanmar are enforceable by customary law in areas, where no outside interference takes place. In the future it may be given a legal backing in statutory law, if the intentions of the draft Land Use Policy of mid 2015 are operationalised ensuring equity in access to land and protection of upland cultures and livelihood. Customary land management of rotating fallow agriculture or shifting cultivation constitutes land management at the landscape level. It secures preservation of cultural identity and in most places it establishes access rights of all resident villagers to shares of the land and leaves no one landless. Rotational fallow management is an institutionalized resource management technology at a species, ecosystem, and landscape level, ensuring ecological security and food security and providing a social safety net. Fallows are important for wildlife and biodiversity, for production of non timber forest products, for watershed hydrology, and for carbon sequestration. Communal tenure can provide security of tenure as well as the institutional mechanisms for future sustainable land use planning and climate change mitigation initiatives. The study has focused on cultivated and fallow land in the uplands. It did not include a study of customary communal tenure of forests and grazing lands. A customary land registration of these ecosystems so far would need to be pursued under different laws. The study has covered only the customary communal tenure of rotating fallow agriculture in Chin State and the more permanent land combined with shifting cultivation use in Northern Shan State. A major limitation of the study has been the fieldwork?s short duration..."
Kirsten Ewers Andersen
Source/publisher: Land Core Group
Date of publication: 2016-02-19
Date of entry/update: 2016-02-20
Type: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 2.82 MB
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Title: Karen Unity Building Initiatives -Towards Sustainable Peace in Myanmar
Description/subject: A CPCS Learning Paper....."In light of ongoing unity-building measures in Myanmar," Karen Unity Building Initiatives: Towards sustainable peace in Myanmar" examines the Karen history of conflict, seeking to analyse the push for greater unity amongst the Karen. The paper explores Karen opinions and experiences of unity building, derived from conversations with Karen individuals from various communities, civil society organisations (CSOs), armed groups, political parties and government offices. "Karen Unity Building Initiatives" also draws upon on information from conversations held with 111 community members across Karen State who shared their opinions on the current peace process in Myanmar in 2014. These conversations formed the basis of the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies publication "Listening to Communities: Karen State".
Quinn Davis
Source/publisher: Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies (CPCS),
Date of publication: 2015-12-31
Date of entry/update: 2016-02-20
Type: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 486.54 KB
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Title: A SOUND BASIS FOR LAND REFORM
Description/subject: "The new National Land Use Policy is a positive step, but its principles need to be enshrined in law to protect the vulnerable from land grabs and forced evictions... Disputes over land ownership and use are a major source of social and economic tension in Myanmar as it grapples with political transition and economic development. Irresponsible investment against the interests and wishes of communities which results in the widespread violation of land-related human rights has been allowed for too long. The new National Land Use Policy (NLUP), released in the final days of the outgoing parliament in late January, is a welcome step towards improving the governance of land tenure. The NLUP could not come sooner. An influx of investment has increased demand for land. Poor regulation and lax implementation mean that investors continue to be granted land obtained illegally or under dubious circumstances. Many communities have suddenly found themselves trespassing on land on which they have lived for generations. They are routinely charged with trespassing while their environment and livelihoods are degraded. Experience from around the world has shown than human rights principles should frame land law advocacy. In a positive step, the NLUP uses rights-based language in its basic principles. It refers directly to human rights standards in chapters related to land acquisition, the land use rights of ethnic minorities and is framed with explicit reference to the equality of men and women. On its own, though, the policy is not enough. Myanmar?s land laws do not adequately protect these rights. Laws enacted in 2012, such as the Foreign Investment Law, the Vacant, Fallow and Virgin Land Law and the Farmland Law, were designed to increase investment, encourage large-scale land use and promote agricultural income. Under this system fewer than half the population have land title. The rest are vulnerable to land grabs and forced evictions, which result in further human rights abuses as people are dispossessed of their means of livelihood and habitat..."
Daniel Aguirre
Source/publisher: "Frontier Myanmar"
Date of publication: 2016-02-19
Date of entry/update: 2016-02-20
Type: Individual Documents
Language: English
Local URL:
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Title: CLOSING THE GAP: Strategies and scale needed to secure rights and save forests
Description/subject: "...the customary rights of communities and Indigenous Peoples to forests, rangelands, and wetlands are often not written down or shown on government maps, but they are a fundamental reality. They cover more than 50 percent of the world?s land surface, yet new research by RRI in 2015 showed that just 10 percent of the world?s land is legally recognized as community-owned.2 This means that governments formally recognize communities? ownership rights to less than 20 percent of the land they have historically owned. This huge gap means that vast areas of the world remain open to contest. Disputes over land ownership are a major driver of conflict: the unclear status of customary rights has played a role in all but three of the 30-plus armed conflicts in Africa between 1990 and 2009.3 Even though the constitutions of many countries recognize customary law, and recognize customary rights in statutory law, implementation is often weak or nonexistent.,,"
Fred Pearce
Source/publisher: Rights and Resources Initiative
Date of publication: 2016-02-03
Date of entry/update: 2016-02-04
Type: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 3.31 MB
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Title: The Diversity and Dynamics of Shifting Cultivation: Myths, Realities, and Policy Implications
Description/subject: "...This publication highlights the multifaceted, dynamic characterstics of shifting cultivation and identifies socioeconomic and policy factors that affect shifting cultivators. It challenges prevailing misconceptions by highlighting the diversity, myths, and realities of shifting cultivation.The concluding section summarizes reasons for supporting agroecological principles and livelihood security and avoiding historical mistakes. It also draws on insights based on field research and makes recommendations for policy change as well as other opportunities for supporting sustainable and equitable land use, including participatory community-based approaches for integrating local knowledge in research and development..."
Lori Ann Thrupp, Susanna Hecht, John Browder
Source/publisher: WORLD RESOURCES INSTITUTE
Date of publication: 1997-08-31
Date of entry/update: 2016-02-01
Type: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 3.08 MB
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Title: The Meaning of Land in Myanmar
Description/subject: Contents: What is land and why is it important? ... Why is land such a burning issue in Myanmar? ... How is land related to debates about development?... Is there a human right to land?... What steps are people in Myanmar taking to express and assert their human right to land?
Jenny Franco, Hannah Twomey, Khu Khu Ju, Pietje Vervest, Tom Kramer
Source/publisher: Transnational Institute (TNI)
Date of publication: 2015-10-31
Date of entry/update: 2016-02-01
Type: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 365.33 KB
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Title: Women & Local Leadership - Leadership Journeys of Myanmar?s Female Village Tract/Ward Administrators
Description/subject: "This report documents leadership journeys of women in local leadership roles in Myanmar, in particular of Myanmar?s small cohort of female village tract/ward administrators (VT/WAs). The report is based on field interviews with 15 female VT/WAs undertaken in June and July 2015, and data from the UNDP Myanmar Local Governance Mapping (LGM) conducted between late 2013 and early 2015. Complementing previous studies on social norms and women?s participation in governance in Myanmar, in this report the lives of a number of existing local female leaders and their experiences with local election and leadership take center stage, granting insight in how barriers to women?s participation can be overcome and female local leadership can be expanded..."
