ADRN

The first year of the "Building Civil Society Capacity in Myanmar" program, which was initiated with the idea of sharing Korea's experience with democratization, came to a close with the holding of an international conference on government budget monitoring in Myanmar. EAI's Myanmar partner organizations have been researching the budget process in Myanmar following the workshops held last year. All of the research was conducted by our Myanmar partners and EAI provided support and advice during their research activities. Sandhi Governance Institute, Renaissance Institute, Open Myanmar Initiative, and the Yangon School of Political Science divided up roles and presented their budget monitoring research which focused on different actors, including the central government, local governments, and the legislature, and different parts of the budget process, including budget planning, oversight, and execution. During the conference, there were lively discussions on how the government is using the country's resources, why the participation of the people in the budget process is important, and what kind of role civil society should play in creating a transparent and responsible government. EAI is now looking to turn the positive results and experience of this program into an expanded and more developed program in 2016.