Testing: Videos DR

  • Myanmar Speaker Series: How to support sub-national parliaments effectively? 2020 Elections

    November 5, 2020. Ms. Myat The Thitsar, Mr. Ivo Balinov & Mr. Thomas (Tom) Cormier.

    Decentralization as mandated by the 2008 Constitution re-introduced state/region governments and legislatures across Myanmar. This represents a central issue for the country’s long term development. The 14 sub-national legislatures have the responsibility to debate and pass local legislation and also have the formal role to debate and approve local budgets and oversee their spending. The potential of the ongoing peace process leading to the negotiation of a federal model of governance means that the roles of sub-national institutions, including parliaments, would continue to increase substantially. Against this background, the bulk of international support remains focused at the union level in the new capital of Nay Pyi Taw. Less attention is paid to sub-national parliaments across the 14 states and regions in the country. The parliamentary elections scheduled for November 8, 2020 have the potential of making sub-national parliaments even more ethnically diverse and of increasing the number of women parliamentarians.

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  • Myanmar Speaker Series: Bottom-up decision making? The Importance of Women as Local Leaders

    November 3, 2020.

    In Myanmar, despite limited moves towards decentralisation over the last decade, formal legal, policy-making and budgetary powers remain highly centralised at the union level. However, in practice, decision making at ward/village tract and village level has a large impact on citizens’ lives. Ward/village tract administrators and “100 household heads ” – the main elected community leaders – act as key interlocutors between ordinary people and higher levels of the state. So, although the vast majority of the government’s budget is centrally controlled, much of the de facto revenue collection and public service delivery is decided at local levels. Local decision-making remains highly gendered due to a persistent gender division of roles and responsibilities. In Myanmar, improving gender equality of participation in local governance bodies could result in more equitable decisions for the population.

    Burmese Language Audio Version

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  • Myanmar Speaker Series: Working Pathways to Women’s Political Participation

    October 29, 2020

    The World Economic Forum’s 2020 Global Gender Gap Report assesses women’s empowerment across four dimensions: Economic Participation and Opportunity; Education Attainment; Health and Survival; and Political Empowerment. The latter one tends to be a very critical dimension to determine the size and direction of the gap. Political empowerment measures participation of women in parliament and the number of women ministers in the country. Within the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), Philippines performs the best and Myanmar the worst, putting the country 114th in the global ranking of out of 153 countries.

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  • Myanmar Speaker Series – Towards Gender Equality: Implications for Myanmar’s 2020 Elections

    October 27, 2020.

    It is now 25 years since the UN World Conference on Women was held in Beijing (1995). This meeting of global leaders spurred an unprecedented push for gender equality in a number of areas. Specifically, the conference highlighted women’s persistent political underrepresentation as a democratic problem as well as a hurdle for economic and human development. Since this conference, many countries have made concerted efforts to increase the number of women in politics. For example, the percentage of the world’s parliamentarians that are women has more than doubled since 1995 from 11% to 25% in 2020. Participating in public life is an aspect of peoples’ agency, and therefore the ability (or inability) to participate in politics and governance can directly affect their well-being.

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  • Myanmar Speaker Series: What is the road to improving health services in ethnic states?

    October 21, 2020.

    Myanmar is undergoing a transition from military to civilian rule since 2011 and government expenditure on health has increased from 1% in 2010 to 3.4% in 2015, still one of the lowest in the Asia-Pacific region. Though health sector decentralization is said to be put in place, the progress so far has not been assessed. There is limited information on how resources are managed and how well is decentralization progressing. The current system favors top-down decision-making, creating vast gaps of expectations between decision-makers and communities in states/regions, townships and villages/wards. In ethnic states, the delivery of health service remains unequal and insufficient due to poor governance, limited budgets, outdated facilities, and lack of supplies and health staff. Moreover, in such resource-poor setting, the gap between community expectations and what service providers can actually offer remains enormous, and needs to be closed.

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  • Myanmar Speaker Series: How to equip sub national parliaments for evidence based policy making ?

    October 7, 2020.