Source/publisher: UNDP Myanmar
Date of publication: 2016-01-30
Date of entry/update: 2016-02-01
Type: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 2.07 MB
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Title: Myanmar?s Initial Report on United Nations Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
Description/subject: Advance Unedited Version.....Contents:- Part ? I: 1. Introduction; 2. General Information... Part ? II: 3. Purpose, definition, principles, general obligations ... Part ? III: Purpose, Definition, Principles, General Obligations: 4. Equality and non-discrimination; 5. Awareness raising; 6. Accessibility; 7. Right to life; 8. Situations of risk and humanitarian emergencies; 9. Equal recognition before the law; 10. Access to justice; 11. Liberty and security of persons; 12. Freedom from torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; 13. Freedom from exploitation, violence and abuse; 14. Protecting the integrity of the person; 15. Liberty of movement and nationality; 16. Living independently and being included in the community; 17. Personal mobility; 18. Freedom of expression and opinion, and access to information; 19. Respect for privacy; 20. Respect for home and the family; 21. Education; 22. Health; 23. Habilitation and Rehabilitation; 24. Work and employment ; 25. Adequate standard of living and social protection; 26. Participation in political and public life; 27. Participation in cultural life, recreation, leisure and sport ... Part ? IV: 28. Women with disabilities; 29. Children with disabilities... Part ? V: 30. Statistics and data collection; 31. International cooperation; 32. National implementation and monitoring; Conclusion.
Source/publisher: Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement Department of Social Welfare, The Republic of the Union of Myanmar
Date of publication: 2015-04-30
Date of entry/update: 2016-02-01
Type: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : doc
Size: 143 KB
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Title: Launch of research report into aquaculture (introduction, presentations and press release)
Description/subject: "Rapid growth in Myanmar?s fish farming industry is supporting higher rural incomes, greater job opportunities, and improved nutrition, health and well-being, according to research by the Centre for Economic and Social Development (CESD), Michigan State University (MSU) and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). The research report, ?Aquaculture in transition: Value chain transformation, fish and food security in Myanmar”, was released to industry stakeholders and government representatives at a workshop in Yangon on 28 January 2016. In his opening remarks, Dr Duncan Boughton, Professor, International Development at Michigan State University, said good information and reliable data was vital for effective policy making. The CESD, MSU and IFPRI research provides data for the aquaculture (fish farming) industry that has not previously been available, and that differs from some of the conventional wisdom about Myanmar?s fish farming industry. The research will provide valuable input into policy discussions and the development of policy that supports and promotes a sustainable and equitable growth in the aquaculture industry. Presentations from the launch and workshop, a press release and a link to the findings of the aquaculture research are provided below. Launch and workshop for the ?Aquaculture in transition: Value chain transformation, fish and food security in Myanmar”, 9am ? 1pm, Thursday 28 January 2016, at Sedona Hotel, Yangon. Agenda (PDF; English version; 1 page; 135 Kb) Presentation 01: ?The status of aquaculture in Myanmar: A review of existing data”, by Kyan Htoo, Research Associate, CESD English version (PDF; English version; 23 pages; 966 Kb) Myanmar version (PDF; Myanmar version; 23 pages; 970 Kb) Presentation 02: ?The structure and performance of aquaculture value chains in Myanmar”, by Dr Ben Belton, Assistant Professor, Michigan State University English version (PDF; English version; 26 pages; 2,569 Kb) Myanmar version (PDF; Myanmar version; 25 pages; 2,748 Kb) Presentation 03: ?Policy options for inclusive aquaculture growth”, by Aung Hein, Research Associate, CESD English version (PDF; English version; 8 pages; 142 Kb) Myanmar version (PDF; Myanmar version; 8 pages; 166 Kb) Press release English version (PDF; English version; 3 pages; 736 Kb) (and copied below) Myanmar version (PDF; Myanmar version; 5 pages; 731 Kb) Aquaculture research paper and policy brief....."
Source/publisher: CESD - CENTRE FOR ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT (MYANMAR)
Date of publication: 2016-01-28
Date of entry/update: 2016-01-30
Type: Individual Documents
Language: English, Burmese (မြန်မာဘာသာ)
Local URL:
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Title: Myanmar National Land Use Policy - အမျိုးသားမြေအသုံးချမှုမူဝါဒ (Burmese မြန်မာဘာသာ)
