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The education crisis in Myanmar and the challenges of state school teachers

This blog was written by Khaing Phyu Htut, Education Adviser, Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), Myanmar. It is based on a presentation given at the 2023 UKFIET conference.

I have been working on education for more than 20 years in Myanmar with the last 7 in the field of education aid. I am currently leading on education for the UK’s FCDO. 

Myanmar had brief hopes for education improvements in the 2010s. Then, education reforms of a decade (2011 to 2020) were crushed in the political crisis which started with the military coup in February 2021. We are a coup-plagued country as it was the third time since 1962 and the most recent coup has been the most destructive. Over 5 million children (more than half of Myanmar school children) dropped out from schools in 2021, the year right after the coup. In 2023, 17.6 million people – nearly one third of the population – are estimated to be in humanitarian need . Children in remote areas are at severe risk of child labour and exposure to drugs and gambling. Many regions lack safety and security with boys facing the plight of being recruited as child soldiers, and girls facing early marriage, sexual exploitation, human trafficking, violence and abuse.

Education donors, including the UK, have stopped working with state education system which, unfortunately, is the major provider of education services for more than 92% of children and youth in Myanmar. Most education services by donors take place outside the state system to a limited number of children and youth. At the same time, education provision is restricted by a newly-imposed law of the military regime demanding any organisation in Myanmar to register with them. The UK and other development partners have been trying to be as flexible as possible to offer education services to the most needed areas. There has been good coordination work where the UK helps as a facilitator in developing a joint response framework, development of joint programmes contributing to the framework, reprogramming of Global Partnership for Education funds to the new context, and the initiation of an Education Cannot Wait programme in Myanmar.

The paper I presented at the 2023 UKFIET conference recognises Myanmar’s education through multiple crisis: legacy low-quality provision since the 1960s, learning gaps caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and conflicts caused by the aftermath of the February 2021 coup. It is based on mini research on state school teachers in Myanmar. The aim of the paper is to explore the perspectives of state school teachers, to voice their views and to draw out learning for similar contexts of education in crisis.

Teachers in the research unanimously call for stability in the country – for education improvements and to grow professionally. They express conflicts due to the political crisis as the biggest issue. Under-investment in state education and a lack of foresight are noted as persistent century-long issues. They also note a lack of collaboration from international agencies since the military coup, no real support and resources from the government for education, unqualified leaders, the growing gap between private and public education, over-centralisation in education administration and no autonomy for education institutions. Beyond these overall issues, teacher-specific issues identified range from lack of financial and social security for teachers, no professional support, and no real opportunity to ask for their rights . Probably stemming from those problems, teachers have low motivation, no accountability for children’s learning, and bad teacher behaviours are affecting children’s social and emotional well-being.

It is interesting and at the same time understandable that the solutions teachers see are beyond the field of education, like hoping for an educated and empathetic leader who values education and who invests in education, stability in the context, and no discrimination due to religion/ethnicity. It is obvious that teachers themselves are doubtful of the quality of education they are providing from comments like ‘State schools to provide quality education,’ ‘Stop tuitions,’ ‘No more teacher bias.’ ‘Change everything from the beginning’ is a suggestion which shows the frustration and trapped state of teachers. Surprisingly and sadly, teachers don’t see themselves as important enough in bringing about the solutions. This is probably because of the passive role they have always been assigned, and the roles they see as mainly to teach and not go further beyond. Teachers advocate for peace, stability and investment in education for other contexts to learn from Myanmar.

It can be seen in conclusion that Myanmar state schoolteachers are stuck in the political crisis. As teachers, they are pivotal to the development of Myanmar and yet are trapped by lacking means and capacity to alleviate the crisis. The research sees the need for international agencies to help Myanmar teachers consistently despite the challenging context. Working directly with state schoolteachers is not possible in the current context due to the risk of legitimising the de facto authorities. At the same time, FCDO education work in Myanmar has been crafted to support teachers in challenging contexts and designed to reach the most vulnerable children and girls in Myanmar.

Views expressed in outputs hosted on the UKFIET website are those of the contributors. They do not necessarily represent the views of UKFIET as an organisation, the UKFIET Trustees, Executive Committee or the wider UKFIET membership.

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• > Education and Globalization in Southeast Asia
• > Primary and Secondary Education in Myanmar: Challenges Facing Current Reforms

Book contents

• Frontmatter
• Acknowledgements
• Contributors
• Introduction
• 1 English in Singapore and Malaysia: Common Roots, Different Fruits
• 2 Globalization, Educational Language Policy and Nation-Building in Malaysia
• 3 Second-Order Change Without First-Order Change: A Case of Thai Internationalization of Higher Education
• 4 Higher Education in Malaysia: Access, Equity and Quality
• 5 Indonesian Higher Education: Gaps in Access and School Choice
• 6 Increasing Access to and Retention in Primary Education in Malaysia
• 7 Primary and Secondary Education in Myanmar: Challenges Facing Current Reforms

7 - Primary and Secondary Education in Myanmar: Challenges Facing Current Reforms

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 January 2018

INTRODUCTION

Since the political changes starting in 2011, the new quasi-civilian Myanmar government has announced a number of reforms to the education sector. For several decades before that, Myanmar had spent far less on education than any of its neighbours. When a government has failed to provide adequate education to enough citizens, many embrace decentralization as a strategy to improve their education system, often with the encouragement of international advisors and donors. The Myanmar government has stated that decentralization is a goal for their provision of basic education. It has also stated its intention to increase funding and the number of schools and teachers, increase the number of years of compulsory education, reform the curriculum, draft an education law, and reach out to non-state actors that have signed ceasefire agreements with the central government.

Against this background of long-term underfunding and neglect, what is the nature of, and prospects for, decentralization in education inMyanmar? Can decentralization be effective in addressing the deep-seated problems in the Myanmar education sector? To explore answers to these questions, we have examined relationships within the formal education system in the Ministry of Education across various levels of government, from the national down to the state or region, and below that to the district and township. We describe the provision of education starting from the colonial era in the late nineteenth century through to the present. We have also reviewed some of the non-state actors involved in the provision of education, especially as their involvement throws into relief challenges that the formal education system faces. We then present our findings, which suggest that of this writing (2014), decentralization, to the extent that is has happened at all, is limited. The institutional culture of the Ministry of Education, together with societal attitudes towards education and perceptions of the proper roles of students, teachers, and Ministry staff, all limit decentralization.

METHODOLOGY

We have based our findings on a literature review and on interviews with key participants and decision-makers in two regions, Mon State and Yangon Region. The purpose of this review and interviews was to gauge how people involved with the provision of education understand “decentralization”, what decisions and responsibilities have been handed down from higher to lower levels of administration, and how they understand their own role in the process.

