Active Citizens: ‘Beyond A Decade Of Development’ Forum

A forum named 'Active Citizens: beyond a decade of development’ hosted by British Council took place on Friday in Yangon.

Country Director of British Council Richard Sunderland delivered a welcome speech and the Head of Programmes of British Council delivered a keynote speech. Active Citizens Students share their experiences during the forum which is to increase the contribution of community leaders towards achieving sustainable development both locally and globally.

Country Director, British Council, Richard Sunderland said “The program is designed to support the young people make positive change impact community. They become positive global group of active citizen who we train and who going to project in the community. Active citizen has ten years. We want to see what happen from the people ten years ago - the training for ten years we want to see what happen next .how would the people take forward the skills and learning positive change.”

Active Citizens is a non-profit programme that promotes community cohesion and improvement through civic engagement or volunteering.

Head of Programmes, British Council, Mi Mi Myo Win said “Active Citizens is social leadership training programme. It promotes intellectual dialogue and community and social development. We can build trust among the people with different views and cultures through intellectual dialogue.”

Director, Society for Peace Association, Zar Ni said “All the Active Citizens students gather here at the forum. So we can get a great network. We can help, provide and share experiences. We can improve our activities. We can also meet the international associations. Our goal is sustainable development and trust building that is a suitable concept for our country. If we understand the concept of Active Citizens, we can solve the problems in our country.” 

Active Citizens in Myanmar was launched in 2010 and since then has engaged with over 3,000 community leaders across the country.