Description/subject: ၁။ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံသည် တိုင်းရင်းသားလူမျိုးပေါင်းစုံတို့ စုပေါင်းနေထိုင်လျှက်ရှိသော နိုင်ငံတစ်နိုင်ငံဖြစ်ပြီး၊ တိုင်းဒေသကြီး ၇ ခု၊ ပြည်နယ် ၇ ခုနှင့် ပြည်ထောင်စုနယ်မြေတို့တွင် ပြန့်နှံ့နေထိုင်လျက်ရှိသည်။ နိုင်ငံတော်သည် အရှေ့တောင်အာရှတွင် တည်ရှိပြီး ပထဝီအနေအထားအရသော်လည်းကောင်း၊ စီးပွားရေးအရသော်လည်းကောင်း၊ နိုင်ငံရေးအရသော်လည်းကောင်း အချက်အချာကျသည့်နိုင်ငံဖြစ်ပါသည်။ ၂။ ထို့ပြင် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံသည် အဖိုးတန်သစ်တောကြီးများ၊ မြေဆီသြဇာကြွယ်ဝသည့် မြေပြန့်လွင်ပြင်များ၊ သဘာဝဓာတ်ငွေ့နှင့်သတ္တုသိုက်များ၊ ရှည်လျားသည့်ပင်လည်ကမ်းရိုးတန်း၊ တောင်စဉ်တောင်တန်းများနှင့် နိုင်ငံ၏အသက်သွေးကြောဖြစ်သည့် ဧရာဝတီ၊ ချင်းတွင်း၊ သံလွင်၊ စစ်တောင်းစသည့် မြစ်ကြီးများအပါအဝင် သဘာဝအရင်းအမြစ်အခြေခံကောင်းများနှင့် သဘာဝပတ်ဝန်းကျင်ကောင်းများရှီသည့် နိုင်ငံတစ်နိုင်ငံလည်းဖြစ်ပါသည်။ ၃။ မြေသယံဇာတများသည် နိုင်ငံသားများ၏ စားဝတ်နေရေးနှင့် နိုင်ငံတော်ဖွံ့ဖြိုးတိုးတက်ရေးတို့အတွက် ရေရှည်ရည်မှန်းချက်ချမှတ်ပြီး အထူးအလေးထား စီမံအုပ်ချုပ်အသုံးချရမည့် အရင်းအမြစ်များဖြစ်ပါသည်။ မြေအရင်းအမြစ်များကို စနစ်တကျအသုံးချစီမံခန့်ခွဲနိုင်သည်နှင့်အမျှ ပြည်သူတို့၏ အခြေခံလိုအပ်ချက်များပြည့်ဝလာစေရန်၊ လူမှုစီးပွား ဘဝမြင့်မားလာစေရန်နှင့် နိုင်ငံတော်ဖွံ့ဖြိုးတိုးတက်လာစေရန် ဟန်ချက်ညီစွာအကောင်အထည်ဖော်ဆောင်ရွက်နိုင်မည်ဖြစ်ပါသည်။ ၄။ ပြည်ထောင်စုသမ္မတမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော်ဖွဲ့စည်းပုံအခြေခံဥပဒေ ပုဒ်မ၃၇တွင် နိုင်ငံတော်သည် နိုင်ငံတော်အတွင်းရှိ မြေအားလုံး၏ပင်ရင်းပိုင်ရှင်ဖြစ်သည်ဟုလည်းကောင်း၊ နိုင်ငံပိုင်သယံဇာတပစ္စည်းများအား စီးပွားရေးအင်အားစုများက ထုတ်ယူသုံးစွဲခြင်းကို ကွပ်ကဲကြီးကြပ်နိုင်ရန် ဥပဒေပြဌာန်းရမည်ဟုလည်းကောင်း၊ နိုင်ငံသားများအား ပစ္စည်းပိုင်ဆိုင်ခွင့်၊ အမွေဆက်ခံခွင့်၊ ကိုယ်ပိုင်လုပ်ကိုင်ခွင့်၊ တီထွင်ခွင့်နှင့်မူပိုင်ခွင့်တို့ကို ဥပဒေပြဌာန်းချက်နှင့်အညီ ခွင့်ပြုရမည်ဟုလည်းကောင်း ပြဌာန်းထားပါသည်။ အဆိုပါပြဌာန်းချက်အရ နိုင်ငံတော်သမ္မတက ၂၀၁၂ခုနှစ်၊ ဇွန်လ ၁၉ ရက်နေ့တွင် နိုင်ငံတော်၏ မြေသယံဇာတများကို စဉ်ဆက်မပြတ်စီမံအုပ်ချုပ်၊ အသုံးချနိုင်ရေးအတွက် လိုအပ်နေသောခိုင်မတိကျသည့် မူဝါဒတစ်ရပ်ရေးဆွဲ ပြဌာန်းနိုင်ရန် လမ်းညွှန်ခဲ့သဖြင့် "အမျိုးသားမြေအသုံးချမှုမူဝါဒ" ကို ရေးဆွဲပြုစုခြင်းဖြစ်ပါသည်။ ၅။ ဤအမျိုးသားမြေအသုံးချမှုမူဝါဒသည် မြို့ပြ၊ ကျေးလက်များအပါအဝင် နိုင်ငံတော်အတွင်းရှိ မြေအသုံးချမှုနှင့် လုပ်ပိုင်ခွင့်များကို မူဝါဒပါ ရည်ရွယ်ချက်များနှင့်အညီ စနစ်တကျအောင်မြင်စွာအကောင်အထည်ဖော် စီမံဆောင်ရွက်နိုင်ရန်ဦးတည်ပြီး မြေနှင့်သက်ဆိုင်သောတည်ဆဲဥပဒေများ၏ ညီညွတ်မျှတမှု၊ ယင်းဥပဒေများကိုအကောင်အထည်ဖော်မှုအပါအဝင် အမျိုးသားမြေဥပဒေသစ်တစ်ရပ် ပြဌာန်းနိုင်ရေးအတွက်လည်းကောင်း၊ မြေအသုံးချမှု သို့မဟုတ် မြေလုပ်ပိုင်ခွင့်တို့နှင့်စပ်လျဉ်း၍ သက်ဆိုင်ရာဌာန၊ အဖွဲ့အစည်းများအားလုံးက အဆုံးအဖြတ်ပေးရမည့် ကိစ္စရပ်များအတွက်လည်းကောင်း လမ်းညွှန်ဖြစ်စေရမည်။
Source/publisher: Ministry of Environmental Conservation and Forestry (MOECAF)
Date of publication: 2015-12-31
Date of entry/update: 2016-01-30
Type: Individual Documents
Language: Burmese (မြန်မာဘာသာ)
Format : pdf
Size: 347.35 KB
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Title: Myanmar National Land Use Policy (English)
Description/subject: Introduction: "1. Myanmar is a country where the various kinds of ethnic nationalities are residing collectively and widely in 7 Regions, 7 States and Union Territory. The country is located in Southeast Asia and is important geographically, economically and politically in the region. 2. Moreover, Myanmar is a country that has rich natural resources and environment, including valuable forests, fertile planes, natural gas and mineral deposits, long coastline, mountain ranges, and rivers such as the Ayeyarwaddy, Chindwin, Thanlwin, Sittaung, which are the lifeblood of the country. 3. The land resources shall be managed, administered and used, with special attention, by adopting long-term objectives for the livelihood improvement of the citizens and sustainable development of the country. When the land resources are systematically used and well managed, the more it will be possible to fulfill the basic needs of the citizens, develop the social and economic life of the people, and develop the country harmoniously. 4. Under section 37 of the Constitution of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, it is provided that the Union is the ultimate owner of all lands in the Union, shall enact necessary law to supervise extraction and utilization of State-owned natural resources by economic forces; shall permit citizens right of private property, right of inheritance, right of private initiative and patent in accord with the law. According to such provision, the President of the Union also guided on 19th June, 2012 to adopt a necessary, strong and precise policy for the sustainable management, administration2 and use of the land resources of the country, as such, "the National Land Use Policy "has been developed. 5. This National Land Use Policy aims to implement, manage and carry out land use and tenure rights in the country systematically and successfully, including both urban and rural areas, in accordance with the objectives of the Policy and shall be the guide for the development and enactment of a National Land Law, including harmonization and implementation of the existing laws related to land, and issues to be decided by all relevant departments and organizations relating to land use and tenure rights."