    Decentralization as mandated by the 2008 Constitution re-introduced state/region governments and legislatures across Myanmar. This represents a central issue for the country’s long term development. The 14 sub-national legislatures have the responsibility to debate and pass local legislation and also have the formal role to debate and approve local budgets and oversee their spending. The potential of the ongoing peace process leading to the negotiation of a federal model of governance means that the roles of sub-national institutions, including parliaments, would continue to increase substantially. Against this background, the bulk of international support remains focused at the union level in the new capital of Nay Pyi Taw. Less attention is paid to sub-national parliaments across the 14 states and regions in the country. The parliamentary elections scheduled for November 8, 2020 have the potential of making sub-national parliaments even more ethnically diverse and of increasing the number of women parliamentarians.

    (more…)

  • Myanmar Speaker Series: Can Decentralization Improve Education in Myanmar ?

    October 1, 2020

    Following the start of the country’s various reforms in 2011, public funding for education has significantly increased, leading to an important rise in access. The primary net enrollment rate increased from 88% in 2009-10 to 93 percent in 2014-15. Net enrollment in pre-primary education saw an impressive growth between 2008 – when roughly 1 in 20 children were enrolled – and 2014 when nearly 1 in 4 children were enrolled. The National Education Strategic Plan (NESP) 2016-21 represents an important milestone for education in Myanmar, as the country’s very first education sector plan in the context of a major transition towards democracy.

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  • Myanmar Speaker Series: What Does the Latest Peace Conference Mean for Myanmar? An Update

    September 23, 2020.

    The Government of Myanmar and the Ethnic Armed Organizations are key parties to a formal Peace Process. They have been negotiating ‘basic federal as well as democratic’ principles for the country. In October 2015, all parties agreed that these principles would constitute the Union Accord, the basis to amend all laws–including the 2008 Constitution. Under the current government (2015-2020), no major constitutional change has taken place. The Peace Process remains the most plausible path to amend the constitution, end the armed conflict and lead to a multi-ethnic, federal and democratic Myanmar.

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Videos: Blog Posts

Research in action: Right to work when home no longer works for you

(This article was originally posted on the International Development Research Centre website in English and French. Contributors: Edgard Rodriguez, lead officer, K4DM initiative, IDRC; and Kundan Mishra, senior program officer, IDRC.) In 2025, Thailand adopted a landmark policy, granting Myanmar nationals living in temporary shelters and border areas the legal right to work outside refugee…

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Video

Cyberspace and Freedom of Expression in Post-Coup Myanmar

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A team of young researchers, publishing anonymously, carried out a series of focus group discussions and key informant interviews in...
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Tea Circle Blog

https://youtu.be/2dVtYOavI-4 Tea Circle is a forum for new perspectives on Myanmar, highlighting analysis, research, opinions, book reviews, multi-media presentations and...
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Understanding Myanmar’s Development Research Report Series

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kn2557PpSys&list=PLxfceNfvkdj5n93udTYYqN50nCr8n9UWh&index=11 The report series seeks to enhance Myanmar’s knowledge development and promote academic dialogue within South East Asia.Published by International...
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Voices of Ethnic People In Shan State About Gender Equality Photo Essay

https://youtu.be/AomBRyxJRII The Myanmar Institute for Integrated Development (MIID) has produced a beautiful photo essay, highlighting 16 case studies from their research to...
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Myanmar Speaker Series: Boosting Investment in Social Science Research in Myanmar

Over the last decade, Myanmar’s transition to democracy has faced multiple milestones and challenges. The country observed its first free...
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Myanmar Speaker Series: The road ahead on education reform: What comes next for Myanmar?

After gaining independence from British rule, the education system in Myanmar was a model of excellence in the Asia-Pacific. Many...
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Myanmar Speaker Series: How to support sub-national parliaments effectively? 2020 Elections

November 5, 2020. Ms. Myat The Thitsar, Mr. Ivo Balinov & Mr. Thomas (Tom) Cormier. Decentralization as mandated by the...
Read More

Myanmar Speaker Series: Bottom-up decision making? The Importance of Women as Local Leaders

November 3, 2020. In Myanmar, despite limited moves towards decentralisation over the last decade, formal legal, policy-making and budgetary powers...
Read More

Myanmar Speaker Series: Working Pathways to Women’s Political Participation

October 29, 2020 The World Economic Forum's 2020 Global Gender Gap Report assesses women's empowerment across four dimensions: Economic Participation...
Read More

Myanmar Speaker Series – Towards Gender Equality: Implications for Myanmar’s 2020 Elections

October 27, 2020. It is now 25 years since the UN World Conference on Women was held in Beijing (1995)....
Read More
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