Advanced Certificate for Myanmar's interim governance institutions

The Advanced Certificate course is designed for 20-25 advisers who are forming Myanmar’s interim governance institutions (National Unity Government (NUG), Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH), National Unity Consultative Council (NUCC), etc.) following the 2021 Myanmar coup d’état. The intensive training delivered online not only deepened their understanding of the role of policy advisers but enhanced the skills they need to undertake core tasks and policy-making functions within interim governance institutions.

The innovative structure of this certificate course was build around two modules designed to develop concrete skills needed to address sensitive policy issues with curricular content specifically tailored to the needs of participants.

Also fostering dialogue between these officials, some of whom have never met before joining the interim governance institutions, the course fulfilled functions at the nexus of capacity building and dialogue facilitation. The course lasted a total of six days and was delivered in two blocks of three days, with a period of one week between modules to work on a policy exercise in teams.

What is the Advanced Certificate about?

  • Building and enhancing capacity of Myanmar's interim governance institutions and its government officials
    Sessions over 6 days include: policy making, policy impact analysis, scenario-building and forecasting, gender-sensitive policy making, policy writing and advocating for policy change, crisis communication, speech writing and delivery, media training as well as negotiation and mediation (scroll down for a detailed description of modules). Sessions will be offered in two blocks over three weeks. The time between the first and second module will be bridged with exercises on which participants will have to engage as teams.
     
  • Fostering dialogue between government officials through joint learning
    Dialogue is established in a safe environment that does not focus on issues of contention, but on joint skills equally valued by all participants in their respective professional environments. In this way, solid, long-lasting professional networks between advisers within Myanmar's interim governance institutions are formed.

How is the course delivered?

The course will be delivered by a team of five “mentors”, each an expert with specific professional background in their respective field, over a period of eight days spread over three weeks. 

The training will be delivered online. Online-delivery has been successfully implemented five times in 2020 and 2021 (for policy advisers from the EU as well as from the EU Eastern partnership countries), and a web-based platform has been designed for delivery. 

Throughout the pilot course, a focus will be put on collaborative processes and learning. Methodologically, emphasis will be laid on self-guided and peer-to-peer learning and reflection, less on frontal teaching.

Collapse

What is the track record of the course?

The course has been delivered successfully 15 times for various target audiences over the past six years. The most frequent groups of participants were government officials from the EU’s Eastern Partnership: Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Moldova and Belarus. Courses have been held for participants also from the Western Balkans as well as from EU’s Southern Neighborhood (MENA and Israel), but also for participants from Poland, Germany, Russia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Czechia, Slovakia and Hungary.

As an intervention designed to practice collaboration on policy analysis, communication and implementation, the course has in the past provided rare opportunities for cooperation among Armenian and Azerbaijani as well as among Israeli, Egyptian and Jordanian officials. 

Each course has triggered a new cascade of applications from colleagues of past iterations. Adding an important element of sustainability, all former participants, upon graduation, become members of an alumni group (200 professionals currently) that is also linked on a web-based platform.

Collapse

What does the programme look like?

MODULE 1

MODULE 2

Funded by: