A MOVEMENT to inspire more stakeholders to invest in Water Studies and the need for capacity building of faculty members, international relations, gender equality and research.
The MYANMAR WATER HUB & PORTAL accelerate your call for action to strengthen Water Studies in Myanmar.
We were very honored to have a personal conversation with State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi about the importance of Water Education in Myanmar. She was very pleased to hear about our efforts to inspire more people to join her and our movement on Water Awareness / Education. Bringing different and new people together on water is crucial for inclusive growth. She encouraged us to keep on focusing on teamwork as this is must-have skill-set for future generation of leaders in Myanmar.
Water Education still doesn’t get the attention it deserves, and it’s also very widely spread in Myanmar. It even feels like it’s a marketplace which even entails competition. Inspired by the call for action by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi (September 2018 – link article) to get Water Studies higher on the agenda, the University of Yangon founded a truly unique Centre of Excellence on Water and Environmental studies.
The University of Yangon is requesting support from national and international partners to develop a new interdisciplinary curriculum focusing on the following research agenda:
- Water policies and water resource management
- Water quality
- Water pollution control
- Energy and water
- Impacts of climate change on water
- Water leadership
The State Counsellor opened the Yangon Innovation Centre on the 17th of July, and we were very pleased to share our Myanmar Water Hub within the Centre. Our mission is to drive change via flexible and permanent Water Hubs to make sure people are connected and work together.
A great example of teamwork (and leadership)was the participation of another Tech Hub in Yangon – Phandeeyar – during the opening ceremony of Seedstars Yangon Innovation Centre. True acceleration happens when networks of networks or eco-systems work together. It’s probably not needed to mention again but “collaboration is the new competition”.
Over the last four years The Water Agency has been active in Myanmar to inspire the next generation of Myanmar Water Leaders with engaging formats. In 2016 students from YTU and MMU participated in the SMART DELTA edition. Students learned first-hand from Dutch Water Experts about the interconnected eco-system of Rivers, Cities, Ports and Agriculture. One of the objectives was to inspire students to pursue their career in integrated water management. We integrated various skill-set development activities in the program: read more.
In 2018 we raised the bar for the students and for ourselves, and invited students from all over Myanmar to apply and join our program. The interest was enormous as more than 150 finished their online application via the Myanmar Water Portal (a neutral platform to share public knowledge and stories on water in Myanmar). Eventually 40 students participated in 3-day program with Grand Final at the University of Yangon.
The Water Agency and interested parties will continue the ‘WE are Water Education’ movement in Myanmar together with the team of professors of the University of Yangon under the leadership of Prof Seinn Lei Aye. You can feel the positive vibe at the Centre of Excellence as they are open for collaboration, and they welcome additional expertise instead of seeing this as competition.
The Yangon Innovation Centre is an initiative of the Yangon Regional Governement, managed by Seedstars. In the space located right next to the Yangon river many start ups work to develop new innovative products and services. Mr Vaugh Hew, from JobDoh, made beautiful pictures of the opening by the State Councillor.
