Myanmar

As the situation in Myanmar continues to unfold, NP staff and our partners are faced with an urgent situation: the dangers of the pandemic surge, rising crime, and an imploding economy, all during a military takeover.Urgent protection needs are highlighted among the proliferation of weapons, Myanmar’s isolation, and the increasing armed conflict between the military and armed groups.

When we arrived in Myanmar in 2012, NP found that many grassroots leaders and civil society groups were determined to make a contribution in their communities, but lacked the confidence, networks, or tactical skills to do so. Nonviolent Peaceforce immediately got to work building relationships with these groups and providing the support and training. From 2013 to 2018, we trained and coached more than 700 community members from 8 different states in ceasefire monitoring and civilian protection. 

We also trained ethnic armed groups – providing concrete alternatives to violence for these groups to accomplish their goals – while building relationships with grassroots leaders and civil society groups. Since 2018 NP has supported hundreds of women and youth to become leaders, training them to respond to issues that are important to their communities.

Nonviolent Peaceforce sees a need to continue strengthening the resilience of communities in conflict affected areas, especially for women, youth and displaced people. As Myanmar's peace process is facing a deadlock, communities on the ground continue to experience armed conflict.  In particular, NP sees a need for community-based networks that assume a nonpartisan, mediator role in bringing different communities, ethnic groups, authorities, religious leaders together in safe spaces to address issues of concern. These efforts could help not only to resolve these issues, but to increase trust among communities and authorities, de-escalate tensions between different ethnic groups and model nonviolent approaches to managing conflict.