Pandita

Exasperated Challenges for International Assistance

Sun, 30 Oct 2022 20:47:11 -0700

“Many of us are repeatedly discussing the post-coup challenges. Will counting those challenges help those solve themselves?”

At one point in a Q&A session of our research’s preliminary finding presentation, a respected international actor voiced her concern.

Twenty months after the coup, many local and international civil society actors encountered numerous risks, threats, and challenges in their daily work and unique positions to help the Myanmar people. Unknown factors remain as obstacles in their development works. All of those actors have the same intention: to make international development assistance more effective.

Pandita’s current research, articulating the perspectives of the local advocacy organisations, is an effort to contribute to the purpose. The report, published in October 2022, focused on the local advocacy segment, which can reflect insightfully on the needs and concerns of diverse communities at large. Moreover, their role is and will be vital in current and future political contexts, impacting the decisions made by the key stakeholders in Myanmar’s affairs.

Within more than one and a half years, the local advocacy organisations have learned at least how to survive, identifying timely emerging issues, devising ways to work safely, and approaching various stakeholders. Through the research process, Pandita delved into the dilemmas and challenges of available funding types and models, misaligned approaches to risk among the actors, and influencing and communicating with donors. Not all the problems are brand-new; some are the pre-existing ones before the coup but become exasperated in the post-coup days.

The 39-page report comprehensively discusses the emergence and development of local advocacy groups in a background section. In the key-finding part, the report explores how short-term or inaccessible funding challenge local advocacy organisations, how local and international actors tackle risks in misaligned...Read More

Let’s Stand with Tech for Democracy

Sun, 04 Sep 2022 21:38:00 -0700

Billions of people using technology have excellent expectations. However, internet shutdowns, censorship, surveillance techniques, fake news, and cybercrimes have become buzzwords in the last few years and have threatened their daily lives.

Especially for a country under a military regime, populations in Myanmar had widely used digital technologies, along with local civil society’s mobilising for civic engagement, to express their voices and concerns for a democratic future. On the other hand, the regime attacks democracy activists, human rights defenders, and protest movements by employing internet censorship, surveillance techniques, disinformation campaigns, and propaganda.

Pandita believes that continued civil society efforts and committed civic participation by the citizens utilising digital technologies will contribute to building a just and democratic society. Thus, we support #TechforDemocracy, a Danish-led initiative that brings different actors to make technology work for democracy and human rights, not against them. Pandita joins the more than 110 signatories of the Copenhagen Pledge.

Pandita will continue empowering, connecting, and influencing society, local activists, and citizens through civic awareness-raising online activities, sharing best practices, and enhancing digital platforms for all actors who work for – and not against – democracy.

Pandita Development Institute (Pandita) will migrate its official website to a new domain name, www.pandita.org, in May 2022.

Pandita will continue developing its mission and strategic actions, although the domain's extension changed from ‘.asia’ to ‘.org’. Under the new domain name, the website's contents and design will be kept untouched for our stakeholder's convenience.

However, due to a few technical issues, there could be an inconvenience for a short while in not directly reaching Pandita's new domain-name website by following the old links or URLs. At the same time, there will be changes in the email address to Pandita's services and staff.

To ensure a smooth transition, Pandita will preserve both the new and the old domain names until May 2023. Thus, Pandita's stakeholders will not have to worry about the email communication using the old or new address. Those will safely be in Pandita's in-box.

In the wind of changes, Pandita will continue to uphold openness and accountability standards.

Researchers' Perseverance in Responding to Change

Wed, 23 Mar 2022 04:08:44 -0700

The Asia Research News 2022 magazine features a story: Myanmar — The Unremitting Perseverance of Researchers. The article uncovers new challenges for Myanmar’s researchers after the military coup in 2021. Asia Research News spoke with some researchers to reflect on how their lives and projects have been impacted. ChamTha Kyaw, Pandita’s Executive Director, answered Asia Research New’s interview in November 2021.

Here is the highlight and link to the whole article.

SOURCE: Read More

Few Questions for the Civic Space in Myanmar

Wed, 29 Sep 2021 20:00:00 -0700

How long does a democratic transition take? Many exhausted activists throughout the world whisper such questions. They sometimes doubted if they were making a valid question. In the case of Myanmar, the international community, scholars, and activists were curious about how democratisation will work. It was just until a military coup in early February 2021.

