Community Development Association (CDA)
Active since 1998, CDA’s purpose is to mobilize community actors to promote capacity building and community development in a number of areas, including agricultural livelihood development, health, disaster risk reduction, and water and sanitation. CDA has built considerable experience in community mobilization, specifically the formation of community-based organizations (CBOs), as its main tool to achieve its goals. In many of its interventions it has worked closely with local authorities, such as the State-level representatives of the Department of Development Affairs, the Department of Education, the Ministry of Welfare, Relief and Resettlement, the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Health.
Since January 2009, under the UNOPS 3-Diseases Fund project, CDA has established and supported 165 village-based CBOs in three townships in Kayin State to deliver malaria prevention training to their communities. As the risk of malaria has receded and political unrest in the region has subsided, CDA has been interested in leveraging its relationship with these communities to foster greater economic opportunities. It recognizes the need to combine capacity building with financial access so that the beneficiaries can invest in new opportunities.
Ministry of Cooperatives (MoC)
The cooperative movement in Myanmar is supervised by the Ministry of Cooperatives. The MoC has two main objectives:
1. To improve the socio-economic life of rural and urban people at grassroots level.
2. To support with full strength by cooperative businesses for the development of the nation’s economy.
The functions of the MoC are distributed across three departments: the Department of Cooperatives (DoC), the Small Scale Industries Department (SSID) and the Cooperative Import-Export Department (CIED). The DoC is responsible for organizing, educating and regulating cooperatives; the SSID provides technical assistance in enhancing the businesses of cooperative societies; and the CIED facilitates import and export activities of cooperative societies. Through the work of the MoC, the cooperative movement participates in the activities of the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA).
The emphasis on economic development not only at the grassroots level but at the national level as well is reflected in the types of cooperatives that have been formed under MoC’s supervision, namely producer cooperatives, trading cooperatives and services-based cooperatives. As of June 2014, there were about 27,045 primary cooperative societies in the country.
Funding partners:
European Union (EU)
The European Union plays important roles in diplomacy, trade, development aid and work with global organisations. One of the key tasks of the EEAS is to ensure that all the different activities that the EU performs abroad are consistent and effective. This is particularly important because many of the EU’s foreign programmes are organised by different divisions of the European Commission.
Here are just some examples of the roles the European Union plays beyond its borders:
• Contributor to peace
Through its political, practical and economic support, the EU has played a crucial role in building peace in the Western Balkans since the Yugoslav wars. One shining example is the dialogue facilitated by the European Union between Serbia and Kosovo, which led to a landmark deal in April 2013.
Resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict is a strategic priority for Europe. The EU is working together with international partners – the United Nations, the United States and Russia – in the ‘Quartet’. The EU aims to build a two-state solution, with an independent, democratic Palestinian state existing side-by-side Israel in peace and security.
• A responsible neighbour
To the east and south of the European Union lie many countries which have undergone – or are still undergoing – tumultuous political change. To ease these transitions, the European Neighbourhood Policy aims to maintain solid and friendly relations with countries at the European Union’s borders. Promoting democracy and human rights while opening trade and cooperating on visa issues are some of the Policy’s aims.
• Development partner
Did you know that the EU is the largest single donor of development aid? Together, the Union and its Member States provide more than half of official development assistance (ODA) globally. This contribution makes a huge difference to millions of people’s livelihoods around the world.
• Human rights defender
The Union is committed to human rights and works to ensure they are respected universally. The EU has made human rights a central aspect of its foreign relations and expresses this focus in political dialogues with third countries, in its development policy and aid, and in its participation in multilateral forums, such as the United Nations.
• Partner to the United Nations
The EU works closely with the United Nations on a host of issues. The Union’s belief in multilateralism reflects an attachment to negotiated, binding rules in international relations. The EU’s relation with the United Nations is explicitly spelled out in the Treaty of Lisbon.
• Force for global security
Under the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP), the EU operates civilian and military missions worldwide. These missions carry out a variety of tasks, ranging from managing borders to training local police. The Operation EUNAVFOR Atalanta off the coast of Somalia, for example, tackles piracy and protects humanitarian shipments of the World Food Programme.
• Crisis Response & Humanitarian Aid
The EU and the Member States provide around 50 % of global funding for emergency relief. This provides life-saving aid to the victims of disaster disasters, refugees and others in dire need. The European Union responds in a coordinated way to international emergencies of all kinds –earthquakes in Haiti, tsunamis in Japan or flooding in Pakistan. This brings together all the tools the European Union has at its disposal.
• Advocate of action on climate change
The EU was instrumental in negotiating the Kyoto Protocol on climate change and is today a major supporter of the UN’s effort to create an international climate agreement cutting emissions and limiting global warming. For developing countries, the EU provides substantial development funding to help them face climate change.
• Trading bloc
The European Union is the world’s largest trading bloc. Trade is a common policy, which means that international trade agreements are negotiated and signed by the Union rather than by individual Member States. This allows the EU to speak with a single voice with international partners as it works to promote a free and fairer international trading system.
• An expanding union
The EU now counts 28 Members. Since 1957, when the EU’s forerunner formed with six countries, the Union has expanded significantly, with the greatest jumps occurring after the fall of communism in Central and Eastern Europe. The lure of EU membership and the political and economic stability it brings has meant that many countries aspire to join – although they must first pass tough EU membership tests, including on democracy and the rule of law.
Source:
http://eeas.europa.eu/background/what-we-do/index_en.htm
Agence Francais de Developpement (AFD)
Agence Française de Développement is the operator for France’s bilateral development finance mechanism. It is a public industrial and commercial institution with the status of specialized financial institution. Its action is in line with the policy set out in France’s Framework Document for Development Cooperation. This document was approved at the end of 2010 and in 2011 was translated into a three-year contract specifying objectives and resources between the French Government and AFD.
AFD’s teams are based in Paris and Marseille and in a network of seventy agencies and representations in developing countries and the French overseas provinces.
AFD has been entrusted with a mandate by the French national authorities to contribute to economic and social development in its geographical areas of operation. It achieves this by financing and supporting development projects and programs, participating in the debate, research and dialogue with the relevant stakeholders.
The aim of these actions is to contribute to more sustainable and shared economic growth, improve living conditions in the poorest regions and countries, contribute to preserving the planet and help stabilize fragile or post-conflict countries.
AFD Group finances development projects in more than 90 countries on four continents. The Group boasts a network of 70 in-country field offices and bureaus, including nine offices in France’s overseas provinces and one in Brussels. Among the Group’s 1,742 employees, 711 work in the field offices.
Supporting Financial Access via Cooperative Upgrading and Enterprise & Farm Development in Kayin State 