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• Primary and Secondary Education in Myanmar: Challenges Facing Current Reforms
• By Brooke Zobrist , an education consultant in Myanmar and the founder of the non-government organization Girl Determined, Patrick McCormick , Head, Yangon Branch Office, École française d'Extrême-Orient (EFEO), Yangon, Myanmar
• Edited by Lee Hock Guan
• Book: Education and Globalization in Southeast Asia
• Online publication: 12 January 2018

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Education of Myanmar

Break Away from Military Era Traditions and Make Democratic and Dynamic Changes

• Living reference work entry
• First Online: 31 October 2019
• Cite this living reference work entry

• Yoshitaka Tanaka 3 &
• Myat Myat Khine 4  

Part of the book series: Global Education Systems ((GES))

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The foundation of Myanmar’s current education system was laid during the 1970s when the country was under an extremely authoritarian military regime. Though there were some minor revisions in the 1980s and the 1990s, this system continued until 2015. Since the old education system was enforced for many decades, it does not fit the requirements of the current era. Criticism of the education system therefore gradually emerged and became stronger after the military regime ended. A large-scale education reform was initiated from 2013 onward after the establishment of the Thein Sein administration. This reform was intended to bring about a comprehensive revision of an education system that still contained ideas from the time of the military regime. The reform covered a wide range of issues such as education-related laws and rules, the school system, curriculum, pedagogy, evaluation and examination system, teacher education system, educational administration, and so forth. It is widely believed therefore that the reform, which according to the Ministry of Education (MOE) will be completed by 2028, will be a complex process involving various challenges. The greatest challenge is about implementing the reform smoothly and efficiently. It is only when the large-scale education reform is accomplished that Myanmar will be on par with other developed countries that have adopted a modern system of education.

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Overview of Education in Myanmar

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Educational Development, The International Development Center of Japan (IDCJ), Tokyo, Japan

Yoshitaka Tanaka

Former Government Officer of the Ministry of Education (MOE), The Republic of the Union of Myanmar, Yangon, Myanmar

Myat Myat Khine

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Tanaka, Y., Khine, M.M. (2020). Education of Myanmar. In: Sarangapani, P., Pappu, R. (eds) Handbook of Education Systems in South Asia. Global Education Systems. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-3309-5_15-1

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DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-3309-5_15-1

Received : 21 May 2019

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Published : 31 October 2019

Publisher Name : Springer, Singapore

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Online ISBN : 978-981-13-3309-5

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Education For All in Myanmar Education Structure The Myanmar Basic Education School

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Myanmar: New Project Aims to Improve Education Quality and Access Across Country

Washington, March 3, 2020 — A project to improve access to, and quality of, basic education nationwide in Myanmar was approved today by the World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors. The project, financed by a US$100 million credit from the International Development Association (IDA), will be implemented over four school years.

The Inclusive Access and Quality Education (IAQE) project takes a national and a focused approach, covering all states and regions and supporting programs to reach out to schools across the country, while placing greater emphasis on social inclusion and support to conflict-affected areas. More than 70 percent of the financing will be channeled to Myanmar’s most disadvantaged townships, with a particular focus on the most under-performing schools and teachers within these townships.

The project builds on and extends the geographic scope of the work done under the ongoing Decentralizing Funding to Schools Project, supported by the World Bank since 2014. That project to date has reduced the burden of fees for the parents and guardians of more than 9 million students through direct funding to all Ministry of Education schools for their operations, and has provided stipends to more than 200,000 poor and disadvantaged students, helping them to stay enrolled through middle and high school.

At a nationwide level, however, there continues to be large gaps in educational attainment and access. About one-third of students at grade 3 level are unable to read fluently with comprehension or solve basic age-appropriate mathematical problems, and most students continue to drop out before the age of fourteen. Moreover, education outcomes are unequally distributed, and are particularly poor for children from disadvantaged social and economic backgrounds, minority ethnic groups, and in communities living in conflict-affected areas.

“Providing quality education for all will be critical for poverty reduction, fostering human capital, and building a more peaceful and prosperous future for the entire country,” said  Gevorg Sargsyan, Acting World Bank Country Director for Myanmar . “It will be particularly important to reach children who have dropped out, migrant children and internally displaced children, and bring them back into school, which is why the new project puts a special emphasis on reaching the most marginalized children.”

The IAQE project will also support strengthening the efficiency of the education system, including through improved public financial and human resource management and technical support to the Ministry of Education, and will closely monitor implementation across the country.

In addition to the US$100 million IDA credit, the IAQE project will be supported through US$70 million from the Global Partnership for Education and US$10 million from the European Commission.

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Essay on Myanmar

Students are often asked to write an essay on Myanmar in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Myanmar

Introduction to myanmar.

Myanmar, also known as Burma, is a country in Southeast Asia. It is the largest country in the region by land area. It is bordered by India and Bangladesh to its west, Thailand and Laos to its east, and China to its north and northeast.

People and Culture

Myanmar is a melting pot of different cultures. The country is home to over 100 ethnic groups, each with their own traditions and languages. The main language is Burmese. The people are known for their friendliness and hospitality.

Religion in Myanmar

Buddhism is the main religion in Myanmar. Most people follow Theravada Buddhism. You will find many beautiful pagodas and temples all over the country. These religious sites are important places for prayer and meditation.

Economy of Myanmar

Myanmar’s economy is based on agriculture. Rice is the main crop. The country also has rich natural resources like oil, gas, and precious stones. In recent years, tourism has also become an important part of the economy.

Political History

250 words essay on myanmar.

Myanmar, also known as Burma, is a country in Southeast Asia. It is the largest country in mainland Southeast Asia and the 10th largest in Asia. It shares borders with India, Bangladesh, China, Laos, and Thailand.

Capital and Population

The capital city of Myanmar is Naypyidaw. It became the capital in 2005, replacing the city of Yangon. Myanmar has a population of about 54 million people. Many people from different ethnic groups live in Myanmar. The largest group is the Bamar people.

Language and Religion

The official language of Myanmar is Burmese. It is spoken by most people in the country. English is also taught in schools. The main religion in Myanmar is Buddhism. A large majority of the people in Myanmar follow this religion.

Natural Beauty

Myanmar is known for its natural beauty. It has many rivers, mountains, and forests. The Irrawaddy River is the longest river in the country. Myanmar also has beautiful beaches along its western and southern coasts.

The economy of Myanmar is based on agriculture. Rice is the main crop. Other important sectors of the economy are mining and manufacturing. Myanmar is rich in resources like oil, gas, and precious stones like jade and rubies.

500 Words Essay on Myanmar

Myanmar, also known as Burma, is a country in Southeast Asia. It is one of the largest and most diverse countries in its region. Myanmar is famous for its rich history, diverse culture, and beautiful landscapes.

Geography of Myanmar

Myanmar is located between India and Thailand. It shares borders with India, Bangladesh, China, Laos, and Thailand. The country has a diverse landscape. It has high mountains, wide rivers, and fertile plains. The largest river, the Ayeyarwady, is very important for farming and transportation. The country also has a long coastline along the Andaman Sea and the Bay of Bengal.

People and Culture of Myanmar

History of myanmar.

Myanmar has a long and interesting history. It was home to many ancient kingdoms. The British ruled Myanmar from 1824 to 1948. After gaining independence, the country faced many challenges. In 1962, a military government took control. They ruled for almost 50 years. In 2015, Myanmar started a new chapter with its first democratic election in many years.

The economy of Myanmar is based on agriculture. Rice is the main crop. Other important products are beans, sesame, rubber, and teak. The country also has valuable resources like jade, pearls, and gems. Myanmar is trying to grow its economy by attracting foreign investors and tourists.

Challenges and Future of Myanmar

In conclusion, Myanmar is a fascinating country with a rich history and culture. It has many beautiful places to see and friendly people to meet. Despite its challenges, the country has a bright future. The people of Myanmar are hopeful and determined to make their country a better place.