In post-coup Myanmar, local or international actors rewrite their questions. They have seen there are many more unknown factors in Myanmar’s case. They have heard almost enough voices from Myanmar’s civil society about democratic values or institutions, good governance, transparency and accountability, human rights, inclusiveness, and federalism in the previous decade. Many local civil society organisations welcomed active citizens’ participation for such voices in making democracy in Myanmar.

The coup has changed the game. All tenderly nurtured democratic values and institutions has been broken. The population tries to survive the accumulating threats for lives, freedoms and security under the challenging context of pandemic and economic collapse. Local organisations opt for adaptability and survival to sustain their role in such an environment of undermining freedom of assembly, association, and expression. But HOW? It is the question the international community would ask. Is the civic space in Myanmar closing or shrinking?

Pandita Development Institute (Pandita) has disseminated a research report on that title. It is simply sure that the question will not be answered in such a brief report. In the report launch, many international actors poured down more and more questions on the trends of local civil society, operation and security concerns, and changing legitimacy environments.

Pandita may not provide enough answers for each crucial question; however, they just flashed some realities on the ground. In restoring democracy for Myanmar, the actors need to continue their works while...Read More

Coming Soon: Social Media Kit for Local Groups

Mon, 18 Jan 2021 23:00:13 -0800

အောက်တွင် မြန်မာဘာသာဖြင့် ဖော်ပြထားပါသည်

Book Title: Social Media Quick Start Guide for Local Civil Society Organisations

Developed by Pandita Development Institute

Available on 29^th January 2021

For different reasons such as entertainment, information updates, or civic participation, social media is a popular communication channel for most of Myanmar’s population.

After long months of staying at home during Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, local CSOs in Myanmar communicate via social media platforms than ever.

Against this background, optimising the influence and effective online communication practices of think-tanks and advocacy organisations in Myanmar becomes crucial. Thus, the International Development Research Center (Canada), KIVU International and Pandita Development Institute joined their hands for this cause.

Their cooperation rewards a Social Media Quick Start Guide to increase local civil society actors’ capacities for effectively communicating and engaging stakeholders and beneficiaries online.

Pandita, with a track record in employing Social Media for civic participation, developed the worthwhile Quick Start Guide in 6 main components: (1) Setting Communication Performance Goals; (2) Setting Target Audience; (3) Choosing the Right Channel; (4) Developing Content Strategy; (5) Maintaining Engagement, and (6) Monitoring and Evaluation.

After its launch on 29^th January 2021, Pandita plans to organise two follow-up workshops for representatives of local civil society organisations. For sure, few of those participants will love on-demand tailored consultations, which will help master their organisation’s...Read More

My Burmese Days before the Pandemic

Mon, 21 Sep 2020 22:46:00 -0700

By Claire J Cowman

The lush hillsides of Kalaw, the ancient temples of Bagan, and the floating villages of Inle Lake are flashing in my memories. Those were the memories during my volunteer experience in Myanmar, through the Australian Volunteers Program, as the Communications and Partnership Development Advisor with Pandita Development Institute (Pandita), based in Yangon, Myanmar.

While I was living in Myanmar, I learned about the beauty of this incredible country and its people. I also discovered and strengthened my shared passion with Pandita - to advocate for, and support the country's continued transition toward a peaceful, harmonious, and democratic society.

I had the privilege of working with my colleagues at Pandita, who began their work as activists in the latter days of the harsh struggle for democracy and human rights under military dictatorship. Today, they are passionate pro-democracy advocates who have come together to contribute to the country’s transition to democracy through promoting civic engagement.

During my time with Pandita, I worked closely with the Executive Director - ChamTha Kyaw, and Creative Director - Aye Khaing. Each day, we coordinated communications and external affairs activities and connected and collaborated with like-minded partner organisations, both regionally and internationally. Ultimately, such partnerships enable more outstanding advocacy and support for civil society organisations in the pro-democracy space in Myanmar.

Photo: Aye Khaing (left) and ChamTha Kyaw (right) participating in a workshop, hosted by Kivu International and International Development Research Centre.

The Pandita team devote their time to serving citizens by raising civic awareness among the younger generations and civil society leaders. One of their initiatives, 'Civics Now',...Read More

Social Media and Learning Democracy in Myanmar

Thu, 11 Jun 2020 00:21:03 -0700

Myanmar is known for the decade-long armed conflict, and military dictatorship, which has hampered the democratic freedom of the country, since its independence. Myanmar’s history of despotic education policies and harsh censorship had not favoured civics and democracy knowledge or education for the people of Myanmar.

