The hall was brimming with experience as over 50 LIFT partner representatives participated in a policy engagement workshop organised by LIFT’s policy team on Tuesday and Wednesday this week. Among the many participants in this workshop were delegates from DSW, MoALI, and YAU, as well as LIFT policy colleagues, such as FAO-EU First Project.
LIFT’s implementing partners (IPs), civil society representatives (CSOs) and other strategic partners presented on and discussed their pioneering policy-related development projects and programmes in Myanmar.
The objective of the two-day workshop was to share findings, experience and data to identify key lessons learnt for future policy engagement work.
The event was facilitated by Dr. Suresh Babu, Senior Research Fellow and Head of Capacity Strengthening at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
During the first day, six unique case studies were delivered by six different organisations on various policy-related topics. These topics included domestic workers, fortified rice, social pensions, violence against women, land law, and the Agriculture Development Strategy. Following the presentations, participants broke into groups to analyse the studies and identify factors and circumstances that enable or prohibit policy success.
Day 2 of the workshop focused on the lessons learnt, identifying key implications for policy engagement and discussing other factors and circumstances that may affect policy engagement going forward. Some key highlights from the workshop included the need to change attitudes and perceptions as a means to inform policy, the importance of understanding the interests and expectations of key stakeholders, understanding how policy cycles may be affected by political and project cycles, the importance of involving policy-makers in generating evidence through more collaborative research. The role of academia and other institutions such as national think tanks in policy discussions was also discussed. The need for better coordination and harmonisation among key stakeholders was also discussed.
“The next step in the process is taking these lessons and observations and applying them to the next 4-5 years. It’s not an exercise just for LIFT. We’re all LIFT here, one way or another. It’s a family; it’s a community”, Brett Ballard, LIFT’s Policy Specialist, noted. Brett suggested that the next Policy CoP workshop could employ a similar methodology to look more closely at Region and State policy processes.