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Fact or fiction? Inside the regime’s ‘fact-checking’ team

• July 10, 2024

The Myanmar junta’s “anti-disinformation team” claims to just counter fake news, but operates in cooperation with the military and police to crack down on dissidents and expose resistance groups.

By YE MON | FRONTIER

When Ko Min Nyo arrives at his office every week day at 8am, he uses a ministry-provided laptop to check a range of social media platforms, including Facebook, Telegram and X, formerly known as Twitter. Despite most of these services being blocked in Myanmar, he can access them on the office WiFi, which he says is notably faster than his home internet.

“I’m happy to work for the team every day. I don’t want false information to reach the public,” he told Frontier in an interview on June 24, asking to be identified by a pseudonym because he’s not authorised to speak to the press.

“My main duty on the team is news verification.”

The anti-disinformation team operates under the Ministry of Information, which like all other ministries came under the military’s thumb following the February 2021 coup. Min Nyo was transferred to the disinformation team in 2022 but refused to specify which department he worked for previously.

The ministry has long had various teams and departments, including those overseeing state media, regulating registered news outlets, and a fact-checking team, which now appears to be defunct.

“I’m not entirely sure what the fact-checking team did before,” said Min Nyo. “That team has been replaced by the anti-disinformation team. I believe the duties and tasks are more or less the same.”

Each day, Min Nyo reads the latest news on Myanmar, reviewing local media, exile media and international outlets before sending a report to both the team leader and a permanent secretary. The former is Major-General Zaw Min Tun, the regime’s spokesperson and deputy information minister, who directly oversees Min Nyo’s five-person team.

The major-general, most famous for aggressively refuting allegations of rights abuses, is known in the office for shouting at the team members if they submit a report late.

The team also monitors the social media presence of armed resistance groups formed in response to the coup and their ethnic armed group allies, many of which have been fighting for autonomy for decades.

Facebook and other social media platforms have been banned in Myanmar since the military seized power. But the team still monitors them because many inside the country have found workarounds, and a large number of dissidents who operate from abroad also use them. Min Nyo said they don’t use any advanced technology to monitor what’s trending, they just observe social media and see what’s going viral.

While Min Nyo characterised his work as a straightforward fact-checking operation, the team also shares information with the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of Home Affairs, which oversee the military and police respectively. It also appears to be linked to the infamous network of pro-military Telegram channels that regularly doxxes people who criticise the regime, at times leading to arrests.

Monitoring the media

Many of Myanmar’s independent media outlets have also been forced to move abroad, after dozens of journalists were jailed and a handful killed by the regime.

Min Nyo singled out Khit Thit Media as the most inaccurate of all exile media operations. Unabashedly pro-resistance, Khit Thit has become the most followed news outlet since the coup, regularly publishing explosive scoops and inside leaks – although not all of them are substantiated.

“If we find fake news, we must report it to the team leader, who will then check with the relevant ministries. Then, we’ll label it as fake news and publish a story that counters it with true facts,” he said.

Min Nyo said the team mostly focuses on the most serious human rights allegations, like accusations that the military has killed civilians or burned down homes, both of which have been well-documented with overwhelming evidence by media outlets and human rights organisations.

“I don’t understand why people believe so easily news about the military killing civilians or burning down villages,” he said, explaining that the main way they fact-check these news reports is by merely asking the military if they’re true or not.

This is evident from state media’s typical rebuttal strategy. For instance, in the July 6 edition of the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar , a screenshot of an RFA Burmese article alleging the military detained 100 civilians and burned 12 homes in Mandalay Region’s Myingyan Township was posted with a big red X over it. GNLM said “malicious media” was spreading “fake news”.

The only evidence? “Security officials” insisted it wasn’t true.

“I think it’s just military propaganda. Everyone knows the military is always lying,” said an editor at the Ayeyarwaddy Times , an independent exile media outlet. “As an anti-disinformation team, they should provide evidence if the stories are false. Quoting a single source is not enough.”

Other than that, another priority is countering articles that mention rising price of the US dollar, or goods like rice and gold, which the regime typically blames on speculators and price manipulators.

“People get misinformed about the government and military by these stories. Our team has a responsibility to inform the public when stories are false and to give accurate news to the people,” Min Nyo said.

He claimed roughly half of the stories published in exile media and international media are almost completely false.

“We found that your Frontier published stories containing false information. Frontier also promotes anti-military actions. Why don’t you refer to yourself as biased media? All exile media outlets are lobbying for the NUG and supporting terrorism,” he said.

The National Unity Government is a parallel administration appointed by elected lawmakers deposed in the coup. The regime, known officially as the State Administration Council, has designated the NUG and affiliated post-coup armed groups, widely known as People’s Defence Forces, as terrorist organisations.

Min Nyo refused to explain which Frontier stories contained false information, but said exile media outlets should learn from local media about how to report the truth.

A cog in the machine

The team’s remit clearly extends beyond countering disinformation, moving into territory that could be considered doxxing or military intelligence.

Min Nyo said they monitor accounts on social media platforms run by fundraising groups, civil society groups helping internally displaced people and political prisoners, and even ordinary businesses, reporting their findings to the Ministry of Home Affairs.

A senior official from the home affairs ministry, who works closely with the disinformation team, said they have made arrests based on reports from Min Nyo’s team, such as targeting business owners who posted on social media about the economic downturn since the coup.

“Some Telegram channels urged the government to take action against these shops and companies,” said the senior official. “We are always listening to people’s voices and determining whether or not their posts violate the law. Unfortunately, we discovered that they intended to defame the government.”

Last month, at least 10 business owners were arrested and charged with incitement for mentioning the post-coup economic collapse while giving salary raises to their employees. The economy has cratered under the military regime, with the kyat losing about half its value even as the prices of every day goods soar.

The home affairs source claimed that Min Nyo is also a member of the team running the Han Nyein Oo Telegram channel, a particularly infamous pro-military social media personality that previously shared revenge porn of democracy activists and directed security forces to arrest business owners participating in a strike.

Min Nyo refused to comment on the Han Nyein Oo channel, but did admit that his disinformation team sends posts from resistance groups to the Ministry of Defence for analysis, some of which are geolocated and then used to attack their positions.

The brother of a businesswoman detained last month told Frontier that his sister was arrested on June 11 and sentenced to three years in prison under Section 505 (a) of the Penal Code the following day – a very unusually quick trial. Section 505 (a) criminalises causing fear in the public or spreading false news.

“We got the information in advance that the military would arrest the owners who posted the salary increase letters, but my sister didn’t have time to run away or hide,” he said, claiming she wanted to help her employees and had no intention of defaming the regime.

Min Nyo said his team simply did their job by monitoring Facebook trends and reporting their findings, and made no explicit recommendations to arrest anybody.

“Arresting people is not our job; that decision can only come from the relevant ministry, probably the Ministry of Home Affairs,” he said.

Caught red-handed

In June, the junta was embroiled in a scandal after being caught fabricating news about the death of a monk who was shot at a military checkpoint. The revered 77-year-old Sayadaw Bhaddanta Muninandabhivamsa, from Bago town’s Win Neinmitayone monastery, was killed while travelling in a car to attend a religious meeting in Mandalay city. Initially, the military blamed resistance groups, but another monk who survived the ordeal with injuries said soldiers opened fire at the car unprovoked.

