Myanmar Participants Report from Winter School in Innsbruck
Participant Diary 2: Reporting after the first week of the Winter School on Federalism and Governance

Aung Soe Min during his presentation at the 2018 Winter School in Innsbruck.

HSF

In the past week, we completed the first week of the Winter School on Federalism and Governance which took place in Innsbruck, Austria. After the introduction on the first day, we received a range of lectures from different experts. One of the international experts includes Dr. Soeren Keil, who has been to Myanmar several times.

The topics on the lectures and experts covered include the origins and evolution of federal systems, federalization/ decentralization processes worldwide, asymmetries and emerging federalism, federalism constitution making in practice and ending federalism/ federalism at the end.

We also had an engaging panel discussion on Federalism between Success and Failure, in which the three experts presented their academic knowledge and case studies on current situations and used studies around the world.

The 30 participants of the Winter School come from all five continents.

HSF

The first week also included a simulation exercise, where the participants in dialogue with each other tried to form a federation as a “coming-together” federation. We had lots of discussion and finally found compromise to establish the federation. From this exercise we gained experience on how an actual negotiation situation is.

The last day of this first part of the Winter School ended by the students’ presentations. We both presented on the “Background and update of Myanmar Federal Reform Process” and we received a lot of interest and questions from the participants.

A panel discussion on Federalism between Success and Failure at the 2018 Winter School.

HSF

On the weekend we traveled to Bozen in Italy. The second week of the programme is there at the EURAC Research. More to come.

Ying Lao and Aung Soe Min.