Source/publisher: Ministry of Environmental Conservation and Forestry (MOECAF)
Date of publication: 2015-12-31
Date of entry/update: 2016-01-30
Type: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 260.35 KB
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Title: CESD - CENTRE FOR ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT (MYANMAR)
Description/subject: Important and substantial site - Many useful reports on Myanmar?s economy, including governance, agriculture etc. ...Chief of the Board of Directors, U Myint... "The Centre for Economic and Social Development (CESD) is Myanmar?s leading think tank supporting evidence-based policy making.... CESD undertakes public policy research across the following areas: macroeconomic reform, labour and social policy, food security and rural development, and governance.... CESD is also the Coordinator of the Leading Authority overseeing the Myanmar Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (MEITI). Please visit the MEITI website, myanmareiti.org to learn more about the MEITI objectives, program of work and key deliverables.... CESD partners with the Comprehensive Development Education Centre (CDEC), an organisation providing education and training services for youth and people working in development. CDEC?s mission is to ?provide capacity building and enrich the existing knowledge and skills of civil society organisations, staff at non-government organisations, and youth, in order to facilitate community empowerment and participation in community development and nation building.”... CESD also provides training and education services for institutions and organizations contributing to the on-going process of reform. Highlights of CESD?s training and education services are accessible via the Events link above and have included: training in leadership and public sector reform for Permanent Secretaries, a trade negotiation capacity building workshop for civil servants, public revenue model training for Internal Revenue Department staff, and value chain analysis training to support rural development.... Vision, mission, goal and objectives Vision: To contribute to Myanmar?s transformation towards a democratic, developed and dignified society.... Mission: To support key stakeholders who are committed to the transformation of Myanmar: to become a modern developed nation that meets the aspirations of its people for a better life; and to achieve greater integration with the international community where Myanmar?s cooperation and support can be counted upon in meeting the regional and global problems of the 21st century.... Strategic goal: To facilitate the process of sustained and participatory reforms in Myanmar so that the country achieves: Complete liberalization; and Comprehensive development during transition.... Objectives: to play a central role in supporting economic reform, poverty-reduction and good governance; to receive feedback on progress of reforms and to review and inform the on-going policy execution; to implement special programs and projects critical to the success of reforms, supplementing legitimacy deficits, weak organizations or poor capacities of public institutions; to provide training and education services for all key institutions and organizations that contribute to the process of reform; to offer innovative solutions to overcome binding constraints to the transition..."
Source/publisher: CESD - CENTRE FOR ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT (MYANMAR)
Date of entry/update: 2016-01-30
Type: Websites/Multiple Documents
Language: English, Burmese (မြန်မာဘာသာ)
Local URL:
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Title: AQUACULTURE IN TRANSITION: VALUE CHAIN TRANSFORMATION, FISH AND FOOD SECURITY IN MYANMAR
Description/subject: "Fish farming (aquaculture) is important to Myanmar?s food security and is developing and transforming quickly. This study presents findings from a new field survey of the farmed fish value chain that is more detailed and broader than any previous study conducted in Myanmar. Many of our findings are at odds with what we perceive as conventional wisdom about fish farming in Myanmar. The findings have important policy implications to unlock the sector?s full growth potential and food security contributions....Fish is important for domestic food security ? it is the leading purveyor of animal protein and the lead provider of micronutrients, important especially for child development, to Myanmar consumers. Fish is important in the food budget of households: nearly as much is spent on fish (14% of food expenditure) as on rice (19% of food expenditure). Fish farming also generates a lot of employment ? about twice as much per acre as paddy farming. Fishfarming accounts for about 20% of domestic fish consumption in Myanmar. This is a long way behind neighboring Thailand and Bangladesh (about 80% and 55%, respectively); farmed fish already accounted for about 20% of the fish consumed in both these countries by the late 1980?s....Even though it is a common perception that aquaculture output is mainly exported, in fact, roughly 20% is exported, and 80% goes to the domestic market. We anticipate that the export share will even decline further in the near to medium term as the Myanmar urban market grows...."
Ben Belton1, Aung Hein, Kyan Htoo, L. Seng Kham, Ulrike Nischan, Thomas Reardon, Duncan Boughton
Source/publisher: Michigan State University (MSU), Myanmar Development Resource Institute - Center for Economic and Social Development (MDRI-CESD), and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)
Date of publication: 2016-01-28
Date of entry/update: 2016-01-29
Type: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 3.06 MB
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Title: BURMA 2015: BALLOT DENIED - DISENFRANCHISED VOTERS IN KYAR INN SEIK GYI TOWNSHIP, KAREN STATE
Description/subject: "On November 8, 2015, millions of voters across Burma went to the polls. Citizens seized the opportunity to exercise their right to vote in the freest election the country had seen for at least 25 years. In many ways this was an astonishing moment for democracy in Burma. However, as international media coverage praised largely successful election processes and excitement abounded at the poll?s outcome, relatively few column inches were dedicated to those left behind as this historic event took place. In Burma 2015: Ballot Denied the Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM) aims to elevate the voices of disenfranchised Mon and Karen ethnic citizens in non-state armed group (NSAG) controlled areas of Kyar Inn Seik Gyi Township, Karen State. Drawing on 60 interviews conducted in October 2015, HURFOM documents the voices of some of the tens of thousands of citizens in Kyar Inn Seik Gyi Township disenfranchised during this year?s election. In the aftermath of the election, it is important that enthusiasm concerning its outcome does not diminish the significance of these complaints. This report aims to show that concerns over disenfranchisement embody clear violations of citizens? rights, represent political exclusion of already marginalised populations and constitute clear infractions of international good practices for democratic elections..."
Source/publisher: Human Rights Foundation of Monland - Burma (HURFOM)
Date of publication: 2015-10-31
Date of entry/update: 2016-01-28
Type: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 2.98 MB
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Title: Development deficit? Burma in India?s changing Look/Act East Policy
Description/subject: "As the second most populous country in the world, and a rising global economic and political power, the direction of India?s foreign policy in Asia has a significant influence on development in Burma, especially in the border areas of Northwest Burma and Northeast India. Over 50 million people live along the 1,600 km India-Burma border, and it is these people who will be the most immediately affected by the future path of India-Burma relations. The majority of the people living along the border are indigenous people and ethnic minorities, and it is crucial to ask how India?s engagement with Burma will impact their lives and communities. This article will outline the current state of India-Burma relations as a first step towards an examination of how India?s engagement with Burma impacts the lives of people living in the India-Burma border region. An indigenous rights analysis of India-Burma relations is an important area for future inquiry, but is beyond the scope of this article. The article starts by giving a brief history of India-Burma relations up-to the present day Act East Policy, followed by an examination of the position of India?s Northeastern States within this policy. The article concludes by providing an overview of India-Burma trade, and outlining all of the major Indian financed infrastructure development projects currently being implemented in Burma..."
