On 25 June 2015, Myanmar’s Central Committee for Land Resource Management hosted the launch ceremony for the OneMap project. Implemented by CDE and funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), the project emphasizes provision of technical support to create an open-access spatial data platform on land issues. It is slated to last eight years.
Dr. Nyi Nyi Kyaw, Director General of Myanmar’s Forest Department
In partnership with the Land Core Group (LCG) of Myanmar, CDE acquired the project in May based on a competitive call for offers. Myanmar’s Director General of the Forest Department, Dr. Nyi Nyi Kyaw, opened the launch ceremony. It was attended by 25 departments belonging to the Central Committee’s Inter-Ministerial Technical Working Group. The OneMap project will be implemented in partnership with all the departments comprising Myanmar’s high-level Central Committee for Land Resource Management, but with a focal point in the Ministry of Environment Conservation Forestry (MoECAF). OneMap aims to compile, enhance, and make available union-wide land-related data from different government agencies. It also aims to incorporate valuable data generated locally, including data from civil society organizations. Of course, data availability and accessibility alone do not guarantee that evidence will flow into decision-making and policymaking.
Karin Eberhard (SDC) and Joan Bastide (CDE)
For this reason, OneMap follows a comprehensive approach emphasizing three components:
1. Data: Improving the quality, accuracy, public availability, and utility of key spatial datasets as well as integrating relevant cross-sectoral data.
2. Capacity: Enhancing stakeholders’ capacity to generate, verify, and analyse information as well as the participation of local communities and other non-government stakeholders in data verification.
3. Knowledge and policy: Analysis of inter-sectoral information and knowledge products that provide clear evidence for land governance and development planning decisions.
The OneMap project also complements CDE’s ongoing research project “Managing telecoupled landscapes for the sustainable provision of ecosystem services and poverty alleviation”, which is also occurring in Myanmar.
Contacts at CDE:
Joan Bastide
Andreas Heinimann
