MYANMAR
Myanmar Times –Apr 11
The European Union will introduce a new strategy to achieve an enabling environment for Myanmar civil society organisations (CSOs) participating in public reforms by June 2018, said officials of EU and CSOs.
Pedro Campo Llopis, deputy head of operations of EU in Myanmar, noted that CSOs are an important player in fostering peace and conflict resolution.
He added that CSOs also embody the growing demand for transparent and accountable governance.
“The EU also understands the great roles that civil society has been playing in strengthening democratic process in Myanmar,” he said on Wednesday. “The EU expresses its hope that this process of increasing the space for meaningful CSO participation will continue to grow, in transparency and accountability, in the peace process and in democratic fora.”
“In more recent times, we have seen greater opportunities for CSO participation in public debate on more political issues, and there have been a number of notable successes where CSO participation has had concrete impact. But, there are still challenges and constraints” he added.
The EU has been supporting various civil society organizations in the country since 2008. It has provided an estimate €100 million euro to CSOs since 2014.
In 2012, the EU decided to engage with civil society in a more strategic manner and developed the Roadmap for Engagement with Civil Society (2014-2017). In Myanmar, this roadmap was launched in September 2015.
But Anouk Van Neck, EU Myanmar programme manager of the security sector reform and civil society, noted that the roadmap proved wanting.
“Even though some results were achieved through the roadmap, overall it can be concluded that the roadmap was not entirely successful” she said.
Daw Myint Myint Shwe, head office programme coordinator of Metta Development Foundation, said CSOs in Myanmar have had a crucial role in service delivery across the entire country, and especially in conflict areas where they have been providing social services, such as education and healthcare for decades.
“Although the role of CSOs is important, they are things they cannot do due to restrictions and limitations,” she said. “There are things which have not been done, though these things should have been done,” she added.
Anouk Van Neck explained that the aim of the new strategy “is not new funding opportunities” as the EU’s mechanisms remain the same. “It is a guide for the EU to engage with CSOs, about transparency on how the EU supports CSOs (funding and policy), about informing on opportunities for CSOs to engage with EU, an instrument to improve coordination and to be effectively implemented through technical support,” she said.
Kyaw Thu, chairperson of the National Drug User Network Myanmar, said; “EU should discuss directly with CSOs which are working only in rural areas rather than CSOs which are working for the entire country.”
EU made consultations with almost 200 CSOs in Taunggyi, Mawlamyine, Mandalay, and Yangon about its new strategy, which will be implemented from 2018 to 2020.”
Pedro Campo Llopis said “The new strategy will be elaborated based on a large number of consultations with civil society groups in an effort to identify best-practice examples, recommendations, and areas for innovation that can further support civil society.”
“Through this consultation, we do hope to get recommendations on priority areas or topics to be included in the strategy at both the local and national level, on potential activities to be implemented under each component, and identification of potential risks and challenges, so that we will better establish our strategy,” he said.