Because the junta was caught lying red-handed, and due to the sensitivity of offending the monkhood, the regime was forced to make a rare public apology for the incident on June 24, saying the vehicle refused to stop when ordered to. But given how routinely the military blames any civilian casualties on “PDF terrorists”, the incident further punctured its fragile narrative.

“Everyone knows who is really lying, but this time the military was forced to admit it,” said the Ayeyarwaddy Times editor.

But it appears to make little difference for those already firmly in the military’s camp. Yangon resident and military supporter Ma Khin Sandar said she believes this was just a one-time mistake, and it’s the exile media outlets that are more regularly spreading fake news.

“Exile media are publishing false stories,” she said. “I read their stories just to know what lies they are writing.”

But people like Khin Sandar are clearly in the minority. In the aftermath of the 2017 brutal crackdown on the Rohingya in northern Rakhine State, the military effectively used disinformation to sway public opinion, taking advantage of widespread prejudices against the minority to win over even pro-democracy activists. But today, most of its efforts are falling on deaf ears.

A data collector for a local fact-checking group said Min Nyo’s team isn’t conducting proper disinformation work, but is spreading propaganda.

“Anti-disinformation work is not easy. They need to actually cross-check and review information to determine whether it’s accurate or not. They can’t simply declare something is inaccurate, as the military does. They need to conduct a thorough investigation from multiple perspectives first,” she said.

Min Nyo bristled at the accusation that the team was formed to cover for the military’s lies, and said while they may make mistakes sometimes, they are genuinely trying to give people access to the truth.

“Everyone can make a mistake, that’s not the same as lying or faking,” he said, despite previously accusing exile media of the same. “We’re not doing propaganda for the SAC; we’re verifying true news for the people.”

More stories

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Myanmar’s Women Face Significant Risks From Junta Conscription Drive

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The debate  |  opinion.

After an initial exemption, women and girls are now being forcibly recruited into the ranks of the country’s armed forces.

Female soldiers march during a parade to commemorate Myanmar’s 79th Armed Forces Day, in Naypyidaw, Myanmar, Wednesday, March 27, 2024.

Five months after the Myanmar military announced mandatory military service , women between the ages of 18 and 27 are now being enlisted . Though women were initially exempt from the draft, pregnant women and young mothers are now among those being added to registration lists by junta-appointed administrators across the country.

The gendered impacts of forced conscription of young women and girls are consequential and pose severe risks to their safety, especially given the junta’s long history of misogyny and violence. While there was speculation that women would not be forced to serve on the frontlines, it’s likely the junta will not hesitate to use them as human shields and force them to carry out duties that could put their lives in danger.

Additionally, women and girls are at a high risk of being sexually assaulted and raped while in the military’s custody. Domestically, there are no existing pathways to justice that would permit them to seek accountability.  In addition, the 2008 military-drafted constitution ensures control over its judicial processes, which lack any civilian oversight. All of the judges are appointed by the military junta, and its soldiers are overwhelmingly protected , thus allowing further impunity.

Since the attempted coup of February 2021, the deterioration of women’s rights has been exacerbated by a broken justice system and an increase in cases of violence against women, particularly in ethnic areas. Women-led civil society groups, including the Karenni National Women’s Organization , the Kayan Women’s Organization , and the Burmese Women’s Union have all reported a rise in attacks against women perpetrated by the junta. Female political prisoners also face extreme levels of persecution and abuse in detention.

Further, women have accounted for one in five deaths, with over 1,000 killed since the 2021 coup, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.  A 2024 Human Rights Watch report on Myanmar found an “uptick in reports of sexual violence and other forms of gendered harassment. ”

On this year’s International Women’s Day, eight Myanmar women’s organizations condemned the announcement of the military’s forced conscription law. For women in particular, the joint statement expressed specific concern over the risk of forcibly enlisted women being subjected to gender-based violence, exploitation, and discrimination.

They noted that the military’s decades of widespread and systematic violations against women speak to the culture of impunity that will indeed continue in its armed forces, stating: “Women who will be forcibly recruited will be exposed to rape, gang rape, sexual slavery and other brutal forms of sexual violence, as well as conflict-related sexual violence, that the military has long perpetrated.”

The heightened risks they now face are forcing thousands of women to flee the country, which comes with its own set of risks. With very few options available, women are relying on dangerous options to flee the country. This puts them at increased risk of human trafficking and other forms of exploitation. Families seeking protection for their daughters involve brokers or agents who could further endanger them through profit-driven schemes. The LGBTQ community faces similar risks, including being trafficked into forced labor and sexual discrimination and exploitation.

In response to the conscription drive, women’s organizations continue to fill gaps in social services and political actions, including human rights awareness sessions, advocacy and actions on political resistance and ensure the safe and secure delivery of menstrual and nutritional kits for women and children.

Despite the increasing risks to their safety and funding limitations, they carry on this work to ensure vulnerable and displaced women and children receive support that upholds their dignity. The international community should stand with those opposing conscription. Civilians should not have to fight for a terrorist junta of war criminals and one that has been responsible for tearing their families apart.

Even though there is no formal treaty between Myanmar and Thailand regarding refugees, Thailand has accommodated refugees along the border for decades. Thailand must act compassionately and in a gender-sensitive manner to build meaningful relationships with grassroots leaders and organizations that uphold vulnerable groups’ safety, dignity and protection. Other neighboring countries, such as India and China, must also offer safe and reliable pathways of asylum for those seeking alternative education and work opportunities.

There must also be direct and flexible support for ethnic and women’s organizations that provide life-saving emergency support, including responses to domestic violence and gender-based violence to displaced populations and vulnerable groups in Thailand and along the border. Further, international stakeholders must acknowledge that the junta is neither a legitimate government nor a representative of the people. Therefore, they must engage with the National Unity Government and its allied ethnic revolutionary and resistance organizations rather than risk legitimizing the murderous coup regime.

Coup leader Min Aung Hlaing and his terrorist brand of soldiers must be held accountable for their ongoing crimes against civilians. The forced conscription mandate is only the latest scheme in their desperate quest for control. Women have come too far and have made substantial progress across the country. However, the mandatory draft risks further setbacks for women’s rights. Over the last three years,  women have taken on advanced leadership positions nationwide. We continue to call for greater gender equality as a strength and pillar of the revolutionary movement.

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The Army of Poets and Students Fighting a Forgotten War

Young people from the cities are turning the tide against myanmar’s military dictatorship..

This transcript was created using speech recognition software. While it has been reviewed by human transcribers, it may contain errors. Please review the episode audio before quoting from this transcript and email [email protected] with any questions.

From “The New York Times,” I’m Katrin Bennhold. This is “The Daily.”

[THEME MUSIC]

Myanmar is home to one of the deadliest, most intractable civil wars on the planet, but something new and remarkable is happening. An unusual wave of young people from the cities, including students, poets, baristas, have joined the country’s rebel militias. This coalition is now making startling gains against Myanmar’s military dictatorship.

Today, my colleague Hannah Beech takes us inside this surprising resistance movement.

[UPBEAT MUSIC]

It’s Monday, June 24.

Hannah, you’ve been covering a war that is barely getting any attention in the world. We hear a lot about Gaza in Ukraine, but you’ve been covering this war in Myanmar. And now three years in, something is shifting in a really unexpected way. Tell us what’s happening.

