EAI held the third workshop of the “Strengthening Civil Society Organizations in Myanmar 2017” program in Yangon, Myanmar between the 22nd and the 26th of January 2018. This program seeks to strengthen the institutional and research capacity of nascent think tanks in Myanmar so that they may develop new and innovative policies and ideas to support the democratic transition currently underway in Myanmar. The workshop began with an introduction to the five-stage policy process model and a discussion of policy analysis methods. This lesson was supplemented with a case study analysis exercise that explored the dynamics of real public policies and gave participants the opportunity to practice implementing the analysis tools they learned. The case studies covered air pollution in South Korea, state-issued history textbooks in South Korea, and maternal mortality in California, USA.

For the second half of the workshop, EAI partnered with Maxine Tanya Hamada, who recently served as the executive director of the Institute for Leadership, Empowerment, and Democracy (iLEAD) in the Philippines and who is currently a fellow with the National Endowment for Democracy, to lead sessions on advocacy and strategy making for civil society. Ms. Hamada led a discussion of how civil society organizations can take an advocacy role in policy and guided them through the creation of an advocacy strategy plan. She shared her experiences working with the Philippines’ Department of Budget and Management and overseeing the Grassroots Planning and Budgeting Program, and led a lively discussion on meaningful devolution and defending civic spaces. 

Following the end of the Yangon workshop, EAI traveled to Mandalay and Myitkyina to visit our partner organizations and host a seminar in each city on South Korea’s democratization experience. In Mandalay, the seminar was attended by students majoring in international relations and political science, members of local civil society organizations, and interested civilians including a former political prisoner and a current candidate for regional parliament. A lively discussion was held on what factors can hinder or foster democracy, why civil resistance was successful in South Korea’s case, and what can be done to counteract democratic retreat. In Myitkyina, the seminar touched on many of the same themes and was attended by members of local civil society organizations. The discussion also included issues relating to ethnic minorities, and how government policy toward ethnic minority groups can hinder or foster democracy and citizen political participation. 

EAI’s partner organizations are continuing to make progress in their policy research, and will be presenting their work to the public in May of 2018. This program is funded by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).

Presenters

Ms. Maxine Tanya Hamada, National Endowment for Democracy and World Movement for Democracy
Mr. Young Hwan Shin, EAI
Ms. Natalie Grant, EAI

Participating Organizations

Sandhi Governance Institute
Yangon School of Political Science
Open Myanmar Initiative
Another Development
Salween Institute for Public Policy
Yone Kyi Yar Knowledge Propagation Society
Naushawng Development Institute