FAO Capacity Development

Deepening country ownership for the governance of tenure in Myanmar

22/12/2015

Background

Myanmar has a population of 51 million people, 70-75 percent of which live in rural areas, and depend on agriculture for their livelihoods. The country is rich in natural resources, and these are in increasingly high demand both within Myanmar and among nearby countries. Ensuring that natural resources are managed equitably and sustainably is therefore a national priority.

With this in mind, the Government of Myanmar requested FAO to support the implementation of the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security (hereafter, the Voluntary Guidelines). The Voluntary Guidelines are a global standard to promote the responsible governance of tenure of land, fisheries and forests, as a means of achieving national food security.

Participatory Capacity Analysis: a method that works

Following the government request, FAO organized a three-day multi-stakeholder workshop in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar, in October 2015. The workshop was attended by over 100 participants from governments, NGOs, famers’ organisations, academia and the private sector. The aim was to enable stakeholders to ascertain the extent to which Myanmar is currently implementing the Voluntary Guidelines, and to identify what actions they can take to make further progress in this area. The objectives were to raise awareness on the Voluntary Guidelines, foster dialogue among participants, and improve coordination around the governance of tenure.

To ensure that the process was fully owned and driven by national stakeholders from the outset, FAO engaged a national support team that includes a civil society network – the Land Core Group – to facilitate the workshop, and designed the capacity needs analysis such that stakeholders analysed their own capacities.

On the first day, participants deepened their understanding of the Voluntary Guidelines and familiarised themselves with their relevance in the context of Myanmar. The following two days, participants worked in facilitated groups to carry out the analysis of their own capacities. This focused primarily on organisational and institutional capacities - looking at organisational performance, the capacity for coordination among stakeholders, the quality of policy frameworks, political commitment, etc. Using a questionnaire, stakeholders analysed the current situation for the governance of tenure in Myanmar as they saw it and created a vision for the desired situation. Based on this, they defined tangible, actionable suggestions for improvement.

The analysis will form the basis of a report, which will be reviewed and validated by all the participants, and will define a set of actionable recommendations.

Ownership, dialogue and a joint direction

The workshop was well received, with 78% of participants reporting that they were “satisfied” or “very satisfied” in the post-workshop evaluation.

Bringing together such a diverse set of stakeholders with a common objective, created an opportunity for participants to gain a comprehensive perspective on the current situation for the governance of tenure in Myanmar. This set the stage for balanced decision-making.

The process of identifying and analysing their own capacities instilled a sense of ownership and commitment among country actors, which created momentum for them to follow up on the priorities that they defined.

The group work created lively dialogue among participants, leading to a common understanding, and prepared them to move forward in a joint direction. It also opened up opportunities for stakeholders to discuss more delicate issues, which, thanks in large part to the effective facilitation, resulted in deepened levels of trust and understanding among participants, and allowed them to renew their intentions for more active collaboration.

Overall, this participatory approach to capacity analysis provides a solid basis for Myanmar to make progress towards the effective governance of tenure, and to implement the Voluntary Guidelines.

This approach is transferable to other contexts, and FAO is currently exploring opportunities to support other countries that have endorsed the Voluntary Guidelines.

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