Waste management is a complicated process because it demands a long-term vision, strong political will, and effective coordination between a diverse group of concerned stakeholders, among others. Despite these challenges, the IGES Centre Collaborating with UNEP on Environmental Technologies (CCET) is actively supporting national and local governments in the Asian region strengthen their capacity for planning and implementation of holistic and integrated waste management strategies and projects in line with commitments set out by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.

Myanmar is one of the first beneficiaries of this project, and with CCET support has been working on the development of waste management strategies at both the national and city-level. In this context, a second series of national and city workshops were delivered at the Yangon City Development Committee (YCDC) office during 5-6 December and in Mandalay City office on 8 December at the MCDC office to review and finalise the strategies. Approximately 50 participants attended the workshop in Yangon, featuring high-level representation from the Secretary of YCDC’s Chief Minister's Office, the Director General of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation’s (MONREC) Environmental Conservation Department (ECD) and accompanying officials, the Union Attorney General's Office, Ministry of Planning & Finance, Ministry of Construction, Ministry of Home Affairs, Yangon, Mandalay, and Nay Pyi Taw City Development Committees, as well as international development partners (UNDP, JICA, ADB). Notably, and further to MONREC's request for ensuring close alignment between the national and city-level strategies, regional MONREC representatives from Myanmar's 7 States (Kayin, Mon, Chin, Kachin, Rakhine, Shan, Kayah) and 7 Regions (Yangon, Mandalay, Magwe, Ayeyarwady, Thanintharyi, Bago, Sagaing) also took part in the workshop. Accordingly, in Mandalay, approximately 60 participants from MCDC engaged in discussions on the finalisation of city-level strategy, action plan, and identification of a subsequent pilot project.

Workshop proceedings focused on exchanging experiences of selected township and city development committees in Myanmar with regard to waste management, updating and finalising drafts of the national and city waste management strategies, as well as reviewing the implementation plan and institutional responsibilities of different stakeholders for achieving a zero waste, zero emission and resource recovery-based society in Myanmar over the short (2017-2020), medium (2021-2025) and long-term (2025-2030). In addition to successfully identifying a number of issues that will be considered to inform future policy development and implementation, the workshops were instrumental in building consensus for completing the waste management strategies and action plans, currently planned to be submitted for formal endorsement at the national-level in early 2017. Further, a common agreement was reached among key partners in Mandalay on identifying a suitable pilot project for implementation corresponding with the proposed city waste management strategy. MCDC intends to present the strategy to the Mandalay Regional Government for approval by mid- December 2016: the selected pilot project will be developed with a view towards linking with prospective international development projects such as those being organised by ADB and Kitakyushu City.