Sam Cartmell
Source/publisher: Burma-Initiative / Stiftung Asienhaus
Date of publication: 2015-02-28
Date of entry/update: 2016-01-25
Type: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 438.62 KB
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Title: I will be a hummingbird (video)
Description/subject: Advancing the politics of small deeds.... "In this beautifully animated clip from Dirt! The Movie, Wangari Maathai tells an inspiring tale of doing the best you can under seemingly interminable odds. Join us at www.DirtTheMovie.org"
Wangari Maathai
Source/publisher: www.DirtTheMovie.org
Date of entry/update: 2016-01-22
Type: Websites/Multiple Documents
Language: English
Local URL:
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Title: EBO Briefing & Background Papers
Description/subject: A wide-ranging collection of (largely EBO) papers on the civil war, cease-fires etc. back to 2009. In English apart from one video in Burmese
Source/publisher: Euro Burma Office
Date of entry/update: 2016-01-21
Type: Websites/Multiple Documents
Language: English, (+1 video in Burmese)
Local URL:
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Title: Thabyay Education Foundation
Description/subject: "At Thabyay Education Foundation (TEF), we believe that quality education for all is the fulcrum for the development of peaceful, socially just, democratic and prosperous societies. Since we were founded in 1996, we have worked to support people from Myanmar to access the education and professional development opportunities that they need to help their society achieve these goals. The individuals and organizations that we support play prominent roles in the development of many keys sectors of Myanmar society, including education, healthcare, law, human rights, women?s empowerment, environmental protection, community development, food security, livelihoods, social work, disability services and empowerment, peace building and reconciliation, media and journalism and youth development. Core Programs Thabyay Education Foundation consists of the following core programs: Kant Kaw Education Center, through which we offer English Classes for Exam Preparation (TOEFL and IELTS), Community Leadership and Social Studies Program and many other professional development courses. Curriculum Development ? prepares and distributes context-appropriate curricular materials and teacher training. It focuses on preparing adult learners from marginalized communities in Myanmar. Thabyay E-Learning Platform, through Exam Preparation Outreach Program, offers online exam preparation packages. Scholarship and Student Support Department implements a number of scholarships - such as Open Society Foundation Network Scholarship, Prospect Burma - and provide essential support services to students studying abroad. Experiential Learning Program seeks to empower the civil society leaders and organizations in Myanmar."
Source/publisher: Thabyay Education Foundation (TEF)
Date of entry/update: 2016-01-21
Type: Websites/Multiple Documents
Language: English
Local URL:
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Title: Conflict Sensitivity in Education Provision in Karen State
Description/subject: "Education is intimately linked with the concept of identity and plays a key role in any nation-building process. In countries recovering from violent ethno-political conflicts, education can positively contribute to peace-building efforts, but it can also negatively affect peace, when it interacts with the conflict dynamics. Language of instruction, cultural relevance of the curriculum, teaching methods, teacher recruitment and placement - all play a role in how effectively education can contribute to peace-building. Overall, community acceptance of the education system is key to ensuring its conflict sensitivity. The Myanmar situation is particularly complex, as the government is not the only actor in education provision, with different schools widely present in the country, due to the long history of civil war. In Karen State, education services are delivered by ethnic armed groups, religious organizations, communities, as well as refugee camps and migrants schools along the Thai- Myanmar border. Successive Myanmar governments have focused their nationbuilding efforts on the culture of the dominant Burman Buddhist majority. In a country, with some 135 minority groups, this approach was often perceived as an attempt of forced assimilation of ethnic minorities into the majority culture. As part of their self-determination struggle, ethnic armed opposition groups developed and maintained their own education systems, which they perceived as key to preserving their group?s cultural identity. The KNU, the main Karen ethnic armed group, established the Karen Education Department (KED) to oversee education provision. The KED currently provides support to 1,430 schools, paying stipends to almost 7,911 teachers in areas under full or partial administration of Karen armed opposition groups. However, only one third of schools receiving KED support fall under its full administration, with the majority being mixed or government schools..."..... Contents: Acronyms and Glossary... Executive Summary... 1. Introduction: Defining Conflict Sensitivity in Education... 2. Objectives and Methodology... 3. Background: Conflict and Education in Myanmar: Origins of conflict in Myanmar; Conflict, identity and education ; Present situation... 4. Karen State: Socio-Political Context and Local Governance Structures... 5. Education Providers and Systems in Karen State: Typology of providers and administration; Myanmar government schools; Karen education system (KED); Community-based education and mixed schools; Faith-based education providers; Border-based education providers; Concluding remarks... 6. Expansion of Government Education Services in Karen State: Communities lose ownership of schools; Local teachers replaced by government teachers; Lack of consultation with local stakeholders; Teachers? difficulty to integrate into the local context; Concerns about the quality of education; Communities have to contribute to teachers? expenses; Concerns over expansion of government control in contested areas; Analysis: how do local stakeholders react to government expansion?... 7. Education Provision Outside of the Government System... Case Studies: 1. Taw Naw High School; 2. War Ler Mu School; 3. K?Paw Htaw High School; 4. Hto Lwi Wah High School; 5. Government Schools in Myang Gyi Ngu.. 8. Relevant Initiatives and Steps Forward... 9. Recommendations.
Polina Lenkova
Source/publisher: Thabyay Education Foundation
Date of publication: 2015-11-30
Date of entry/update: 2016-01-21
Type: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 1 MB
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Title: Burma Briefing (Briefings zu Myanmars Entwicklungsperspektiven)
Description/subject: "Die politische und wirtschaftliche Öffnung Myanmars hat nach Jahren der Isolation das Interesse von internationaler Öffentlichkeit, Entwicklungspolitik und Wirtschaft auf das Land, aber auch auf die ganze Region gelenkt. Als entscheidendes Datum für den weiteren Verlauf dieser Öffnung werden die Wahlen Ende 2015 gesehen. Auf der einen Seite hängen der Erfolg und die Dauerhaftigkeit der Öffnung wesentlich davon ab, wie sich die Nachbarländer und westliche Akteure (u.a. Europa, USA) dazu verhalten: Können sie die weitere Entwicklung unterstützen und fördern, oder nehmen sie einen negativen Einfluss? Auf der anderen Seite wird der Entscheidungsspielraum für PolitikerInnen, soziale Bewegungen und UnternehmerInnen in Myanmar von der Position des Landes zwischen den beiden wirtschaftlichen Schwergewichten Indien und China und der Nachbarschaft zu Schwellenländern wie Thailand strukturell eingeschränkt... Mit unseren Burma Briefings informieren wir über die Sicht der Zivilgesellschaft auf Myanmars Entwicklungsperspektiven, den Einfluss der Nachbarländer auf den Reformprozess, die Rolle der Asiatischen Entwicklungbank sowie der Europäischen Union."
