Training of Trainers Workshop on Federalism organised in Yangon

HSF

The aim of the workshop was to enable different stakeholders to actively take part in discussions on federal reforms and the emerging political dialogue.

The in-depth five day workshop was to develop the participants’ knowledge and skills on the topic of federalism so that they are able to share their knowledge in their communities and hold their own trainings. HSF will further support local initiatives to discuss federal reform options suitable for the context in Myanmar and how to ensure an inclusive political dialogue on federal reforms. Prof Andreas Heinemann-Grüder from the Centre of Global Studies at the University of Bonn presented key features of federal systems out of a comparative perspective and focused especially on federalism as an institutional tool to remedy conflicts. Resource sharing mechanisms and different forms of fiscal federalism were also discussed at length. Since the goal of the training was not only to provide the participants with technical knowledge, but also to give them the tools to manage training programmes by themselves many interactive sessions were included. 

HSF

This gave the participants the opportunity to practice their presentation techniques and enabled them to discuss the legal framework and its shortcomings in connection with what they learned from the lectures. This included role play sessions on how to design federal reforms in Myanmar as well as presenting their own analysis of specific policy fields in Myanmar out of a federal perspective.

During the last day of the workshop the participants designed their own workshops for their respective states and regions and presented their concepts, target groups and draft agendas to each other. In cooperation with the MPFWG and CDES HSF will support these local initiatives.