Mingalarbar!
Welcome to the September 2019 Edition of the GEN Monthly Newsletter! In September, GEN’s annual member assembly was successfully held with the participation of the representatives of over 50 member organizations. In addition to that, grant singing ceremony and grant orientation workshops were organized. September was a productive month full of activities and workshops.
We always request a GEN member, friend or staff to provide some insight into their participation with GEN. This month, we request Ma Su Su Nge who is an active TRP GEN member to share her feelings and experience with GEN.
Mingalarbar!
Hello everyone! My name is Su Su Nge and I’m a TRP member of GEN. I joined GEN since 2012 representing international organization name Pyoe Pin (changed into Sone Sie since early 2018) under British Council. Due to my passion and commitments towards gender equality and women empowerment, I was elected as a steering committee member of GEN in 2014. I contributed my knowledge and time for Gender Equality Network as SC member about 2 years and at the same time, I also got a chance to learn technical as well as management skills by working with GEN.
It was my pleasure to be around with GEN’s coordination unit staff, member organizations and gender specialists in many activities and events organized by GEN. In 2018, I continued to be part of GEN as technical resource person. Whatever category I was or I am in, I dedicated myself to work with GEN, rain or shine and through ups and downs. I assure that we (members) all are committed to gender equality and ready to work towards the country’s development with our collective effort.
GEN's Highlights
- 1. Director of Gender Equality Network met with the social minister of Karen State and director-general of social welfare to advocate areas of GEN's work on 1st September in Hpa-an and to advocate the perspectives on women empowerment and gender equality. The meeting was also participated by national advisor, national consultant, M & E coordinator and policy dialogue coordinator from Gender Equality Network. (EU)
2. GEN-CU staff attended the M & E workshop organised in Yangon from 2nd to 4th September 2019 and learned the M & E concept and theory delivered through case studies and activities. The main topic is MEAL (Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, and Learning), Project Cycle Management, Theory of Change, Indicators, Data collection tools, and discussion MEAL Plan. 14 participants (12 F, 2 M) from Yangon and project areas attended the workshop (EU).
3. GEN organized a CSO consultation mission to Hpa An and Mawlamyine to discuss the current situation regarding women empowerment and gender equality on 2nd and 3rd September 2019. The participants identified the challenging issues and the measures to be taken to address them (EU).
4. Teams of GEN went to Myit Kyi Nar, Nga Pu Taw and Mawlamyaing Kyun in August and September to discuss the prevention and protection of violence against women issue with network and community members of May Doe Kabar Network. (LIFT)
5. GEN’s Head of Program had a meeting with Mandalay Region Hluttaw Spoke person at Mandalay Hluttaw on 6th September 2019 and discussed the future activities with regards to the regional level policy engagement among CSOs, LAs and Parliamentarians. (EU)
6. Gender Equality Network and the Ministry of Education co-organized the two-day “Social Inclusion and Gender Mainstreaming in Education” workshop on 9th and 10th September 2019 at Park Royal Hotel.Director-Generall of the Ministry of Education, Dr. Zaw Latt Tun, delivered the opening speech and the Co-chair of GEN, Daw Nwe Zin Win, explained the purpose of the workshop. Curriculum developers from the Ministry of Education attended the workshop and there were 45 participants (IDRC and LIFT).
7. With the support of GEN-EU project, a total of 10 participants including GEN SC members, GEN members, GEN-CU staff and government officials from the Department of Social Welfare went on an exposure trip to India from 1st to 9th September 2019. During the exposure visit to India, team of Gender Equality Network learnt from SEWA which is a trade union of poor, self-employed women, illiterate women workers in Ahmedabad city in India with a membership of over 170,000 in agricultural sector, animal husbandry sector, green livelihood initiative, SEWA bank, Trade facilitation with mobile Digitalization initiative, etc. (EU)
8. Gender Equality Network in collaboration with Christian Aid and Oxfam organized a consultation workshop with the Members of Parliamentarians of Pyithu Hluttaw to discuss on Gender Responsive Budgeting on 13th September. On 14th September, a discussion workshop with the Members of Parliamentarians of Pyithu Hluttaw was conducted to discuss prevention and protection of violence against women from a legal perspective. Around 19 parliamentarians attended and GEN advocated them to integrate gender budgeting into the government budget allocation and provided the suggestion regarding the POVAW law draft before the POVAW law is submitted to the next Hluttaw session. (Christian Aid)
9. Director of GEN, Daw May Sabe Phyu, had a consultation meeting with the Naga Women Association (NWA) which is working actively for the development of women in Naga area on 17th September 2019 at GEN’s office. On behalf of GEN, she provided consultation on the policy advocacy and sharing experiences on how to do networking effectively with the women organizations in the Naga area and to better coordinate with the local authorities.
