Building Federal Democracy in Myanmar

The programme targets a range of Myanmar’s democratic stakeholders, including its interim and transitional institutions, political parties, members of parliament (at federal and subnational level), ethnic resistance organizations, media, academia, and civil society organizations (CSOs).

Support areas include:

Constitution-building and governance 

• On-demand capacity development and advisory support in the form of workshops and peer-to-peer exchanges//coaching to those involved in negotiations and decision-making relating to post-coup transitional constitution building.   
• Tailored learning and capacity development on a range of constitutional and governance issues relevant to inform strategy and policy making in the post-coup transitional context of Myanmar and based on comparative experiences from around the world.
• Safe spaces and opportunities for dialogue on constitutional issues, including their links to democratization, good governance, and inclusion.
  Knowledge materials, practical tools and research on constitutional, governance and inclusion issues.

Increasing inclusive political participation

• Support to interim education and curriculum reform for education ministries and academic institutions with a focus on civic education and democracy.
• Outreach and capacity development of youth on civic education and democracy in the form of workshops/trainings/peer-to-peer exchanges.

Inclusion and diversity

• Facilitation of dialogue between the interim government institutions and representatives of disadvantaged groups to discuss inclusive design of Myanmar’s future federal/administrative structure, election system and human rights protection mechanisms.
• Capacity development and advisory support for disadvantaged groups and interim government institutions to inform the establishment of data collection mechanisms and the implementation of data collection projects for the benefit of disadvantaged groups.
• Capacity development and advisory support to define effective mechanisms or independent institutions within the transitional and permanent constitution which ensure the protection of individual and collective human rights.
• Capacity development and advisory support to design mechanisms or institutions which enable sustainable development, inclusive natural resource management and environment protection.

The Myanmar Constitution Academy and Youth Democracy Academy

Check out International IDEA's Myanmar Youth Democracy Academy and our Democracy Detective Game!

International IDEA’s Myanmar Youth Democracy Academy is a free online self-guided training course that offers fundamental knowledge of democracy. The course is designed to ensure that the public and particularly young people from Myanmar are equipped with the civic knowledge and skills needed to effectively participate in, and contribute to, the consolidation and strengthening of democracy in the country.

Our ‘Democracy Detective’ challenges you to learn more about democracy! The Democracy Detective game was developed by International IDEA Myanmar in partnership with Digital Public Square, for anyone interested in learning more about democracy in Myanmar since the 2021 coup.

Our Constitution Academy is a free, self-guided, intensive online course on the fundamentals of democratic constitutionalism. The course integrates the expertise of leading international experts in the fields of comparative constitutional law, and the history and development of constitutional law in Myanmar.

Four years after Myanmar’s coup and the 8 November 2020 general elections, it is important to remember that its results reflect the legitimate will of its people. The military’s claims of fraudulent elections remain unsubstantiated, and the junta’s plans for an ‘election’ are illegal and an ill-conceived attempt to gain legitimacy. Junta organized elections will not bring stability to Myanmar and will further exacerbate conflict. Read more: Myanmar Elections: Considerations for Post-Coup Myanmar 

Read more about Building Federal Democracy in Myanmar on our ConstitutionNet website.