I think when we imagine a Civil War in Southeast Asia, we expect, I don’t know, guerrillas in combat fatigues fighting in the jungle. And yes, you do have those g-time rebel fighters, but what’s happening now is that these veteran soldiers have partnered with the new and exciting force, which is young people from the cities who have joined together with these old guys, and they’ve decided to fight the good fight for an ideal called democracy. And remarkably, three years after the civil war began, they’re starting to win.

Wow. And just for context, remind us how this war started. Where are we in this story?

So for about 50 years, Myanmar was stuck in this kind of awful, preserved-in-amber military dictatorship. And then, about a decade ago, the Myanmar military leaders, they started to peacefully transfer some of the power to a democratically elected leadership. And that civilian leadership was led by, I think, the one Burmese person that people might know, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. She’s a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and she’s very eloquent in English. And she was this kind of paragon of democracy and nonviolent resistance to this big, bad military dictatorship.

I remember actually how she was celebrated. There were pop art posters of her for sale, and she gave lectures in Oxford. And of course, even Obama visited her.

Exactly. She was up there with the Dalai Lama with Nelson Mandela. And so, yes, you’re right, President Obama visited not once but twice, I mean, to this little country in Southeast Asia that people had barely heard of. But then the Myanmar military unleashed an ethnic cleansing campaign against the ethnic minority Rohingya Muslims.

And Aung San Suu Kyi, who was constantly under pressure from the military, goes to an international court and defends the military against charges of genocide. And it’s at that moment where all these world leaders who’d wanted to associate themselves with the great things that were happening in Myanmar were a little bit embarrassed, and foreign governments just backed away.

Right. So Aung San Suu Kyi, who represented in a way, the hope of democracy to many in the west, sides with the military on persecuting the Rohingya. And it’s a real embarrassment for all the people that endorsed and supported her.

Yeah, and I think that’s the context in which this coup happens. So February 2021, the military arrests the civilian leadership of the country, puts down San Suu Kyi in jail, and the people who suddenly loose so much from the resumption of military rule go out on the streets. And there are millions of people on the streets who are peacefully protesting, and the military does what it has done over and over and over again with pro-democracy movements in Myanmar, which is to shoot people on the streets.

And that catalyzes a lot of young people, doctors and lawyers and engineers and airplane mechanics and poets and civil servants, to do something unprecedented, which is to escape from the cities and make their way to the borderlands of Myanmar, where a bunch of ethnic militias have for generations been fighting the military junta. And they join with these ethnic militias and form a unified armed resistance.

So students and other young people from the cities join this armed resistance against a real army with a brutal history. It doesn’t really sound like they stand a chance.

It doesn’t. And I think those of us who’ve watched Myanmar for a while sort of expected it to be a David and Goliath story in which Goliath wins. But a few months ago, I started hearing something that surprised me, which is that a coalition of these resistance groups, these militias, had launched an offensive. And within a few months, you had dozens of towns that changed from junta control to rebel control. You had hundreds of Myanmar army outposts that changed hands to resistance control.

And so by the time the kind of dust settled, you had a situation in which more than half of the territory of Myanmar is now in resistance hands.

It is an unprecedented rate of success for a ragtag group, some of whom two years ago had never even picked up a gun.

That’s incredible. So they basically won back more than half of the territory, and they did so in just a few months. How is that possible? What are these rebels doing?

That’s a question that I really want the answer to as well. And that’s the main reason that I worked with our security team and my editors to be able to organize a trip back to Myanmar. We’re traveling on a road that is often mined, so the driver is trying to be as careful as possible. To actually get there, we went in a pretty convoluted route because the main roads in the area where we were, which is called Karenni State, are mostly within sights of the Myanmar military. And so we were worried about being targets, and so we had to take back jungle roads.

And all of a sudden I see in front of me a very brown, flat river. And I’m looking at it, and I see absolutely no bridge. And we’re in this pickup truck. And I think, how in the world are we going to cross this river? So here is a boat, and here is our car, and I see in front of me these long boats with engines on the back. And in between these boats, they have kind of a pieces of wood, like planks. And apparently, our car is going to go on there, which seems like a mathematical impossibility, but we’ll see how it goes.

And we go over these two planks. I hope he’s got good driving skills. Here we go. Here we go. Here we go. And suddenly, we have landed on top, and we’re balanced in between the two boats. And this is our car ferry.

A car ferry, Karenni style.

This is the kind of ingenuity that happens in times of war. So we’re back on these jungle roads, and our destination is a place where rebel group called the KNDF, the Karenni Nationalities Defense Force, is setting up a functional government in a place that until really recently had been the site of incredibly intense fighting.

And after hour after hour of going either through jungles or passing these empty villages, suddenly, we started seeing people, and we started seeing livestock, and we started seeing cars. And we pull up in a parking lot. And a guy comes up to me and he uses the former name for Myanmar, which is Burma, and he says, welcome to free Burma.

Wow. So you are now in rebel-held territory. And what does free Burma look like?

Free Burma is this weird combination of young students who really want to engage in deep conversations about Marxism and about democracy, except you’re in the middle of the jungle and you hear mortars every now and then. And they’ve had to build everything themselves. They’ve set up refugee camps for displaced people, a whole functioning government and administration in the jungle hills of the poorest state in Myanmar.

And the amazing thing is they’ve built all of this without a functioning power grid. There’s no running water. There are no phone lines, and there’s no normal internet. And so photographer Adam Ferguson and I traveled around, and we went to wedding parties, and we met with young girls who were singing resistance songs.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

I don’t speak Burmese, but I’m listening to these songs, and the melody is sort of transporting me. And then, as I was listening to the lyrics, those Burmese, Burmese, Burmese, and all of a sudden I hear the words democracy.

Heard it in songs, and I heard it in basic training by these recruits to the KNDF.

[MILITARY CHANTING]

And I asked around, and it turns out that the phrase “democracy” doesn’t really have a translation in Burmese. This is something that people were laying their lives for, but they were also singing it and saying it in English. And it kind of underscored to me how powerful this ideology was for them. And so I wanted to go and embed with this force and see what they were doing and understand the motivations of some of these people who had joined this rebel force.

We’ll be right back.

Hannah, you said you wanted to embed with these rebel forces. Where did you end up going?

So for all of Karenni State, there’s essentially one hospital to which all casualties are taken. And to get there, you travel down a jungle path and you bump, bump, bump, bump in. There are buildings, some of them are made of brick, but mostly it’s bamboo.

This is a secret hospital in the jungle somewhere in Karenni State and out of nothing, out of the forest, they’ve built an emergency room over there. Here’s an operating theater. And there is a functional hospital that has been built by young doctors and nurses and medics from the cities who all came with a common purpose, which was to join the resistance movement.

And one of the people who made the biggest impression on me was a young woman named Lin Nielsen. She worked as a medic, treating wounded soldiers and victims of landmines.

Everybody knows Ms. Lin?

She’s been part of the resistance in Karenni since the very beginning, and she was really striking. We were in the canteen, which was this shack with a dirt floor, and she was wearing these pink pajamas and fluffy slippers.

So she has a very big social media presence? Yes, she does. She does.

Not that much.

And Lin was from a big city in Myanmar. How did you decide to join the resistance movement and what propelled you to do that?

