Local Governance Mapping The State of Local Governance: Trends in Myanmar A Synthesis of people’s perspectives across all States and Regions Photo credits Emilie Röell Myanmar Survey Research The views expressed in this publication are those of the author, and do not necessarily represent the views of UNDP. Local Governance Mapping The STaTe of LocaL Governance: TrendS in MyanMar a Synthesis of people’s perspectives across all States and regions UNDP MYANMAR Table of contents Acknowledgements II Acronyms III Executive Summary 1-3 1. Introduction 4 - 7 2. Demographic overview of CRC respondents and security context 8 - 17 2.1 Key demographic indicators and profile of respondents 9 2.2 Safety and security context 15 3. People’s perspectives: key findings 18 - 70 3.1 Recent developments 19 3.1.1 Recent overall developments in the States and Regions 20 3.1.2 Recent developments: access to services 30 3.1.2.1 People’s perceptions on education 30 3.1.2.2 People’s perceptions on basic health provision 34 3.1.2.3 People’s perceptions on quality of water supply 40 3.2 Development planning and participation 43 3.2.1 Indirect citizen participation 45 3.2.2 Direct citizen participation 50 3.3 Information, transparency and accountability 57 3.3.1 Information 57 3.3.2 Te role of the W/VTAs 61 3.3.3 Grievance redressal 65 4. Concluding remarks 68 - 69 A Synthesis of people’s perspectives across all States and Regions - UNDP Myanmar 2015 I acknowledgements UNDP would like to express its sincere thanks to the Ministry of Home Afairs and the General administration Department (GAD) for their unrestricted support and cooperation during the Local Governance mapping, which required extensive information gathering and interviews not only with citizen but also with staf members fom various departments. Te mapping would not have been possible without the General Administration Department’s support. Tis report contains a synthesis of the data and findings across all States and Regions and concludes the mapping exercise. It builds on an earlier draf prepared by Mr. Gerhard Van’ t Land (senior Public Sector Management consultant for UNDP. Te final report was written by Ms. Alexandra Walcher, (UNDP Local Governance Consultant) who undertook an extensive analysis of all the data, brought in additional perspectives and further cross tabulated the empirical data. Te report has benefitted fom substantive contributions fom Ms. Emilie Röell (UNDP Consultant) and Ms. Anki Dellnas (UNDP Local Development and Governance Specialist). A special word of thanks also for some of the many people who have contributed with technical expertise and in depth contextual knowledge of the Myanmar situation fom the beginning of the mapping project: U Aye Lwin (UNDP Local Governance Specialist) and Khin Kyaw (Local Governance Analyst) Te community-level mapping and data analysis was undertaken by Myanmar Survey Research (MSR). Te Local Governance Mapping being undertaken as part of UNDP Myanmar’s Local Governance/ Local Development Programme is funded by the Government of Japan, Government of Sweden, DANIDA and UNDP. II A Synthesis of people’s perspectives across all States and Regions - UNDP Myanmar 2015 acronyms BADF Border Afairs Development Fund CDF Constituency Development Fund CRC Citizen Report Card CSC Community Score Card CSO Civil Society Organisation FGD Focus Group Discussion FY Fiscal Year GAD General Administration Department GoM Government of Myanmar IDP Internally Displaced Person KII Key Informant Interviews LGB Local Governance Barometer NLD National League for Democracy PRF Poverty Reduction Fund RDF Rural Development Fund TA Township Administrator TDSC Township Development Support Committee TMAC Township Municipal Afairs Committee, also TMuC TS Township USDP Union Solidarity and Development Party W/VTA Ward/Village Tract Administrator W/VTDSC Ward/Village Tract Development Support Committee WA Ward Administrator A Synthesis of people’s perspectives across all States and Regions - UNDP Myanmar 2015 III 8 A Synthesis of people’s perspectives across all States and Regions - UNDP Myanmar 2015 executive Summary Myanmar has been undergoing drastic changes in the past few years. Even though the government’s reform process has started only recently, several encouraging early gains in terms of improved governance can already be noticed. At the same time a number of challenges remain that need to be further looked into and addressed. Te local governance mapping was carried out to better understand how local governance actors, within the context of the current reforms, have been functioning so far. Te mapping focused on development priorities and improvements, development planning and participation, and information, transparency and accountability. Te findings help assess capacity needs particularly at the township level and below, and encourage local governance actors to adjust to the new situation and to new demands of people-centred service delivery. One important part of the mapping was