Civil Society Mapping Mon State, Myanmar Local Resource Centre (LRC) Working with CSOs and Change Agents March 2016 Completed: March 2016 Published by: Local Resource Centre (LRC), Yangon Myanmar, September 2016 © Local Resource Centre (LRC) 2016. Unless indicated otherwise, any part of this publication may bereproduced without permission for non-profit and development purposes on the condition that LRC is acknowledged. Please send LRC a copy of any materials inwhich the study has been used. For any reproduction with commercial ends,permission must first be obtained from LRC. The views expressed in this reportare representative of the individuals who participated in the study and the authors and may not necessarily reflect the views of LRC or those of the funding organisations. Table of Contents Introduction ................................................................................................................................................................... 2 Background and Context .......................................................................................................................................... 2 Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................................................. 2 Civil society mapping and assessment frameworks ...................................................................................................... 4 Models & Approaches .............................................................................................................................................. 4 Data frameworks ...................................................................................................................................................... 5 Key definitions and types of organizations ............................................................................................................... 7 Study Methodology ....................................................................................................................................................... 9 Approach .................................................................................................................................................................. 9 Guiding principles ..................................................................................................................................................... 9 Scope of the study .................................................................................................................................................... 9 Refinement of Scope with CSO stakeholders ......................................................................................................... 10 Analytical framework .............................................................................................................................................. 10 Implementation plan & steps ................................................................................................................................. 11 Challenges & limitations ............................................................................................ Error! Bookmark not defined. Findings ........................................................................................................................................................................ 17 A. Literature Review .......................................................................................................................................... 17 B. Interviews and Focus Groups ........................................................................................................................ 22 C. Observations and recommendations ............................................................................................................ 34 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................................................. 38 End Notes .................................................................................................................................................................... 40 Tables Table 1 Abbreviatons & acronyms .......................................................................................................................... 3 Table 2 Definitions and types of organisation ........................................................................................................ 7 Table 3.Analytical framework dimensions............................................................................................................ 11 Table 4 Implementation plan & steps .................................................................................................................. 11 Table 5 Study Research Objectives ....................................................................................................................... 13 Table 6 Townships and planned data collection method ..................................................................................... 15 Table 7 Implementation steps and participants/actions ...................................................................................... 15 Table 8 Components of CSOs................................................................................................................................ 20 Figures Figure 1 Townships of respondents. ..................................................................................................................... 22 Figure 2 Townships in which respondent CSOs operate. .................................................................................... 22 Figure 3 Top nine activities as selected by respondents ...................................................................................... 23 Figure 4 breakdown Activities by sector/purpose ................................................................................................ 23 Figure 5 Top activities based on respondents’ descriptions ................................................................................. 24 Figure 6. Registration status of respondents. ....................................................................................................... 25 Figure 7. The year respondent CSOs were established. ....................................................................................... 25 Figure 8. Genders, ages, and ethnicities of respondent CSO leaders. .................................................................. 26 Figure 9. Number of staff, board members, volunteers, and members of respondent CSOs. ............................. 27 Figure 10. Languages that can be spoken at respondent CSO offices. ................................................................. 29 Figure 11. Respondent CSO annual budgets. ....................................................................................................... 29 Figure 12. Sources of funding and resources for respondent CSOs. .................................................................... 29 Figure 13 Respondent CSO office infrastructure. ................................................................................................. 30 Figure 14 Networking methods used by respondents. ......................................................................................... 33 1 Introduction Background and Context The primary goal of this mapping exercise is to gain deeper knowledge of civil society in Mon State, to help LRC determine opportunities for training, mentoring, coaching, and advocacy related activities to build civil society capacity, and the policy environment for civil society to operate. The key research questions are: • What is the landscape of civil society organizations (CSOs) operating in Mon state? • What are the technical capacities of CSOs operating in Mon state? • What regional government policies and practices help or hinder CSOs in doing their work? • What is the scope of CSO beneficiaries (e.g. women, youth, and ethnic groups) and what may be barriers to participation for excluded groups? While the project mapped civil society as broadly defined, LRC are specifically interested in civil society initiatives related to advocacy and legal reform, human rights, and support for women and children. The study includes civil society recommendations based on these research question. However, the research is descriptive in nature and does not seek to explain the landscape of civil society. It is not exclusively action- oriented, in that it maps elements without the expressed interest in changing them, though LRC expect to be able to implement programs based on the results. The findings should also be useful for other humanitarian and/or development organisations who seek partnerships, collaborations, opportunities for expansion, and/or who want to avoid duplicating existing efforts. The results of this study can be used: • As a template for other mapping work, which may be implemented in other regions of Myanmar. • To explore opportunities for new partnerships and discussions. • To strengthen research capacity of CSO leaders. • To strengthen relationships among CSOs. • To demonstrate the existence of a diverse and active civil society. The study was conducted between November 2015 and February 2016. It represents the responses and views of over 100 civil society representatives. However, this is just a sample of