Generations raised in those days are now casting their votes. They are also being exposed to intense political and social debates on social media. Myanmar people aged between 18 and 44 years are among the most active social media users in the country and makeup 22 out of 25 million Facebook users in Myanmar, with a total population of 54 million. This generation of people has not been afforded a deep-rooted civic understanding. Consequently, debate perpetuates mistrust among different communities, undermining social harmony and the democratic transition.

Several civil society organisations and individual active citizens aim to empower people with civic and democracy knowledge through informal training and awareness-raising activities. Since 2017, Pandita Development Institute (Pandita), has introduced Civics Now, a social media platform-based activity to promote active learning, democracy, and its political process. It is a Facebook page where reasonable and constructive debate among those aged 18-44 years celebrates.

Civics Now, Pandita’s social media page for publishing democracy knowledge, started a campaign for understanding democracy in October 2018. The focus of this campaign was to commit to weekly posts about democracy related issues and topics, for 80 consecutive weeks. This commitment was a challenge not only for Pandita but also for the audience. In May 2020, Pandita evaluated the audience responses and...Read More

Myanmar Civic Space: A ‘Home Sweet Home’ for Human Rights Defenders?

Tue, 10 Dec 2019 04:07:17 -0800

In today’s world, the concept of human rights is inextricably linked to global peace, justice, and equality, as a fundamental universal freedom.

On the 10^thof December 2019, we stop to celebrate 71 years since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). The UDHR has inspired a multitude of international human rights treaties and declarations around the world and has propelled the human rights debate onto the international stage.

The UDHR has been a key enabling platform for human rights defenders (HRDs) to advocate, promote, and fight for their fundamental rights and freedoms.

Without the concerted activism of HRDs, we will find ourselves in a far more troubled world, where imbalances of power, and corruption, further add to the plight of the world’s most vulnerable people. This effect will inevitably stifle progress toward human rights and freedoms for many societies. This risk is no different for Myanmar.

HRDs in Myanmar play an active part in every level of this political debate. Such defenders include international multilateral organisations, local civil society organisations (CSOs), activists, lawyers, journalists, and individual citizens.

Pandita Development Institute (Pandita) are an active local CSO in Myanmar, taking part in enabling a healthy civic space so that HRDs do their job well. Pandita, being borne from the foundations of pro-democracy activism, understand the challenges and opportunities of HRDs, particularly amongst those within civil society. Pandita have observed the positive and negative trends in Myanmar affecting the voice of HRDs. These trends reveal the increasing challenges for HRDs, and the hopeful opportunities to support HRDs within the civic space.

In recent years, the voice of HRD organisations has amplified significantly. Local rights-based organisations are more easily able to register as formal associations. This progress has added to their acknowledgement...Read More

Knock, Knock. Who's there? Unicode

Thu, 31 Oct 2019 21:53:48 -0700

Sending emails to somebody is not a big task, everyone knows. However, it was not always easy to compose those emails daily in Burmese. The lack of a single standard made online communications difficult because a Burmese email written in Unicode appears jumbled to Zawgyi users’ devices and vice versa.

Pandita’s Myanmar Bulletin was not exempt from sending two versions of its daily updates to subscribers; one in Zawgyi fonts, and another in Standard Unicode font since 2017. Since November 2019, the two-version misery is over.

Indeed, Pandita adopted Unicode font as a standard in publishing Myanmar Bulletin Monthly editions since 2014. Not only in Myanmar Bulletin, Pandita’s other channels like Civics Now set its stand font Unicode, while Zawgyi is destined to come together. Whereas Civics Now is using Facebook as a platform, which sooner accepted both versions compatible, Civics Now can post in Unicode alone for all users.

For Myanmar Bulletin, it’s a different story because everyone reads emails using internet browsers or email apps which are not supporting either font to be compatible. Thus, Myanmar Bulletin did its daily emails in two versions for two years long.

Then, the Myanmar government announced standardizing Unicode font in all communication channels, starting with all government agencies and all telecom operators. Pandita really appreciated the move.

Even so, we extended one more month for the migration period to our busy subscribers. In November, all the daily bulletin updates are sent in Unicode only. Transitions might be slow, however, inevitable.