I am just 25 years of youth.

She describes herself as just a normal kid.

Kpop, yeah.

She sold cosmetics online, she went to med school.

In 2021 February, I joined to the protest. And like —

When the coup happens, she joins the protest movement, like many young people —

They started shooting and starting killing the people —

But when the crackdowns happened, most of her friends, she says, just went home and kept their heads down.

So they told me not to do so. Just go back to the university and just finish your degree.

And there was something in Lin that was not able to just go back to her old life.

So I choose my way, you choose your way and yeah.

And so she made this decision to run away and became part of this resistance movement.

And what was that transition like? That’s quite a big thing, to go to the jungle and completely change your life.

I think it was really, really hard. It is an intense experience for a comfortable city girl to end up in the middle of jungle warfare. And she has been working — She actually doesn’t have her medical degree because she left before she was able to get it, but every day, she is working triage, and she is wrapping bullet wounds and getting pieces of shrapnel out of wounded soldiers.

She has a saw that she uses for amputations for the victims of landmines.

A saw, yes. Everybody has their own saw. And she is getting a medical education that you would never get in a theoretical world of a medical university. She is trained to plunge her hands into the chest cavities of wounded soldiers to extract pieces of shrapnel.

And what she has is a commitment to this idea of democracy that I think is extraordinarily powerful. And she is literally laying down her life for that cause. And Lin is just one member of hundreds of groups with tens of thousands of people in them in this resistance, which, at this moment of time, seem to really be turning the tide against the military.

It’s so clear that these rebels are fighting for something they really believe in, but how is this coalition? How are these groups, like the KNDF you spend time with, actually winning territory back from a professional military?

You’re right. The Myanmar military is very well equipped. It has fighter jets. It has big, bad war-making machines, but one of the things that the rebels have is a game changer and an equalizer in modern warfare. And that’s a cheap homemade drone.

You mean like a very simple drone, the kind that I bought for my daughter at Best Buy?

Yeah. So if you take that drone that you got for your daughter at Best Buy and you hand it to a Karenni rebel soldier and they go on the internet and they start communicating with somebody in Ukraine, they take that very simple drone and they start adding bits and pieces to it, and they change something that is used for photography and they turn it into a machine that can drop bombs on the enemy frontlines.

Wow. So they’re actually communicating with other pro-democracy fighters, if you will, in Ukraine and other places about how to do this?

Yeah. And it was really remarkable because when I went to the drone base of the KNDF, they were using laser cutters, they were using 3D printers, and they were creating a modern fleet of drones that has the potential to fight against something like a fighter jet. And that really is a game changer.

It’s interesting. So these rebel drones are clearly proving to be a real headache for the military. Is that the main reason or is there anything else that explains the rebel’s success?

I think the main reason is this really unlikely alliance that has formed between the kids from the cities who have come to the jungles and this array of ethnic militias. Some of these ethnic militias, in a complicated way, don’t like each other. And so not only are they fighting the junta, but they’re also fighting themselves.

And what has changed for the first time since the coup is that these ethnic militias that had these kind of internecine problems have decided to unify for a common goal, which is to fight the junta. And they’re beginning to train and help the young people who are coming from the cities. And that’s really something that’s never happened before.

Most of these young people from the cities may have played video games. That was their experience of war beforehand. And they’re coming into the jungle and they don’t know how to fight. They shouldn’t know how to fight, but they were given training and weapons and military knowhow, how to throw a grenade, how to protect yourself, basic first aid. All of these things were being taught to them. And these city kids have been fighting and dying alongside members of these ethnic militias. And I think this trust that has developed between them has really changed the tenor of the war.

So given that they’re gaining territory, given that this alliance for the first time seems to be holding, is there a chance that they actually win? That’s a very good question. As difficult as what has happened has been for the resistance, I think it’s the easy part. Capturing remote areas is a lot easier than moving into the heartland of the country, where the big cities are. And that’s going to be a really difficult thing for the resistance to be able to push into and claim.

So what lies ahead is the really tough part.

Oh yes. Let’s say somehow, the resistance is able to push in and put the junta on its back heels in the heartland and kick them out of some big cities, at a certain point, I think members of the alliance are going to realize that they have fundamentally different goals. Some of the ethnic militias want to become independent of a country called Myanmar, some of them want to control the gains of enlisted economy.

Myanmar is one of the biggest producers of methamphetamine, of fentanyl, of opium. And then there are also some people who really want democracy. And so it’s very hard to imagine, even if they succeed militarily, for these groups to be able to agree on what they envision Myanmar to look like.

So does that mean the idea of some future united democracy is not actually realistic? Across these different groups, everybody agrees the idea of federal democracy is a good thing. I don’t know when it comes down to actually forming a new government should the resistance be able to do so, whether the temptation of power will prove to be a more potent force than this gauzy idea of federal democracy. And I think the reality right now, and even should the resistance win, is a Myanmar that is fractured and splintered.

So what does that mean for the young people fighting in the jungle? Are they talking about this? Are they conscious of the risks of their country being fractured and splintered? And are they prepared for such an outcome?

It’s very easy for political theorists to talk about, is this a fractured state or is this a splintered state or is this a functioning democracy, but I think for the people who are actually on the ground, they are fighting for very specific things, which is a resumption of their lives as they were before the coup. And that was a life in which things were slowly getting better, and they had certain freedoms, and they were able to vote, and they were able to participate in a yes, flawed democracy but a democracy nonetheless. And that is what they’re fighting for.

And revolutions fail and they fail and they fail until they succeed. And I think for the young people who are in Myanmar, they are willing to give their lives for what maybe to me seems a slim chance, but for them, it’s what keeps them going day after day in the jungles, to fight for a better future for young people and for all the people in Myanmar.

Hannah, thank you.

Thank you, Katrin.

Here’s what else you need to know today. On Sunday, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lashed out at the United States for the second time in a week. Netanyahu accused the Biden administration of withholding weapons for the war in Gaza. His comments came as Israel’s minister of defense arrived in Washington for meetings with senior US officials.

Tensions over Israel’s conduct during its war in Gaza have been rising between Netanyahu and Biden in recent weeks. A day before Netanyahu’s latest complaints, Israeli soldiers tied a wounded Palestinian to the top of a military vehicle in the WesBank. The scene was captured on video and quickly went viral, causing outrage. The Israeli military said the act violated military procedure and that there would be an investigation.

Today’s episode was produced by Shannon Lin, Nina Feldman, Rachelle Bonja, with help from Asthaa Chaturvedi. It was edited by M.J. Davis Lin, with help from Patricia Willens, contains original music by Dan Powell and Diane Wang and was engineered by Chris Wood. Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsverk of Wonderly.

That’s it for “The Daily.” I’m Katrin Bennhold. See you tomorrow.

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Hosted by Katrin Bennhold

Featuring Hannah Beech

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Myanmar is home to one of the deadliest, most intractable civil wars on the planet. But something new is happening. Unusual numbers of young people from the cities, including students, poets and baristas, have joined the country’s rebel militias. And this coalition is making startling gains against the country’s military dictatorship.

Hannah Beech, who covers stories across Asia for The Times, discusses this surprising resistance movement.

On today’s episode

Hannah Beech , a Bangkok-based reporter for The New York Times, focusing on investigative and in-depth stories in Asia.

