Role of women in food processing in Ayeyarwaddy Region Communities
Fish - Farming Communities in Ayeyarwaddy Region
Strengthening the adaptive capacity and resilience of fisheries and aquaculture dependent livelihoods in Myanmar
Project Team
It is more than 12 years ago that I first came to Myanmar when I worked as a fisheries advisor with the FAO Emergency and Rehabailitation Coordination Unit (ERCU) on the Cyclone Nargis recovery efforts in the Ayeyarwaddy, Delta. Over the next 2 years, this involved spending many long days on uncomforatble boats in bad weather, but I grew to truly love the work, the great colleagues that I had the pleasure to work with, and the remarkably resilient people of the Delta. With the completion of the cyclone recovery work, I spent several years working on a range of governacne related projects in Rakhine and Ayeyarwaddy. Now, it is with great pleasure that since December 2020, I am again working with FAO in Myanmar; this time on the FishAdapt Project which is focus on helping fishing communities in Ayeyarwaddy, Rakhine and Yangon become more resilient to climate change threats and issues. Of course, the working conditions are more challenging than ever due to the COVID-19 and for the time being I am not able to travel to Myanmar and must work remotely from my home in Chaingmai, Thailand. However, I have an excellent project team to guide me and great support from the FAO country office, so we are making good progress despitete these challenges.
I am passionate about working with teams who has great team sprits supporting each other hand in hand teamwork. I love simple things and nature, and enjoy studying in aquaculture and aquatic resources management. I have a positive mind and good ability to adapt and create stable environment around me. I am patient, considerate, and structured. I don’t hesitate to take the lead and strive to do very best at all times.
I currently work for Aquaculture/Fisheries and CBCCA/DRM, as an National M&E Specialist, in M&E Department at Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations,Yangon, Myanmar.
My professional progressive work experiences is 7 years with International Non-Government Organizations in various works; technically performed in project research, assessment/survey (Baseline-Endline) design, program and project planning, monitoring & evaluation and learning, design M&E system, using statistical and analytical tools target Vs achievement report by intervened activities under log frame indicators and providing necessary information by data management information system (qualitative and quantitative) reported by Quarterly, Mid-term, annually to (Internal/external) and donor reporting, and M&E capacity building for program staffs.
May Wah Htwe was graduated from Bachelor degree of Arts in Geography at Yangon University in 2007. She also finished Master degree of Arts in Transformational leadership major; in Leadership Studies with Educational Ministry Emphasis with Honors from International Graduate School of Leadership in Philippine (2015). She also received certificate of teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages from Asia’s Center For TESOL Manila Philippine & Cornerstone University Grand Rapid, Michigan, USA in 2014.
She is so passionate with teaching and leading educational programs especially for building capacity development for the needs of people. She has working experiences more than 10 years in leading English Schools, youth community educational development programs, teaching English languages and other sectors e.g nutrition, gender, aquaculture, facilitation skills etc , educational programs within Myanmar and international schools in Myanmar, Philippine, Thai, Nepal etc.. In additions, she also has experiences of developing training materials, curriculums, monitoring, quality control check and assessments of the effectivities of training programs for capacity development, facilitating and coordinating skills between partnerships, government departments, other related stakeholders and team members from both Myanmar and other countries.
Currently, she is working at UN FAO, FishAdapt project as a national capacity development specialist in Myanmar.
Tin Shine Aung is a passionate, innovative, solution-focused young professional with three years of experience in academic research related to natural products and three years of experience in the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations as a Knowledge Management Specialist for the project related to sustainable development and disaster risk management training. He is currently doing his Ph.D. in Sustainability Science at the University of Lisbon, Portugal.
In 2019, he became a member of the US Ambassador to Myanmar's Youth Advisory Council (AYC). In 2020, he was named a Professional Fellow in the US State Department's Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative (YSEALI) program under the theme Sustainable Development and the Environment.
He is also an alumnus of the Erasmus Mundus of the European Union. He holds a Master's Degree in Marine Sciences-Marine Resources (Marine Natural Product) from the Abel Salazar Institute of Biomedical Sciences, University of Porto. He also holds a Master's degree in Biochemistry and a post graduate diploma in International Studies from Yangon University.
Swe Zin Tun is a National Gender Specialist for the FishAdapt Project of FAO. She joined FAO on 11th January 2021. Swe Zin has four years of experience working in the NGO sector. Before she joined FAO, she had been working with international and local NGOs such as WaterAid, Mercy Corps and Center for Diversity and National Harmony (CDNH). She got the MA in Gender Analysis in International Development degree from the University of East Anglia, UK and MA in English from the University of Yangon.
Phoe Cho received his B.Sc in Marine Science at the Pathein University in 2006. After graduating he worked in the intensive aquaculture farm as assistant technician for one year. Phoe Cho has worked for various NGOs in different capacities, including leading, planning, coaching and developing for 10 years. Before joining FishAdapt project in January 2019, he worked for Wildlife Conservation Association as Marine Fisheries Manager. Currently he is working as National Fisheries Specialist at UNFAO, FishAdapt project.