Source/publisher: Stiftung Asienhaus
Date of entry/update: 2016-01-20
Type: Websites/Multiple Documents
Language: Deutsch, German, English
Local URL:
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Title: Justice Delayed, Justice Denied တရားမှု ရှာဖို့ နှောင့်နှေးခြင်းမှာ
Description/subject: ခြုံငုံတင်ပြချက် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံတွင် ၂၀၁၀ ခုနှစ်နောက်ပိုင်းမှစတင်၍ ဖြစ်ပေါ်လျှက်ရှိသော ဒီမိုကရေစီအသွင်ကူး ပြောင်းမှုဟူ သည့်အောက်၌ နိုင်ငံရေးအာဏာ၏ အခန်းကဏ္ဍအားပို၍ အလေးထားလာကြသည့် သဘောရှိသည်။ ဤတွင် ရှုပ်ထွေးမှုများ ရှိလာသည်။ ဒီမိုကရေစီရေး အင်အားစုများ၊ အချို့သော တိုင်းရင်းသား လက်နက်ကိုင် အဖွဲ့အစည်း များနှင့် (အထူးသဖြင့် အစိုးရနှင့်လက်ဝါးရိုက်၍ ဖွဲ့စည်းထားသည့်) အန်ဂျီအို အဖွဲ့အစည်းများသည်လည်းကောင်း၊ ဒီမိုကရေစီခေါင်းဆောင်နှင့် နိုင်ငံတကာ နိုင်ငံအတော်များများသည်လည်းကောင်း၊ နိုင်ငံရေးအာဏာ ရရှိထားသူများနှင့် ပူးပေါင်း လက်တွဲရေး၊ အနည်းဆုံးအားဖြင့် ဖက်လှဲတကင်း ဆက်ဆံပေါင်းသင်းရေး မူဝါဒကို ကျင့်သုံးလာကြသည်။ အဆိုပါ နိုင်ငံရေးအာဏာသည် ဒေသခံတိုင်းရင်းသားများအပါအဝင် တိုင်းရင်းသားလူမျိုး ပေါင်းစုံ၏ စစ်မှန်သော သဘောဆန္ဒကို အခြေပြု၍ ပေါ်ပေါက်လာခြင်းဟုတ်မဟုတ် စစ်ကြောခြင်း မပြုကြတော့။ သို့ဖြင့် နိုင်ငံရေးအာဏာ ကို ဆည်းကပ်ကိုးကွယ်မှုပြု၊ ပို၍ပို၍ အလေးထားလာခြင်းမှာ ရှုတ်ထွေးမှုများ ပိုမိုပေါ်ပေါက်လာသည့် အကြောင်းခံ ဖြစ်လာသည်။ ယင်းမှ မကောင်းသည့် အကျိုးသက်ရောက်မှုအနေဖြင့် လူ့ဂုဏ်သိက္ခာ၊ လူ့တန်ဖိုး၊ အထူးသဖြင့် လူ့အခွင့် အရေးဟူသော ဝေါဟာရများမှာ အသံသာရှိပြီး အဆန်မရှိသည့် သြင်္ကန်အမြောက်သဖွယ် ဖြစ်လာသည်။ တာဝန်ခံမှု ဟူသည်မှာ ၂၀၁၁ ခုနှစ်၌ ပြည်ထောင်စုကြံ့ခိုင်ရေးနှင့် ဖွံ့ဖြိုးရေးပါတီဥက္ကဌ ဦးသိန်းစိန် သမ္မတအဖြစ် စတင်တာဝန် ထမ်းဆောင်ခဲ့စဉ်က လှည့်ဖြားပြောဆိုခဲ့သည့် နိုင်ငံရေးကြွေးကြော်သံ သက်သက်ဖြင့်သာ တည်ရှိလာခဲ့သည်။ လက်တွေ့အားဖြင့် မည်သည့်အစိုးရဌာနဆိုင်ရာ တခုတလေတွင်မျှ တာဝန်ခံမှုကို ကြီးကြပ်ဖော်ဆောင် နိုင်ခဲ့ခြင်း မရှိပါ။ ပြစ်မှုကျူးလွန်ပြီးနောက် လွတ်ငြိမ်းခွင့်ရနေသော အခြေအနေသည် ဆုံးသွမ်းသံတရာအနေနှင့် ဆက်လက် တည်ရှိနေဆဲဖြစ်သည်။ မျက်မှောက်အချိန်တွင် တရားမျှတမှု ရှာဖွေရေးဟူသည်မှာ ပြစ်မှုကျူးလွန်ခံရသူများ အဝန်း အဝိုင်းအတွင်းတွင်သာ ရေရွတ်မြည်တမ်းရမည့် အဆင့်ရှိသည်။ လူထုကြီးတရပ်လုံးအကြားတွင် ရေပန်းမစားလှ တော့ပါ။ ယင်းသို့သော နောက်ခံအခြေအနေများအောက်တွင် ၂၀၁၅ ခုနှစ် ဇန်နဝါရီလ ၁၉ ရက်နေ့၌ မြန်မာစစ်တပ်မှ စစ်သားများက ကျူးလွန်သည်ဟု စွပ်စွဲခံရသော ကြီးမားလှသည့်ပြစ်မှုကြီး ဖြစ်ပွားခဲ့ခြင်းဖြစ်သည်။ ကျူးလွန်ခံရသူ များမှာ ငယ်ရွယ်နုပျိုသည့် ကချင်အမျိုးသမီး လုပ်အားပေးဆရာမနှစ်ဦး ဖြစ်သည်။ ပြစ်မှုဖြစ်ပွားသည့်နေ့မှ စတင်ရေ တွက်လျှင် ၁၀ လ နည်းပါးမျှကြာခဲ့ပြီ ဖြစ်သော်လည်း ကျူးလွန်ခဲ့သူများမှာ လွတ်မြောက်နေဆဲဖြစ်သည်။ တရားခံအ စစ်များအား ရဲများကထုတ်ဖော်နိုင် ခြင်းမရှိ။ ပြစ်မှုကျူးလွန်ခံရသူများကို အဓိကထား၍ အမှုကိုကိုင်တွယ်ဆောင်ရွက် ရမည့်အစား ပြစ်မှုကျူးလွန်သူများ အကျိုးဖြစ်စေမည့် တစ်ဖက်သတ်စုံစမ်း စစ်ဆေးမှုများကိုသာ အာဏာပိုင်များက ဆောင်ရွက်လျက်ရှိသည်။ ပြစ်မှုကျူးလွန်သူကို အပြစ်ပေးရေးနှင့် ပြစ်မှုကျူးလွန်ခံရသူများ ကုစားခွင့်အပါအဝင် တရားမျှတမှုရစေရေးတို့မှာ စိတ်ကူးယဉ်သဖွယ်ဖြစ်နေဆဲပင်။ တရားမျှတမှုရှာဖွေရေးမှာ သိသာစွာ နှောင့်နှေးကြန့် ကြာနေခြင်းကြောင့် တရားမျှတမှု ငြင်းပယ်ခံရသည့် အခြေအနေမှာ မလွဲသာမရှောင်သာ ပေါ်ပေါက်လျက်ရှိသည်။ ယင်းမှာ အတိတ်နမိတ်မကောင်းလှသော ငြိမ်သက်မှုကြီး ဖြစ်နေခြင်းပင်။ သို့ဖြစ်၍ မဝေးလှသော အနာဂတ် ၌ ပို၍ကြီးမားဆိုးဝါးသော လူ့အခွင့်အရေးချိုးဖောက်မှု ကြီးများ စဉ်တိုက်ဆက်တိုက် ဖြစ်ပွားလာတော့မည့် အ ကြောင်းခံ ဖြစ်လာလျက်ရှိသည
Source/publisher: Kachin Women?s Association in Thailand (KWAT)
Date of publication: 2015-12-31
Date of entry/update: 2016-01-19
Type: Individual Documents
Language: Burmese (မြန်မာဘာသာ), English
Format : pdf
Size: 1.74 MB
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Title: Justice Delayed, Justice Denied - Seeking Truth about Sexual Violence and War Crime Case in Burma
Description/subject: (With a Special Focus on the Kawng Kha Case, in Kachin Land)..... Executive Summary: "Despite the so-called democratic transition taking place since 2010, Burma remains constitutionally under the control of the Armed Forces. However, our national democratic icon, democratic forces, some ethnic armed organizations, many NGOs -- especially GONGOs ? and most of the international community are siding with or exercising a policy of appeasement with the power holders, without scrutinizing whether the source of their power emanates from the genuine will of the various ethnic nationalities and/or indigenous peoples. As a result, terms such as human dignity, human value, and particularly human rights have become empty rhetoric. Accountability is merely a political slogan, used by the incumbent President Thein Sein, the chairperson of the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), since coming to office in 2011, but never implemented by any government institution in practice. The vicious circle of impunity continues, and, for the time being, seeking justice is an unpopular concept, voiced only by victims? communities. Against this background, a heinous crime against two young ethnic Kachin female volunteer teachers was committed on January 19, 2015, allegedly by the Myanmar soldiers of the ruling regime. Despite the fact that it has been almost ten months now, the perpetrators are still at large and no suspect has been identified by the police. Investigations carried out by the authorities have not focused on the victims, but have been one-sided, benefitting the perpetrators. The lack of reparative and restorative justice has led to delay and finally a denial of justice. The ominous silence around this case will become a catalyst for recurrence of gross human rights violations in the future. This preliminary report attempts to uncover the truth about this case, relating it to similar past incidents of war crimes, particularly sexual violence. It is also examined as to whether the state is held accountable for failure to provide protection for such heinous crimes and reparations to the victims, due to official state passivity. The government is also reminded of its obligations under domestic and international law. The victims of rape have commonly been non-Burman ethnic females, such as Shan, Karen, Kachin, Karenni, Palaung, etc. As such, the crimes can be categorized as having an ethnic nature. In many previous cases, even though victims were raped, they were not murdered. And even if they were murdered, they were not tortured. However, the Kawng Kha war crime case highlighted in this preliminary report is quite distinct. The victims were not only raped but also murdered. Worse, it was not an ordinary rape but a gang-rape. In addition, the victims were inhumanely and brutally tortured before they were murdered. As of now, nobody knows whether the victims were tortured by the perpetrators before or after being raped. As such, among the gross human rights violations inflicted on the various ethnic nationalities over the past decades, the Kawng Kha case constitutes one of the most heinous crime ever committed. Unfortunately, the ruling regime, albeit having the responsibility as the government, has not yet submitted any report specifically on this case to the Committee against Torture and to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), which Burma has already acceded to. There are no independent institutions or professionals working with victims of sexual violence nor does there exist any effective law for protection of witnesses in Burma. In accordance