Background reading

Rebel fighters have handed Myanmar’s army defeat after defeat , for the first time raising the possibility that the military junta could be at risk of collapse.

What’s happening in Myanmar’s civil war?

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Katrin Bennhold is the Berlin bureau chief. A former Nieman fellow at Harvard University, she previously reported from London and Paris, covering a range of topics from the rise of populism to gender. More about Katrin Bennhold

Hannah Beech is a Times reporter based in Bangkok who has been covering Asia for more than 25 years. She focuses on in-depth and investigative stories. More about Hannah Beech

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Request for Applications for New Members of the Clinical Trials Transformation Initiative/Food and Drug Administration Patient Engagement Collaborative

A Notice by the Food and Drug Administration on 07/09/2024

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Food and Drug Administration, HHS.

Notice; request for applications.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA or Agency), in collaboration with the Clinical Trials Transformation Initiative (CTTI), is requesting applications from patient advocates interested in participating on the Patient Engagement Collaborative (PEC). The PEC is an ongoing, collaborative forum coordinated through the FDA's Patient Affairs Staff, Office of Clinical Policy and Programs (OCPP), Office of the Commissioner at FDA, and is hosted by CTTI. Through the PEC, the patient community and FDA staff are able to discuss an array of topics related to increasing meaningful patient engagement with diverse populations in medical product development and regulatory discussions at FDA. The activities of the PEC may include, but are not limited to, providing diverse perspectives on topics such as systematic patient engagement, transparency, and communication; providing considerations for implementing new strategies to enhance patient engagement at FDA; and proposing new models of collaboration in which patient, caregiver, and patient advocate perspectives can inform medical product development and regulatory discussions.

Applications can be submitted starting at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on July 9, 2024. This announcement is open to receive a maximum of 75 applications. Applications will be accepted until 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on August 8, 2024 or until 75 applications are received, whichever happens first.

All applications should be submitted to FDA's Patient Affairs Staff in OCPP. The preferred application method is via the online submission system provided by CTTI, available at https://duke.qualtrics.com/​jfe/​form/​SV_​3DllHjcaGryUIlg . For those applicants unable to submit an application electronically, please call FDA's Patient Affairs Staff at 301-796-8460 to arrange for mail or delivery service submission. Only complete applications, as described under section IV of this document, will be considered.

Wendy Slavit, Office of the Commissioner, Office of Clinical Policy and Programs, Patient Affairs Staff, Food and Drug Administration, 301-796-8460, [email protected] .

The CTTI is a public-private partnership cofounded by FDA and Duke University whose mission is to develop and drive adoption of practices that will increase the quality and efficiency of clinical trials. FDA and CTTI have long involved patients and considered patient perspectives in their work. Furthering the engagement of diverse patients as valued partners across the medical product research and development continuum requires an open forum for patients and regulators to discuss and exchange ideas.

The PEC is an ongoing, collaborative forum in which the patient community and FDA Staff discuss an array of topics related to increasing patient engagement Start Printed Page 56394 in medical product development and regulatory discussions at FDA. The PEC is a joint endeavor between FDA and CTTI. The activities of the PEC may inform relevant FDA and CTTI activities. The PEC is not intended to advise or otherwise direct the activities of either organization, and membership will not constitute employment by either organization.

The Food and Drug Administration Safety and Innovation Act ( Pub. L. 112-14 ), section 1137, entitled “Patient Participation in Medical Product Discussions,” added section 569C to the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act ( 21 U.S.C. 360bbb-8c ). This provision directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to “develop and implement strategies to solicit the views of patients during the medical product development process and consider the perspectives of patients during regulatory discussions.” On November 4, 2014, FDA issued a Federal Register notice establishing a docket (FDA-2014-N-1698) for public commenters to submit information related to FDA's implementation of this provision. Upon review of the comments received, one common theme, among others, included establishing an external group to provide input on patient engagement strategies across FDA's Centers. After considering the comments, FDA formed the PEC in 2018 to discuss a variety of patient engagement topics. This group is consistent with additional legislation subsequently enacted in section 3001 of the 21st Century Cures Act ( Pub. L. 114-255 ) and section 605 of the FDA Reauthorization Act of 2017 ( Pub. L. 115-52 ), further supporting tools for fostering patient participation in the regulatory process.

The PEC currently has 16 members. To help ensure continuity in its activities and organizational knowledge, the PEC maintains staggered membership terms. During the fall of 2024, eight members will complete a term and up to eight new members will be selected. The purpose of this notice is to announce that the application process for up to eight new members of the PEC is now open, and to invite and encourage applications by the submission deadline for appropriately qualified individuals.

The PEC includes up to 16 diverse representatives of the patient community. Eight members from the previous application process will remain on the PEC. The current application process is to select up to eight new PEC members. Selected members will include the following: (1) patients who have personal experience with a disease or medical condition; (2) caregivers who help support a patient—parent, child, partner, other family member, or friend—as they manage their disease or medical condition; and/or (3) representatives of patient groups who, through their role in the patient group, have direct or indirect disease experience. Please note that for purposes of this activity, the term “caregiver” is not intended to include individuals who are engaged in caregiving as healthcare professionals; and the term “patient group” is used herein to encompass patient advocacy organizations, disease advocacy organizations, voluntary health agencies, nonprofit research foundations, and public health organizations. The ultimate goal of the application and selection process is to identify individuals who can represent patient voices for their patient community.

Selection criteria include the applicant's potential to meaningfully contribute to the activities of the PEC, ability to represent and express patient voices for their constituency, ability to work in a constructive manner with interested parties/groups (such as patients, caregivers, advocates, academic institutions, government agencies, medical product development companies), and understanding of the clinical research enterprise. Consideration will also be given to ensuring the PEC includes diverse perspectives and experiences, including but not limited to sociodemographic factors (such as age, gender, ethnicity, and education level) and disease experience. PEC members are required to be residents of the United States and must be 18 years of age or older.

Financial and other conflicts of interest will not necessarily make applicants ineligible for membership in the PEC. However, applicants cannot be direct employees of the medical product development industry or a currently registered lobbyist for an FDA-regulated industry.

Participation as a PEC member is voluntary. Meetings will be held up to four times per year and will be conducted virtually with the potential for in-person events (in the Washington, DC area).

Reasonable accommodations will be made for members with special needs for participation in a meeting or for any necessary travel. Applications for PEC membership are encouraged from individuals of all ages, sexes, genders, sexual orientations, racial and ethnic groups, education levels, income levels, geographic locations, and those with and without disabilities. Travel support will be provided, as applicable.

To help ensure continuity in its activities and organizational knowledge, the PEC will maintain staggered membership terms for patient community representatives. Membership terms for new members will be 2-year appointments, beginning January 1, 2025.

Additional responsibilities and expectations are set forth in the PEC Framework, which should be reviewed prior to submitting an application, and is available at https://ctti-clinicaltrials.org/​wp-content/​uploads/​2023/​05/​PEC-Framework_​Revised-Apr-10-2023_​FINAL.pdf .