the citizen report card (CRC) survey, which collected the people’s perspectives on local governance. Tis report focuses on the findings fom this survey, presenting the people’s perspectives across Myanmar. While the CRC survey is not strictly based on statistical analysis, eforts were made to follow certain criteria to make the data representative and balanced, and the sample sizes were considered sufcient to draw valid conclusions. Te methodology was tested in two States and further refined in the second and third phase of the mapping process. In total, about 5,400 people in all 14 States and Regions were asked questions relating to the core principles of local governance, and relating to their satisfaction and experience with basic services provided by government (such as basic healthcare, primary education and water supply). Te findings help inform the reform agenda. Te safety and security situation in some of the conflict afected areas has improved over the last few years due to cease-fire agreements, however, there remain safety concerns amongst people, also in other States/Regions. As the overall security situation afects development and people’s perceptions it was important to establish if respondents felt unsafe. On average, more people in the States feel unsafe than in the Regions (86% vs. 96%). While conflict is clearly the main factor for respondents to feel unsafe, the worsening morale of people (like alcoholism, no respect for others etc.) and the lack of law enforcement have also been mentioned in a number of States/Regions. As regards another aspect of safety and security, 38% of respondents felt fee to publicly express their opinion about the government and felt no restriction to say what they want. 31% would be careful to whom they say what they think and 26% do not feel fee at all. In general, people in the Regions and in urban areas appear to be more vocal than people in the States and in rural areas. Water supply, roads and the lack of jobs appear to be the biggest concerns for people in the country overall. When asked to name the most important problem in their village tract or ward, water supply was most mentioned by respondents. Giving the data a diferent spin however, the lack of jobs emerges as the biggest issue when looking at the two most mentioned problems, representing about 60% of the people if seen as a share of the total Myanmar population. It has to be noted though that the data also reveals that the specific problems vary hugely across diferent villages and wards. Hence, it becomes very clear that a localised approach to addressing people’s needs would greatly benefit the local development situation and citizen’s satisfaction with public service delivery. A Synthesis of people’s perspectives across all States and Regions - UNDP Myanmar 2015 1 Te W/VTA is the person people see foremost responsible for solving their development problems (33%), closely followed by the State/Region/Union Government (31%). Tese results seem to confirm the view, also backed by data collected on other questions, that the W/VTA plays an important role as “extended arm” of the government and as the interface between the government and the people. On a related question, over half of the respondents (57%) think that the government is aware of the development problems in the village/ward and out of those almost two thirds (65%) believe that the government is not doing anything to address their issues. Remarkably, considering the short time since the reforms have been initiated, people have noticed improvements in their development situation over the last three years. Te improvements have been seen first and foremost in the education and roads sector. As for the other sectors, overall respondents in none of the States or Regions saw improvements in the health sector as most noticeable; and improvements in water supply were nowhere neither mentioned most nor second most. Almost one third of the people have not seen any improvements. Similar to the findings on the most important development problems though, there are significant variations across villages/wards with regard to the improvements people have noticed. It also needs to be noted that the development and service delivery conditions were very poor in most areas to begin with and any improvement comes with high visibility. Over 90% of respondents overall are of the opinion that the situation is the same or better as regards primary education, basic health services and quality of water supply. Given their importance and suitability as proxy indicators for overall development systems and performance, the education, health and water sectors have been looked at in more detail through a range of survey questions. Over two thirds of the people see improvements in primary education, over half in basic health services and just one third in water supply. More than two thirds of respondents are satisfied with the quality of education and just over half with the quality of public health services.