Tourism Development in Shan State

The Consortium's task is to develop and implement capacity development activities in Southern Shan State touristic region, which aim at the following general objectives:

1. Safeguard the current tourism industry on and around the Inle Lake through the promotion of sustainable practices
2. Support the development of tourism in complementing or satellite destinations around the Inle Lake like Kalaw, Pindaya & Ywangan mainly adopting the model of Community Based Tourism (CBT)
3. Support the organizational development of the planned Destination Management Department within Ministry of Hotels and Tourism (Shan State)
4. Channel the information about successful showcases and lessons learnt into the political dialogue and support the formulation of policies, rules and regulations that promote environmentally and socially responsible tourism.
5. Sustainable practices shall be promoted through local institutions and service providers to create a demand-based offer to businesses which want to manage their operations in a more sustainable way.
6. Finally, a learning programme based on the above mentioned activities should be prepared to channel all relevant information into the policy making process (union level and regional level) and to shape the legal framework regarding sustainable tourism management and CBT (with special consideration of B&B).

Agriculture is the backbone of Myanmar's economy for 70% of the population who live in rural areas. The Consortium's role is to develop and implement a capacity building program for the value-chain program in the mango and tea sector. Specifically it is supposed to perform the following tasks:

1. Develop and conduct a ToT training for Good Agricultural Practices (mango) in Mandalay region as a new project implementation area. Training materials are available, but need to be standardized for a broader roll-out.
2. Support tea and mango MSME on their way to organic certification (tea) and GLOBAL, ASEAN, and Myanmar GAP certification (mango) in Shan State.
3. Support identification of lead companies which cooperate with MSEM to improve operational procedures.
4. Support the Myanmar tea sector to develop and implement a joint marketing strategy in order to improve the positioning of the Myanmar tea as a brand.
5. Provide technical advice in areas like good manufacturing practices, development of out-grower schemes, joint investment, organizational development, lobbying towards public sector, backstopping and other specific services as needs arise.

For both sectors: Since Shan State is a conflict-sensitive area, all interventions will be in line with the Do-No-Harm approach.

In addition PEM CONSULT conducted in late 2018 a "Myanmar Applied Innovation Ecosystem Mapping in cluding a regional innovation scouting and matchmaking.

Services provided are:

• Organisational development for tourism related institutions
• Provision of advice on environmental issues and sustainable practices in rural tourism in vulnerable communities
• Training of local consultants in the CBT approach and awareness raising of the approach in the local MOHT
• Support of policy dialogue by elaborating best practices
• Organization, conduction and facilitation of stakeholder consultation workshops
• Preparation of documents relevant for the process of formulation of laws, regulations and enforcement procedures in the respective fields
• Drafting of policies and documents concerning legal framework and procedures
• Summarizing of findings, draft reports and information material
• Technical and organisational advice in GAP
• Technical consultation of mango and tea growers and processors
• Innovation mapping and scounting for regional cooperation on innovative business solution for both sectors