Enlightened Myanmar Research Foundation (EMReF) is an independent non-profit research institution working for development of evidence based policy making and revitalization of independent research culture in Myanmar.

Background

EMReF is an accredited non-profit research organization dedicated to doing socioeconomic research, political economy analyses, social assessments and other development-related studied in order to provide information and evidence-based recommendations for different stakeholders such as: international and local organizations in various development fields, civil society organizations, political parties, media, private sector, parliament and government agencies supporting equitable, inclusive and feasible policies and programs.

EMReF has been extending its role in promoting political awareness and participations of citizens and civil society organizations through providing reliable and trustworthy information on political parties and elections, parliamentary performance, and essential development policy issues. As a current foundation step, EMReF has been developing an information mechanism which includes three main functions- collecting information, analyzing and distributions to the public through different methods such as website, social media and other electronic instant communication means such as text messages and applications. Meanwhile, EMReF has been using other conventional measures such as providing social research trainings to local CSOs, political parties and elected MPs in order to promote practices of collecting reliable evidences and using these evidences in developing and evaluating policies.

VISION

• Towards an organization contribution to Enlightened, Informed and Inclusive Democratic State Building in Myanmar by promoting evidence-based policy making and enhancing citizen participation in politics and policy making.
• To make contributions in flourishing independent and ethical research culture in Myanmar.
• To be an organization dissemination research based valid social, socioeconomic, and political information to the people and different stakeholders in Myanmar.

  MISSION

• To study various social, economic and political issues and provide the CSOs, parliaments, members of parliaments, political parties, government and international organizations in development field with information and data in order for development of evidence-based policies and programs for positive and inclusive development of Myanmar people.
• To promote research capacities and skills through various research trainings, targeting to policy makers, implementers, CSOs, and citizens who are effectively contributing in state building of Myanmar.
• To strengthen the Myanmar research society, promote the role of research and research culture in Myanmar in collaboration with local and international research organizations, academic institutions and individual experts.

Myanmar has been liberalized by military junta since 2010 after the nation-wide parliamentary election. Myanmar gains more freedom in speech, expression and movements of civil society. More importantly, the parliament in Myanmar taking a role of check and balance to executive branch despite that the judicial pillar has yet to be independent from the other two pillars as well as from the sociocultural forces strongly entrenched in the country. Despite these significant challenges, the country is seen moving towards more opened and democratic society being pushed by actors of different interest and pressure groups thanks mainly to the domino effects of the invisible hands of liberalization. It is important however that the country is to be moving on the track towards a society of liberal democracy where all people are fairly treated and inclusive regardless of their race, gender, religion and socioeconomic status.

In order that Myanmar to be a country of sustainably developed true liberal democracy, it is very fundamental that the country’s social, political and economic policies are to be adopted based on the evidences systematically acquired by independent research and academic institutions. Independent research culture in the past was not feeble in Myanmar, which however was seriously undermined under authoritarian regimes. The culture of independent research is to be revitalized and strengthened under the democratic regime. In this view, EMReF is founded and will be working in cooperation with different stakeholders that are the people, government, parliaments, civil society, media, political parties and international organizations.   

OUR EXPERTISE AND FOCUSES

EMReF applies Qualitative Research Methods and Mixed Methods in all of the studies it have conducted so far. EMReF has extended expertise in the following fields of research:

• Governance
• Local political economy
• Livelihoods
• Rule of Law and Justice
• Political Parties
• Myanmar Legislatures
• Social Impact and Social Assessments