The team of specialists from the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, based in the Nepalese capital, began a seven-day visit to Yangon on April 19.
ICIMOD, established in late 1983, describes itself as a regional knowledge development and learning centre serving its eight member countries – Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal and Pakistan – and the global mountain community.
It sees its mission as "enabling sustainable and resilient mountain development for improved and equitable livelihoods through knowledge and regional cooperation".
"Myanmar has been a member of ICIMOD since December 1983 but there was little engagement until it hosted a board meeting for the first time in November 2012," the centre's senior manager, knowledge management and communication, Anja M. Rasmussen, said in an interview on April 23.
The visit by Ms Rasmussen and three knowledge management and communications specialists from the centre was aimed at building partnerships, especially with the media, and getting a better understanding of the situation in Myanmar.
"It's a network building trip," Ms Rasmussen said.
"We are here to get an understanding of how the knowledge that ICIMOD is generating through its research can help in disseminating specific solutions to environmental issues, climate change issues, and activities such as agriculture," she said.
"We need to know how to reach out with the knowledge."
The knowledge and expertise accumulated by the centre during its 30 years will not be confined to benefitting the people and the environment on the eastern fringes of the Himalayas in far northern Kachin State.
"It's all mountain regions, so it's not just Kachin," said Ms Rasmussen, adding that the centre is one of two organisations, along with the Institute for International Development, that are helping to formulate a tourist management plan for the Inle Lake region.
And it's not only about mountain regions.
The centre and the governments of China, India and Myanmar are collaborating on project called the Brahmaputra-Salween (Thanlwin) landscape conservation and development initiative.
Its aim is to engage local, national and regional stakeholders in efforts toward improved management of "this globally significant, biodiversity rich landscape", an information sheet says.
The project's objectives include enhancing multidisciplinary research on the ecosystems of Brahmaputra-Salween landscape and the socioeconomic status and cultural diversity the people living within it and addressing poverty and climate change threats by developing and promoting alternative livelihood options, capacity development and the cross-border sharing of good practices and technology transfer among local communities.
Another objective is to strengthen the policy environment through national and regional policy analysis and developing a framework for regional cooperation to support effective transboundary management of the landscape.
Other programs in which the centre is involved include a project that aims to support poor and vulnerable mountain communities in the Hindu Kush Himalayan region in mitigating and adapting to climate change.
More information about the work of the centre is available at www.icimod.org
Source: http://www.news.myanmaronlinecentre.com/2014/04/25/himalayas-region-think-tank-team-visits-to-build-partnerships/
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