UNDP Myanmar Country Programme 2016-17

The responsible programme officer wrote the following in the CoP dated 2019-10-31: Under the democratic governance pillar, UNDP contributed to the promotion of democratic governance and the rule of law to strengthen democratic institutions and the advancement of human rights. The  Parliament now leads its own processes of institutional change and development through more effective senior level decision-making, empowered mid-level management, and a clear vision for its development priorities. MPs and committees are better equipped with the skills and understanding to undertake their law-making, representation and oversight duties through procedural reform, the introduction of committee inquiries, and MP professional development through the Learning Centre. Strategic development of ICT and information management systems enable MPs to better engage with the business of the parliament and the public they represent. Through the Civil Service Reform Strategic Action Plan, the government will improve service delivery, reduce corruption and enhance inclusion in the civil service. The civil service reform process has been enhanced by the Anti-Corruption Infrastructure Assessment, South-South exchanges on public service motivation, and leadership development programmes for civil servants. The newly established Union Justice Coordination Body and its 14 sub-committees are creating a national justice strategy to address justice concerns from a multi-stakeholder perspective, with platforms to ensure local community voices are included. The Fair Trial Standards Manual establishes clear instruction for prosecutors to conduct trials in line with international human rights rights and standards. Rule of law and human rights principles are also promoted through the adoption of codes of ethics for the judiciary and law officers. The Rule of Law Centres’ (ROLCs) mobile outreach on gender-based violence, rule of law, and human rights (which began in 2017) reached over 2,900 people in remote locations; and the Rule of Law Centre trainings have shown consistently high rates of satisfaction by course participants. There is improved quality of data collection and dissemination reflecting the needs of poor and vulnerable people through institutional capacity development of the Central Statistical Organization (CSO), the Planning Department, and other relevant government departments at both national and sub-national levels. UNDP’s support to the Development Assistance Coordination Unit (DACU) and the Cooperation Partners Group (CPG) has contributed to building more inclusive and meaningful partnerships between the government, development partners, civil society, private sector and the Parliament to ensure effective development cooperation in the country. Under the local governance pillar, UNDP contributed to the GoM’s testing of fiscal decentralization via an inclusive and participatory model and regulatory framework for annual township development planning and public service delivery. On request from Bago and Mon Governments to support improvement of public procurement processes by township administrations, UNDP developed a procurement guideline and facilitated trainings for state/region government departments and township level government departments. UNDP continued support to more responsive and people-centered public service delivery by supporting the GoM in developing an action plan for further improvements of the implementation of the One Stop Shops (OSS). UNDP’s promoted women’s empowerment through the rural women’s federation of self-reliant groups, Mae Doe Kabar (MDK), by continuing to strengthen MDK’s capacity to provide trainings on gender-based violence and mobile technology/IT skills to the 22,000 members. UNDP’s support to MDK has contributed to nurturing a large functional network of female rural leaders, effectively promoting women’s empowerment. UNDP and UNCDF promoted financial inclusion in Myanmar through continued grant support to two micro-finance institutions (the Association for Social Advancement and Alliance) and one association of credit cooperatives (Association of Asian Confederation of Credit Union). These grants enabled the finance institutions to expand financial services to poor households totaling 244,000 clients in 2017, 85% of them women. Policy support to implementation of the National Road Map on Financial Inclusion provided technical support to the secretariat office of the Inter-Ministerial Steering Committee on Financial Inclusion (IMSC). In 2017, the IMSC prioritized advancing key activities: the ‘One Household One Account’ (OHOA), mobile money for microfinance institutions, responsible finance, and amendment of the microfinance law. The IMSC also initiated the ‘Making Access Possible (MAP) Refresh’ which will be conducted by UNCDF in partnership with the Finmark Trust in order to provide updated data and lead to a renewed baseline to guide Roadmap initiatives to 2020 and beyond. UNDP advocated for mainstreaming conflict-sensitivity and social cohesion approaches and principles into national and international development interventions in Myanmar through the preparation of two research studies examining good practice in mainstreaming conflict sensitivity. With the participation of a UNDP-facilitated inter-ministerial study group, an indicator guide and indicator menu for conflict sensitivity were also drafted.  UNDP facilitated professional development programmes on social cohesion for 90 officials from the Ministry of Ethnic Affairs and the Department of Social Welfare, thereby strengthening the capacities of public officials from these institutions to not only mainstream social cohesion principles and approaches into their policies, programmes and services, but also to strengthen their individual and organizational skills around key social cohesion competencies. UNDP also facilitated a high-level seminar on social cohesion to discuss the definition, approaches, relevance, and relevant global comparative practices and experiences, and in so doing, initiated an internal process within the ministries on how social cohesion approaches can be institutionally mainstreamed. From the perspective of linkages between two pillars, the Section Office has assessed that the works in local governance pillar is complimented by the works in democratic governance. There has been significant engagement among the outputs under the pillars, and that, especially at Union level, the teams are working well together to maximize leverage. The Development Effectiveness Output under democratic governance pillar collaborated closely with the Local Governance Output to provide planning support at all levels of the government. In 2017, the two outputs worked with the Ministry of Planning and Finance and the Ministry of Home Affairs to conduct a field assessment on the current practices and challenges in the planning, budgeting, and monitoring processes, in order to identify entry points for integrating the SDGs into planning processes. The two outputs have also started providing joint support to the Bago Region Government and its township administrations for its five-year planning and related annual planning processes. Recommendations identified from the above field assessment have been implemented. The Public Administration Output collaborated with Local Governance Output on UNDP’s work on grievance mechanisms and anti-corruption, sourcing technical expertise from the various teams within UNDP. The output is also working with the local governance team to conduct a study on ‘women in public administration’, which aims to map out the number and level of position of women in ministries and departments at all levels of government. It is anticipated that this study will provide the Government of Myanmar with policy recommendations on ways to improve gender equality and inclusiveness in the public service. To contribute to crosscutting issue, UNDP continued to mainstream women’s participation into the township planning initiative by ensuring participation of at least one female representative from each ward/village tract during planning sessions, meaning that women have been assured 30% participation in the planning sessions. By providing leadership skills training to all 77 of Myanmar’s female ward/village tract administrators during a week-long workshop, UNDP strengthened women’s positions in local governance institutions, and supported participants in the establishment of an informal network which they will use to support each other in their daily work.

UNDPs country programme goal stated in the programme documentation is "to promote poverty reduction and sustainable development that are rights-based, gender sensitive, inclusive and equitable by streghtening institutional capacity of national and local governments and non-state actors." This goal is to be achieved through three pillars and eight outputs. The three pillars are Local Governance and Local Development, Environment and Disaster Risk Reduction, and Democratic Governance. The two pillars that are relevant for Swedish support are Pillar 1 and Pillar 3.The goal of Pillar 1 is: community driven development institutions that support local governance in service delivery and inclusive growth, including agricultrual development and enhancement of employment. opportunities for women and men.The goal of Pillar 3 is: Promotion of democratic governance and the rule fo law to strengthen democratic institutions and the advancement of human rights.