On June 25, 2018 the Parliamentary Centre and the Enlightened Myanmar Research Foundation (EMReF) launched a Parliamentary Research Training Manual. This first tool of its kind intended to help build the capacity of local Myanmar organizations to support their parliaments in developing a research capacity.
Myanmar is going through a process of reinvigorating its 14 sub-national legislatures that are becoming increasingly active in debating and passing local legislation, while also playing a role in the approval of local budgets and overseeing their spending. Like their peers around the world, this country’s legislators need assess to independent, reliable information and analysis in order to make informed decisions.
The Manual includes detailed guidance on how to assess needs, design and implement projects focused on building the research capacity of parliaments. It shares best practices and lessons learned from the Parliamentary Centre’s 50 years of experience in supporting the strengthening of parliamentary research around the world, along with those from a recent successful pilot project implemented with the Shan State Hluttaw, Myanmar’s largest and most ethnically diverse sub-national parliament, in partnership with EMReF. Also included are a section on gender-sensitive research.
This work was carried out under the project “Building Parliamentary Research Capacity: the case of Shan State’s sub-national Parliament in Myanmar” which was made possible with the aid of a grant from Global Affairs Canada and the International Development Research Centre, Canada.
See the manual in English here.