with the 2008 Constitution of Burma, the Myanmar Armed Forces, led by the Commander-in-Chief ? not the State President ? primarily exercise executive power. In addition to the Police and other security institutions, the Judiciary is also subservient to the executive. This legal and institutional framework has exacerbated the situation of the victims, their families and their communities, whenever the culprits or suspects are army personnel or government authorities. In regard to sexual violence, a serious problem is that ethnic women victims, given social, geographical, financial and legal constraints, are unable even to file complaints; and, even if a complaint is filed, it is commonly rejected by the Judiciary or the local authorities. This paper explores the status of State Institutions, focusing on the Police Institution, from the aspect of institutional integrity as well as procedural justice, as underpinned by not only national laws, international human rights laws and humanitarian law, but also the Rule of Law. This paper also establishes the nexus between civil war and human rights violations and attempts to find a reasonable solution. Last, but not least, the role and responsibility of the international community is scrutinized from the perspective of promotion and protection of human rights in connection with the previous and current background scenario of Burma."
Source/publisher: Legal Aid Network (LAN) and Kachin Women?s Association in Thailand (KWAT)
Date of publication: 2015-12-31
Date of entry/update: 2016-01-19
Type: Individual Documents
Language: English, Burmese (မြန်မာဘာသာ)
Format : pdf pdf
Size: 1.53 MB 1.74 MB
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Title: The Political Economy of Land Governance in the Mekong Region
Description/subject: "This report presents a political-economic analysis of land governance at the regional level, focusing on the Mekong Region The primary emphasis is on Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam (CLMV), but the paper also takes into account the regional role and land governance experiences of Thailand and China. The report is one in a series of reports on Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam that present country-level analyses of the poli- tical economy of land governance. The series is part of a research mapping and political-economic analysis conducted by the authors for the Mekong Region Land Governance (MRLG) project, funded by the Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation (SDC) and the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ). The initiative is driven by concerns about security of tenure of small- holder farmers, ethnic minorities and women, against a background of land grabbing in various guises (see www.mrlg.org)... In this case, the Mekong is broadly coterminous with mainland Southeast Asia. While it takes the river as its defining motif, the region is much wider than the Mekong River and its tributaries. Alternatively framed, the Greater Mekong Sub-region is comprised of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and the two provinces of China that border Southeast Asia (Yunnan and Guangxi). The project-specific definition of the region behind this report includes the CLMV countries. Sometimes referred to as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) latecomers, the once-socialist economies seek to integrate and capitalise their economies. In the context of land-based investment with which the report is concerned, Thailand and China enter as important players ? providing a more complete picture of the region. 2 Political Economy of Land Governance in the Mekong Region A Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) report defines ?land governance” succinctly as follows: ?Land governance concerns the rules, processes and structures through which decisions are made about access to land and its use, the manner in which the decisions are implemented and enforced, the way that competing interests in land are managed” (Palmer et al. 2009: 9).” Our working definition expands on the FAO definition as follows: ?Land governance consists of the means by which authority is wielded and collective action applied in order to achieve particular social and economic out- comes through land use, distribution, access and security. Land governance is concerned with processes, institutions, laws, practices and structures of power involving a diverse range of public and private actors.” Land governance is a scaled issue, involving broad level influences at the global, regional, national and local scales. This paper seeks to explain the main parameters of land governance at the regional scale, with a particular focus on the Mekong Region. Our project of conducting a regional political-economic analysis considers the questions: Why apply political economy to an analysis of land governance, and what does a regional scale analysis entail? In other words, what makes land govern- ance a political-economic issue, and what makes it a regional issue? LAND GOVERNANCE: A POLITICAL- ECONOMIC ISSUE Not all approaches to land governance place it in the realm of political economy per se. Land governance can be approached from a number of angles. In a uni- versal and normative sense ?good land governance” is sought through a range of global level assessment criteria (see, for example, The Land Governance Assessment Framework: Identifying and Monitoring Good Practice in the Land Sector, Deininger et al. 2011). The FAO has established a set of non-binding guidelines for ?responsible” governance of land tenure and other natural resources (FAO 2012). A number of development assistance initiatives funded by Australian, German, Finnish, Canadian, Swiss (and other) bilateral development agencies have sought to improve land governance in the Mekong Region by programmatic means (see www.landgov.donorplatform.org). Each of these frameworks has its own emphasis; some are more market-oriented and some are geared to a liberal rights-oriented approach of social inclusion. However, all work within broad ?good governance” criteria of transparency, rule of law, stakeholder inclusion and equitable market structures. While there is recognition of the need to adapt global concepts and criteria of ?good governance? to country circumstances, the political- economic embeddedness of land issues has often been overlooked. Only recently have some donors specifically sought to conduct political-economic analysis in recognition of program risks and failures attributed to insufficient account being taken of the context within which programs operate. For example, responding to the World Bank Inspection Panel that investigated the Land Management and Administration Project in Cambodia, Management of LMAP noted: ?With the benefit of hindsight, Management recognises that ... a more detailed analysis of the political economy context would likely have identified ... that... numerous actors had strong incentives not to proceed with a trans- parent and public interest based classification and registration of State land” (IBRD & IDA, 21 January, 2011, p. 15..."