Any interested person may apply for membership on the PEC. To apply, go to https://duke.qualtrics.com/​jfe/​form/​SV_​3DllHjcaGryUIlg . The application is completed online and includes questions to help determine eligibility for the PEC, demographic and other background questions, and four brief essay questions. The brief essay questions, to be answered in 500 characters or fewer (including spaces), are as follows:

• Please explain why and how you would be able to represent and express the patient voice for the disease area(s) you selected above.
• Please give a few examples of experiences that demonstrate how you use active listening and two-way communication to work across interested parties/groups (such as patients, caregivers, advocates, academic institutions, government agencies, medical product development companies).
• Please provide a few examples of any experience you have with medical product development or understanding regulatory processes.
• Please tell us why you are interested in becoming a member of the PEC and how you would enrich our group discussions.

Completing the application also involves submitting: (1) a current one-page résumé or bio that summarizes your patient advocacy experience and related activities (PDF format required) and (2) a one-page letter of endorsement from a patient group (or other similar group) with which the applicant has worked closely on activities that are relevant to the PEC (PDF format required). Please note, only the application and the two documents specified above will be reviewed. Your completed application form, résumé or Start Printed Page 56395 bio, and letter of endorsement should all be submitted at the same time.

The résumé or bio must provide examples and descriptions of relevant activities and experiences related to the applicant's qualifications for PEC membership. The letter of endorsement should emphasize information relevant to the criteria for membership described above. This letter must be from and written by someone other than yourself. The letter may address topics such as the applicant's involvement in patient advocacy activities, experiences that stimulated an interest in participating in discussions about patient engagement in medical product development and regulatory decision processes, and other information that may be helpful in evaluating the applicant's qualifications as a potential member of the PEC.

Applications will be accepted until 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on August 8, 2024 or until 75 applications are received, whichever happens first. Only complete applications will be considered.

The application review period will take a minimum of 2 months after 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on August 8, 2024.

Additional information may be needed from some applicants during the review period, including information relevant to understanding potential sources of conflict of interest, in which case applicants will be contacted directly. All applicants (both those selected for PEC membership and those who are not selected) will be notified by email of the final application decision no later than December 31, 2024.

Dated: July 3, 2024.

Lauren K. Roth,

Associate Commissioner for Policy.

[ FR Doc. 2024-15008 Filed 7-8-24; 8:45 am]

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• How strongmen abuse tools for fighting financial crime

They can get Western governments and banks to crack down on exiled dissidents

I n May 27 members of the Community Empowerment Resource Network ( CERNET ), a Philippine charity, were charged with bankrolling communist rebels. Straight away the case looked strange. A social-media post by police claimed they had jailed Estrella Flores-Catarata, one of CERNET ’s associates, who received an award from the UN for her work with indigenous people last year. She has no criminal record and was set free after paying bail. Other charities that support small-scale farmers and help people after natural disasters have also had their top brass charged and accounts frozen for allegedly breaching the Philippines’s Anti-Terrorism Act, a draconian law passed in 2020.

Their ordeal is an example of how governments are weaponising rules intended to stop dirty-money flows, both at home and abroad. LexisNexis Risk Solutions, a data firm, lists 130,000 entities alleged by governments or media to have laundered money . Some 30,000 have had their assets frozen, up from 24,000 last year—the biggest rise in at least nine years. Although some of this increase reflects genuine crime-fighting, international directives create opportunities for large-scale abuse. And evidence suggests that strongmen are becoming increasingly creative in how they wield tools of financial suppression.

At fault is a body called the Financial Action Task Force ( FATF ). Established in 1989 by the G 7 as a one-year, fact-finding unit that would catalogue policies to stop money-laundering associated with the illegal drugs trade, FATF has grown into a 40-member outfit central to the global fight against all grubby finance. The task-force now has two main jobs. One is to recommend basic measures—such as blocking suspicious funds and surveilling dodgy groups—to stop cash going to mafias, terrorists and weapons-traders; countries are then expected to translate the recommendations into domestic policies. The second is to assess countries’ compliance.

In principle FATF recommendations are non-binding. In practice almost no country can afford to ignore them. Any that receive poor marks risk ending up on a “grey” list, which causes capital inflows to dwindle as foreign banks retreat. Those on the “black” list—Iran, Myanmar and North Korea—are largely cut off from the global, dollar-based financial system. Despite this, the task-force’s standards are vaguely worded and allow strong measures to be taken, based not on criminal convictions, or even allegations supported by evidence, but on mere suspicions.

The worst offenders are autocratic regimes keen to maintain a pretence of democratic rule, says Stephen Reimer of the Royal United Services Institute ( RUSI ), a think-tank. But even democracies are sometimes tempted. In 2022 Canada broadened its anti-money-laundering laws to stop funding for a protest by lorry drivers that had paralysed Ottawa. A recent study by RUSI suggests that abuses are most common during elections, referendums, the passing of controversial laws and periods of military tension.

The potentates’ playbook

Tactics vary in sophistication. Some strongmen start by collecting information. The FATF requires governments to establish “Financial Intelligence Units” with the power to obtain data from banks. Although its standards say units should be independent, security services often lean on them. Aggressive measures, such as office raids, may also be used to harass targets, steal their wares and construct cases.

Abusers might then starve victims of funds so they cannot continue to work. The FATF calls on governments to forbid transactions involving entities suspected of shifting dirty money, so as to prevent funds from disappearing during an investigation. For strongmen, the tool has the merit of debilitating targets at zero notice, without being as visible as imprisonment. A victim in Egypt says that even his friends forget he has not had access to his bank account for three and a half years. It helps strongmen that banks, wary of being punished, are often ultra-cautious in how they handle frozen assets, preferring to wait until they get an explicit green light from the authorities before unlocking funds.

For more ambitious leaders, the FATF can be used to make politically motivated arrests. The insertion of offences related to financial crime in national penal codes, together with provisions allowing for lengthy pre-trial detentions and broad definitions of “terrorism”, allows repressive regimes to lock up people for months or years on baseless charges. Only 2% of those investigated under India’s Unlawful Activities Prevention Act from 2016 to 2019 have been convicted of a crime, for instance.

Even exiles can be targeted. FATF standards require states to provide legal assistance, cross-border asset freezes and extraditions. Belarus and Kazakhstan have used this to make Western democracies provide financial intelligence on exiled dissidents. In recent years critics of the Turkish government living in the West have been cut out from banking after the country’s president placed them on a list of presumed sponsors of terrorism. Politically motivated accusations in one country are picked up by global data aggregators that banks elsewhere rely on.

How can those in the crosshairs escape? One option is to challenge unfair treatment in court. This has yielded success in Kenya and Uganda, with assets unfrozen and, in the latter case, legal fees covered. But the strategy is tough in countries without independent courts. Attracting the attention of rich democracies or multilateral bodies, such as the UN or World Bank, ahead of debt-relief talks or loan negotiations is a surer option. Such pressure recently helped win the release of political prisoners in the Middle East and derail a probe of 57 media, philanthropic and anti-corruption outfits in Serbia.

A more lasting solution would require reform of the FATF , including the introduction of more precise standards, a channel to report abuse and a way to block countries from misusing the system. Last year FATF Recommendation 8, which focuses on the use of non-profits for financing terrorism, was revised to limit abuse and tackle the widespread “debanking” of charities. At the same time, other changes sought to make the confiscation of criminal funds faster and close existing loopholes. The organisation’s priority remains making its war against money-laundering a fiercer fight, rather than a cleaner one. ■

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This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “Good cop, bad cop”

Finance & economics July 13th 2024

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