Women’s Empowerment and Inclusive Communities in Myanmar 

ObjectivesFund scope

The Joint Programme supports the Government of Myanmar, Rakhine State officials, and people living in affected Rakhine communities in addressing the development challenges and root causes of tensions and conflict across the state. This includes ongoing marginalization and inter-communal tension, as well as the current exclusion of women from social and political spaces. Solutions should empower women from development and human rights standpoints, carving a path for everyone to realize peace and stability alongside resilient communities.

The Women’s Empowerment and Resilient Communities programme builds on an earlier project financed by the Government of Japan, leveraging humanitarian, recovery, peacebuilding and development gains made to render new initiatives effective and provide impact at scale. Actions are designed to achieve mid- and longer-term objectives of meeting community priorities and needs through inclusive and responsive service delivery, improved access to justice, and increased local development opportunities that promote social cohesion. In tandem, programme stakeholders work on empowering women to engage in, contribute to, and benefit from inclusive growth, which will help create the conditions conducive to a safe and dignified recovery for IDPs and refugees, and sustainable resilience and development for all.

Theory of change

When local and national government officials engage in participatory and inclusive planning processes that consider the needs and rights of women (along with existing barriers to participation for the most marginalized) it has the potential to improve government action and increase citizen trust in administrative officials. In providing the state parliament with the capacities required to represent their constituents and conduct oversight of government work, people are empowered to act, and trust can be built between communities. This also applies to improving the skills of government and non-government stakeholders in promoting human rights, gender equality, and judicial redress by recognizing how different groups—especially women—access and benefit from human rights protection.

Stability, inclusive processes, and accountability measures are critical for the peaceful resolution of conflict and equal participation of all community members in development processes. When political will guarantees democratic participation and improved service delivery, and communities and institutions have equal access to knowledge and skills (that include the voices of the most vulnerable in rights-based discussions and political decision-making), the result is peace- and trust-building, and the expansion of livelihood and income-generating opportunities.

GovernanceGovernance arrangements

Steering Committee

Provides strategic direction and guidance to ensure that objectives are met, progress is achieved against targets, and risks and issues are adequately addressed through management actions. The SC is composed of the UN Resident Coordinator in the role of Senior Executive, UNDP Resident Representative, UN Women Country Representative, the Rakhine State Government in the role of Senior Beneficiary, and Donors in the role of Senior Supplier(s). The UNDP Country Office and UN Women Project Office in Myanmar provide programmatic assurance (with oversight and management from the UN Women Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific with respect to UN Women) in support of the Steering Committee, ensuring the programme remains relevant and meets quality standards, appropriate project management milestones are managed and completed, and the project is implemented in compliance with corporate and government rules and regulations.

Administrative Agent

Recipient Organizations receive funds through the Administrative Agent, the MPTF Office. The Administrative Agent is responsible for the receipt, administration and management of contributions from donors, disbursement of funds to Recipient Organizations, and consolidation and dissemination of progress reports to donors.

Participating UN Organizations

Programme implementation is the responsibility of each Participating UN Organization. Each organization is programmatically and financially responsible for resources received.

Projects

Women’s Empowerment and Inclusive Communities in Myanmar

Women’s Empowerment and Inclusive Communities in Myanmar is currently supporting count_projects ongoing projectscount_globalInterregional and count_countries country-specific. This table shows the most recently approved ongoing projects.

All project financial information can be found in the Financials section, including delivery analysis by organization, theme and project; project financial status by country and by theme.

Women’s Empowerment and Inclusive Communities in Myanmar

Results

Gender responsive budgeting capacity-development is most successful when a broad number of state and local actors are involved, government departments in particular. Joint Programme support to members of parliament assisted them in taking a systematic approach to constituency challenges while using data to identify issues that require a policy response rather than individual case action. By helping MPs educate their constituents about their role in oversight and law-making there is accurate public understanding of their reach and reasonable expectations about the pace of change. The inquiry process, still in the pilot phase, is an ideal vehicle for MPs to transform the individual concerns of constituents to action at the state policy level and open channels for locals to share their concerns and learn about the role of committees in government oversight.

Programme stakeholders enhanced access to justice for women and other vulnerable groups in Rakhine by mitigating the lack of available government-supported legal aid services and capacity of legal aid providers. For too long the formal justice system was underused by vulnerable populations like women and religious and ethnic minorities. A bottom-up approach is one way of engaging the 4,275 people involves and coordinating activities across communities to build trust and social cohesion.

To support planning and coordination of livelihood and social cohesion interventions at the community level, joint programme stakeholders have teamed up with members of local CSOs on livelihood recovery forums. Participation is broad with village leaders and women from multiple districts, including Muslim villages, taking part. Sixty recovery forums have been organized and each established a women’s sub-group where women could articulate their grievances and demands. There has been high levels of participation in all forums and consultation meetings by minority groups, which was crucial for promoting intercommunal trust and creating a space for the meaningful participation of women.

Best practices (abridged)

Supporting townships in participatory planning

Joint programme support helped improve processes and outcomes from township participatory planning workshops and prioritized 10 new projects, including the construction of a water storage earth dam in Kyway Chaing village. Social and environmental screening procedures introduced for site visits were novel approaches that township planning committees and village tract administrators adopted. The application of such procedures highlighted that the proposed project would likely result in a number of risks related to property rights, climate change impact, and possible flooding. Given the hazards alternative options were considered that limit social and environmental risks, expedite the time needed to build and renovate structures, and increase local participation, thereby having an immediate and positive impact on the Kyway Chaing community.

Training on housing, land and property rights

Thida Oo comes from a rural village in Rakhine, where she works in the shop her parents own, selling snacks. When she went to her first paralegal training offered by the Women’s Empowerment and Resilient Communities joint programme, she knew nothing about her rights, but thought having more skills could help her become more self-sufficient. 

At the initial training course, she was intimidated by the number of older males present whom she considered more knowledgeable than she. However, Oo learned all she could, eventually getting accepted into the next level of training. Because of her perseverance Oo is now one of the most knowledgeable people in her village on housing, land, and property issues. She has been entrusted to provide advice to villagers and acts a focal point in her community. “I never thought that I would be involved in a such a group and speak in front of many people to discuss basic concepts of housing, land and property,” she says. In speaking with her family and the village elders Oo learned that her grandparents, who used to grow and sell rice, lost their land through land grabs. The difference is now she is empowered to ensure that such practices do not recur and the rights of community members are upheld and respected.

Gender leadership programme

Two programme participants from an IDP camp attended a Camp Management Committee meeting after a gender leadership training. One of them explained, “The situation is very different now […] In the past, we didn’t have enough confidence to speak at such committee meetings about women’s issues. We thought they would not listen to us because we are women. But when we attended the meeting and presented some of our issues committee members listened to our opinions and accepted to take actions.”

ContactsPoints of contact