A New Generation of Active Citizens in Rural Myanmar

LEAD Mongolia is a World Learning program funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which is working with some of Mongolia’s best and brightest emerging democracy advocates. To propel the program a step further, World Learning partnered with the International Republican Institute (IRI) to implement the LEAD Alliance, which bridges this Mongolian network with like-minded emerging leaders from Bhutan, Myanmar, and Kyrgyzstan.

Myanmar is in the midst of rapid transformation. The landmark election that took place in November 2015 — which gave the National League for Democracy a winning supermajority — has since ushered in a host of changes and challenges as the country opens up to the world after over five decades of authoritarianism.

While much remains up in the air, one thing remains certain: the fate of Myanmar’s transition is in the hands of its young people.

One team of seven LEAD Alliance fellows is working to empower those young people through their Nurturing Responsible and Active Citizens community project.

“In a democratic society, the role is youth is very important,” says Nay Lin Htike, a LEAD Alliance Fellow and human rights education program coordinator the Equality Myanmar. “The youth are the future leaders of our country.”

They received help from their peers in Mongolia. In February 2018, LEAD Mongolia Fellow Khandsuren Lkhamsuren traveled to the southeast Asian country to visit her LEAD Alliance peers and facilitate a three-day intensive civic participation workshop in Kayin state — an ethnic minority and underserved area approximately 188 kilometers east of Yangon — for 15 youth.

The idea was simple: work with Kayin’s youth leaders and empower them with the skills to become agents of change in their communities. The Myanmar team carefully selected young leaders who are role models, so that each participant would return to her or his village and work to get youth across Kayin involved in issues important to them.

In the workshop, LEAD Alliance and LEAD Mongolia fellows presented content on how young people can become responsible, active citizens in their communities through topics such as the rights and responsibilities of citizens, advocacy, social inclusion, volunteerism, leadership, and gender and democracy. Lkhamsuren presented on Mongolia’s history of democratic transition, its current political situation, and her own civic initiatives.

Team Myanmar’s second Mongolian peer mentor Bayarsuren Yalalt traveled to Yangon in late February to help the LEAD Alliance fellows reflect on their lessons learned. She consulted with the group on how the project made an impact as well as how the Myanmar Fellows can enhance their roles as civic educators in the future.

They already seem to be having an impact. One youth leader from Kayin state explains that the Nurturing Responsible and Active Citizens training allowed her to clearly understand the roles and responsibilities citizens have a democratic society. “After this training, I have plans to conduct sharing sessions in my community,” she said. “I hope that I can be a role model for my community.”