MYANMAR — Democracy and Social Movements — PhD & MA in International Development Studies I Chulalongkorn University I Bangkok, Thailand

Sophia (2011) Participation and Empowerment of Development in Kayah State: A Case Study of International and Local Non-Governmental Organizations

International Non-Governmental Organizations (INGOs) and Local Non-Governmental-Organizations (LNGOs) became crucial in shaping the Local Development in Kayah State, the smallest state in Myanmar. An important activity of NGO work is to apply participation and empowerment tools in their development projects. This research assessed how both Integrated Community Development Project (ICDP)/INGO and Catholic Karuna Loikaw/LNGO took account of using participation and empowerment tools in the development processes. Specifically, the case study was done in the two villages of Kayah State which is situated in the Eastern part of Myanmar. The research analyzed whether participation and empowerment applied by the two NGOs can contribute to the local development by examining the income generation activities of a Self-Reliance-Group of ICDP and a Micro-Credit-Union Group of CKL in these two projects.