Support to Decentralized Governance in Burma

This project aims to promote improved knowledge and understanding of federalism among key stakeholders such as government officials leaders of political parties and ethnic minority groups. The project targets 10 800 members of the general population 740 local government officials and 1 500 members of civil society including women’s groups. Support is also provided to promote a better understanding of gender equality and the importance of involving women in the political process. Activities include: (1) training and technical support to government officials in state and regional administrations to take on new tasks required for implementing decentralization under a federal system; (2) training of key political stakeholders including newly elected political representatives on how to promote gender equality in decentralized governance structures in a federal system; (3) the design and delivery of awareness raising outreach programs on key aspects of federalism tofor members of the general public and civil society organizations; (4) developing curricula and training materials on federalism gender equality and decentralization; and (5) capacity building of local civil society organizations including training of 120 trainers.

The expected intermediate outcomes for this project are: (1) increased integration of democratic and federal principles into policy of the Government in Burma; and (2) increased engagement of citizens and civil society including women’s groups in the transition to federal democracy in Burma.