Philip Hirsch, Natalia Scurrah
Source/publisher: Mekong Region Land Governence (MRLG)
Date of publication: 2015-10-31
Date of entry/update: 2016-01-17
Type: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 602.11 KB
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Title: The Political Economy of Land Governance in Myanmar
Description/subject: "Land governance is an inherently political-economic issue. This report on Myanmar1 is one of a series of country reports on Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Viet Nam (CLMV) that seek to present country-level analyses of the political economy of land governance. The country level analysis addresses land governance in Myanmar in two ways. First, it summarises what the existing body of knowledge tells us about power and configurations that shape access to and exclusion from land, particularly among smallholders, the rural poor, ethnic minorities and women. Second, it draws upon existing literature and expert assessment to provide a preliminary analysis of the openings for and obstacles to land governance reform afforded by the political economic structures and dynamics of each country. The premise of this analysis is that existing configurations of social, political, administrative and economic power lead to unequal distribution of land and related resources. They also produce outcomes that are socially exclusionary, environmentally unsustainable and economically inefficient. Power imbalances at various levels of society result in growing insecurity of land tenure, loss of access to resources by smallholders, increasing food and livelihood insecurity, and human rights abuses. The first part of this analysis explains why, how and with what results for different groups these exclusionary arrangements and outcomes are occurring. In recognition of the problems associated with existing land governance arrangements, a number of reform initiatives are underway in the Mekong Region. Most of these initiatives seek to enhance security of access to land by disadvantaged groups. All the initiatives work within existing structures of power, and the second part of the analysis discusses the potential opportunities and constraints afforded by the existing arrangements. This country report commences with a brief identification of the political-economic context that sets the parameters for existing land governance and for reform in Myanmar. It then explores the politicaleconomic dynamics of land relations and identifies key transitions in land relations that affect access to land and tenure security for smallholders. Finally, the report discusses key openings for, and constraints to, land governance reform. Myanmar is marked by a rapid opening of its economy to foreign investment. This has exacerbated insecurity over land in a country where arbitrary use of authority has troubled smallholders for decades. Close association between the military (which still controls the levers of government), domestic big business and foreign corporate interests produces a powerful force for land alienation in a country where the current accelerated development path is largely based on land-demanding projects. These projects include agribusiness plantations, extractives projects in the energy and mining sector, and special economic zones (SEZs). The space for open dialogue and challenges around these issues has opened up rapidly, leaving civil society, government officials and the international community scrambling to stay abreast. Meanwhile, new and complex issues have emerged on top of old problems as neoliberal approaches to turn land into capital see tenure reforms move in the direction of private land titling for smallholder sedentary lowland farmers. In addition, new land and investment-related laws enable foreign capital into land-based deals, particularly for agribusiness."
Natalia Scurrah, Philip Hirsch, Kevin Woods
Source/publisher: Mekong Region Land Governence (MRLG)
Date of publication: 2015-10-31
Date of entry/update: 2016-01-17
Type: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 205.47 KB
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Title: DARE Network
Description/subject: "DARE Network is a community-based grassroots organization providing culturally appropriate treatment and prevention programs to reduce substance abuse and associated societal problems within the communities of the refugee and displaced ethnic people from Burma, along the Thai-Burmese border."
Source/publisher: DARE Network
Date of entry/update: 2016-01-15
Type: Websites/Multiple Documents
Category: Substance abuse
Language: English
Local URL:
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Title: Hate Speech: A Study of Print, Movies, Songs and Social Media in Myanmar အမုနး့ပြာ့စေသော စကာ့မ်ာ့: ျမနးမာံ စာနယးဇငး့၇ ရုပးသဵနွငးံ လူမွုမီ??
Description/subject: နိဒါနး့ 3-7 ျမနးမာျပညးရွိအမုနး့စကာ့မ်ာ့- သမိုငး့ကြောငး့နောကးခဵ 7-9 သုတေသနနညး့လမး့ 10-12 လူမွု မီဒီယာတငြး အဓိကတြေ့ရွိခ်ကးမ်ာ့ 12-48 စာနယးဇငး့ မီဒီယာမ်ာ့တငြး အဓိကတြေ့ရွိခ်ကးမ်ာ့ 42-76 ရုပးရွငးမ်ာ့နွငးံ သီခ်ငး့မ်ာ့တငြး အဓိကတြေ့ရွိခ်ကးမ်ာ့ 76-85 အကြဵျပုခ်ကးမ်ာ့
Source/publisher: PEN Myanmar
Date of publication: 2016-01-05
Date of entry/update: 2016-01-14
Type: Individual Documents
Language: Burmese (မြန်မာဘာသာ)
Format : pdf pdf
Size: 3.86 MB 5.89 MB
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Title: Hate Speech: A Study of Print, Movies, Songs and Social Media in Myanmar
Description/subject: Introduction... Hate Speech in Myanmar: Historical Context... Research Methodology... Key Findings on Social Media... Key Findings on Print Media... Key Findings on Songs and Movies... Recommendations.
Source/publisher: PEN Myanmar
Date of publication: 2016-01-05
Date of entry/update: 2016-01-14
Type: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf pdf pdf
Size: 3.9 MB 307.75 KB 5.99 MB
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Title: Government Defence Anti-Corruption Index (Myanmar)
Description/subject: "Myanmar is located in Band F, which indicates critical corruption risk in its national defence and security establishments. No branch of the state - the legislative, executive, or judicial branches - may exercise oversight over the military. Article 20 of the 2008 constitution states, ?The Defence Services has the right to independently administer ... all affairs of the armed forces.” In practice, Myanmar has two parallel power structures: the civil government and the military, with the latter also having significant influence in the former. There is a complete lack of transparency regarding military activities and no public disclosure of any key information on defence spending, strategy, or procurement plans - precluding any opportunities for civilian oversight...".....Under Political, Financial, Personnel, Operational and Procurement, you will find a number of questions and answers headed: COMMENTS; SOURCES; RESEARCHER AND PEER REVIEWERS.
Source/publisher: Transparency International - Defence and Security
Date of publication: 2015-10-31
Date of entry/update: 2016-01-13
Type: Individual Documents
Language: English
Local URL:
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