10. GEN’s annual member assembly was successfully held on 19th and 20th September 2019 at Golden Bliss resort in Kyaithto. Representatives from over 50 member organizations attended and actively participated in the discussions. On the first day, GEN presented the updates to the members and members raised the questions. On the second day of the GEN member assembly, Member Mapping and Member capacity need assessment was initiated to members. Then, Resource Center Rules and Regulations, and Benefits of Members were presented and made a discussion on it. After that, the monthly member meeting was followed for updating members’ and GEN-CU monthly activities for better understanding and enabling to work collaboratively within the network. (LIFT and Trocaire).
11. The Gender Standard Terminology Consultation workshop was held in Sule Shangrila Hotel on 23 September 2019 from 10:00 AM to 3:00 Pm to standardize the terminology of women’s rights and gender equality which is designed to be easily implemented in Myanmar, for the organizations, such as CSO, NGO, INGO, UN agencies, researchers, students who are studying gender-related subjects, policy and lawmakers, governments stakeholders who are working on the development of policy and legislation and donor agencies. The workshop was organized by gender equality network with the support of IDRC funding by Canada Government. There were total (19) participants, (3) males and (16) females, from (13) organizations who are actively working for women’s rights and gender equality. The workshop is the first time ever for the discussion and consultation on over 130 terminologies related with women’s rights to be standardized and it will be benefits to be exact terminological accuracy, clear definitions specially for book publishers. (IDRC)
12. The Grant Orientation Workshops were conducted by GEN & DCA-NCA under the project “Empowered Civil Society Organisations and Local Authorities promoting gender equality in Myanmar” with the support of EU funding on 23-24 and 26-27 September 2019 in Sule-Shangrila Hotel. There were total 34 CSOs (9 CSOs from Kachin state, 8 CSOs from Karen state, 10 CSOs from Mandalay region and 8 CSOs from Kayin State), attended two representatives from each CSO. The workshop aims to be explained clearer on the related session as human resources, financial management, Communication & visibility guideline, Admin & Logistic-procurement for smooth operation in their activities when they will implement the plan clearly define on inside of grant proposal as to how to relate with gender equality promoting in their state/region. (EU)
13. The EU Grant Signing Ceremony for making an agreement contract between Gender Equality Network and EU Grant Awardees was successfully accomplished at Sule Shangarila Hotel on 25 September 2019. There were 34 Civil society organizations who eligible to have the EU Grant Award and 8 CSOs from Karen state, 10 CSOs from Mandalay region, 7 CSOs from Shan state and 9 CSOs from Kachin state were included. (EU)
14. GEN’s Head of Program attended the Shan State MNCW Coordination meeting organized by the Department of Social Welfare, Shan State at Shan Cultural Hall on 24th September 2019. It was a coordination of the State level activity attended by the Shan State MNCW members and she presented about GEN activities and future plan. (EU)
15. GEN organized one-day team-building workshops on 21st September and 28th September 2019 and discussed the importance of emotional intelligence in promoting team spirit and as part of the leadership requirement. The workshops had contributed to a better understanding of teamwork, emotional intelligence vs. intelligence quotient (LIFT).
Meetings and Workshops Attended by GEN’s Representatives
2nd and 3rd September 2019 – GEN’s Research Manager attended "Case Management SOP Consultation Workshop" at Hotel Max in Nay Pyi Taw organized by the Department of Social Welfare with technical support from UNFPA and UNICEF and gave suggestions/comments on the draft Case Management SOP.
4th September 2019 - Director of GEN shared an Update process of PoVAW laws to local civil society organizations in Mon State and had a consultation meeting with women groups in Mon State.
11th September 2019 - GEN Advisor served in the panel discussion on sexual and reproductive health rights at the Media Advocacy Workshop, organized by the consortium partners of Access to Health - SRHR STRONG + Project at Hotel Pyi Thar Yar, Yangon.
12th September 2019 – GEN’s Head of Policy Advocacy represented GEN at World Bank Gender Day to present about GEN's work.
13th and 14th September 2019 - Director of GEN attended the advocacy strategy workshop organized by Alliance for Gender Inclusion in the Peace Process (AGIPP) at Park Royal Hotel, Yangon. During the workshop, the secretariat team discussed advocacy strategy for AGIPP. This workshop was participated by 31 participants from AGIPP alliance partners including Gender and Development Institute (GDI), Gender Equality Network (GEN), Kachin State Women's Network (KSWN), Mon Women's Network (MWN), Nyein (Shalom) Foundation, Women and Peace Action Network (Shan State) (WAPAN), and Women Organization Network (WON).
