Supporting Peace through Natural Resource Management in Burma’s Ethnic Regions (P-NRM) Year 1 1st Quarterly Report

The program aims to support Burma's democratic opening by addressing the underlying causes of long-standing ethnic conflicts in Chin and southern Shan states. The program focuses on addressing tensions related to the use and management of natural resources, with a goal of improving state-society relations and resolving resource-related disputes. The program has three main objectives: to strengthen the ability of key leaders in Chin and southern Shan to work across lines of division to resolve natural resource disputes; to strengthen the capacity of local organizations to implement natural resource projects that support negotiated agreements; and to foster a constituency for peace by building mutually beneficial economic relationships across lines of division. The program is implemented in partnership with local organizations, with a strong emphasis on building local capacity to implement peacebuilding programs. Key milestones achieved by the end of June 2013 include the development of a messaging strategy, the drafting of talking points, and the kick-off workshop with partners. The program also finalized subgrant agreements with local partners and began recruiting staff. Field offices are expected to be opened by August 2013. The program's activities in May and June 2013 focused on program startup, including initiating the program startup conflict assessment, launching recruitment, finalizing partnership arrangements with AYO and KMSS, developing a communications strategy, and networking with local and international actors working on resource and conflict issues. The program director arrived in country on May 22 to begin work on the program, and a conflict assessment was launched in early June to update knowledge of current conflict dynamics. The conflict assessment aims to identify key conflicts/issues in each state that the program will focus on, inform selection of the townships where the program will be implemented, and identify key stakeholders who need to be engaged in order to successfully move the program forward. The assessment includes a review of relevant laws impacting resource-based conflict, types of resource-based conflicts, stakeholder analysis of actors involved in these conflicts, mapping of organizations working on these conflicts, and strategies for resolving and/or dealing with these conflicts. The program has established a joint field team structure, with local partners in the lead and management and technical guidance from Mercy Corps. Field-based activities will be implemented by teams predominantly comprised of partner staff, supplemented by a field-based Mercy Corps technical advisor. The program director will provide technical training and mentoring to the field teams and will retain day-to-day management responsibility.