EAI has provided ongoing research and institutional assistance to the strengthening of civil society organizations and democracy promotion through the “Strengthening Civil Society Organizations in Myanmar” program since 2015. The first workshop of the 2019-2020 program, “Promoting Civil Society Engagement in Myanmar’s Electoral Democracy,” was held in Yangon, Myanmar from the 6^th to the 10^th of January in 2020.

The workshop consisted of three different series of lectures. For the first session from January 6^th to the 7^th, Professor Jin Seok Bae of Gyeongsang National University provided lectures on ‘Logic of Elections,’ ‘Elections under Authoritarianism,’ ‘Voting Behavior,’ and ‘Electoral Institutions.’

The subsequent sessions from January 8^th to the 10^th were led by representatives from Hankook Research, with the classes divided according to the participants’ level of experience. In the beginners’ class, Dr. Hanwool Jeong, Senior Research Fellow at Hankook Research, provided lectures on social science research design and SPSS, which were followed by classes on survey methodology and sampling by Senior Executive Director Chun Seok Kim of Hankook Research. For the intermediate class—comprised of students who had participated in the program for at least two years—Dr. Jeong provided lectures on advanced statistics and Mr. Kim discussed SPSS Syntax and sampling with reference to the 2019 MDRN Survey.

EAI plans to hold further lectures on civil society engagement in electoral democracy in light of Myanmar’s November 2020 general elections. The “Strengthening Civil Society Organizations in Myanmar” program has been supported by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) since 2015.

Lecturers
Chun Seok Kim, Senior Executive Director of Hankook Research
Jin Seok Bae, Professor of Gyeongsang National University
Hanwool Jeong, Senior Research Fellow at Hankook Research

Program Manager(s)
Younghyun Lee, Research Associate at EAI
Sea Young Kim, Research Associate at EAI

Participating Institutions
Sandhi Governance Institute
Yangon School of Political Science
Another Development
Yone Kyi Yar Knowledge Propagation Society
Naushawng Development Institute