Moe Kyiphyu has 10 years’ experience in development sector and 5 years’ experience in private sector aquaculture field. She have good experience in shrimp farming, crab culturing, small-scale aquaculture and mangrove friendly aquaculture. She have a lot of experience of Delta, Coastal and Central Dry Zone aquaculture situation.
She graduated the degree of Marine Science in 2005 at Mawlamyine University and obtained the degree of Master of Public Administration in 2019 at Meiktila University of Economics. Now she is attending Executive Master of Development Studies at Yangon University of Economics.
During 10 years’ experience of development sector, she worked at Solidarities International as Fishery Senior Technician, Danish Refugee Council as Livelihood Technician (Fishery), ADRA-Myanmar as Aquaculture Specialist, MAUK- Serving Humanity as Senior Program Officer and WorldFish Myanmar as Field& Training Coordinator.
She is working in FishAdapt project as National Aquaculture Specialist starting from November-2018 to until now.
Agricultural economist with 8 years’ experience in agricultural and rural development (ARD) and rural poverty reduction of which 4 years of experience in research projects related to climate change adaptation, disaster risk reduction and vulnerability assessment in Myanmar and Mekong regions. 2 years of experiences in project management and implementation, especially projects related to agriculture, and rural development, natural resources management projects and farming system management in Myanmar and Mekong region. As an experienced researcher in climate change adaptation and resilience assessment in Myanmar, he is very skillful to design, implement and manage (research) projects related to land and natural resource management, livelihood vulnerability assessment and framing resilience pathways, etc. Now he works as a National Climate Change Adaptation_ Disaster Risk Management_ Vulnerability Assessment Specialist for FAO (UN) FishAdapt Project.
Dr. Aung Tun Oo obtained his PhD at the Department of Agricultural Economics, Ghent University Belgium in 2018. The PhD dissertation is entitled as 'Characterizing farm households' vulnerability and adaptation to climate change in Myanmar". He graduated the degree of Agricultural Science in 2008, with specialization in soil and water management at Yezin Agricultural University, Myanmar. In 2011, he further obtained a diploma in Agricultural Business Management at Ruppin Academic Center in Israel and in 2014; he obtained the degree of International Master of Science in Rural Development (IMRD) at Ghent University in Belgium. His research areas are agricultural economics, natural resource management, climate change, disaster risk reduction, vulnerability assessment and rural development. He participated in several international scientific conferences with oral contributions and is author and co-author of a number of international peer-reviewed publications.
Shelly has about 9 years of working experience in water sector and also many good experiences on the international peer-review journal papers. Among them, she has 6 years of working experiences in two international projects – JICA-SATREPS Project and World Bank-AIRBM Project. Her areas of expertise include research and modeling experience in water resources sector, hydro-meteorological database system installation and analysis for early warning system, flood disaster risk assessment and management, sustainable river basin management, and design of irrigation hydraulic structures.
She got her bachelor of engineering degree in civil engineering from West Yangon Technological University in 2010. She completed her master of engineering degree in Yangon Technological University in 2014. She finished her Ph.D specialized in water resources engineering at Yangon Technological University in 2018 and during her research, she joined to the University of Tokyo as a research student in 2016.
Currently she is serving as a National Disaster Risk Management – Early Warning System Specialist in Fish Adapt project under FAO, Myanmar.
Zaw Min Thein has seven years, experience of GIS and remote sensing in INGOs and NGOs. He graduated the degree of B.Sc (Physics) and Post Graduate Diploma in GIS and Remote Sensing. He obtained the AGTI (Electrical Power) and Diploma in Research Studies. Now He is candidate of Master of Applied Statistics in Yangon University of Economics. He is working in FishAdapt project as National GIS and Remote Sensing Specialist from May – 2019 to until now.
Yin Nyein has over 12 years of working experience in community development, resource governance, policy analysis and policy advocacy. He has got the "Master of Public Policy" in The Australian National University, "Executive Master of Development Policies and Practices" in Graduate Institute GENEVA and achieved an advanced certificate course in "Integrated Sustainable Coastal Development" from University of Gothenburg, Sweden. He is currently working as a Small-Scale Fishery and Legal Capacity Development Expert for FAO. His main area of interest is to promote and protect small-scale producers through good governance practices. His specialization is in policy advocacy and institutional building of the grass root people from village level to Township, District and up to the Regional level. Common pool resource management is also another area of his specialization. He had been playing a pivotal role in program planning, development, management of various projects related to resources management. He is also engaging with Regional level governments and parliaments in supporting community-based resource management, and he had worked for developing freshwater fishery laws in Bago, Mon, Ayeyarwaddy and Rakhine states/regions. He voluntarily contributed to various capacity-building programs for youths and professionals on numerous subjects including Governance and Institution, Evidence-based Policy Making, Development Theories and Practices, Project Cycle Management, community-based natural resource management, and policy advocacy and policy Consultation.
Ms. Khin Thida Htwe got a bachelor's degree of Mathematics from Kalay University of Myanmar and studied LCCI and ACCA .She has over seven years' experience in financial Management and financial Reporting. Regarding to her work experience, she worked as Finance Officer at National Community Driven and Development Project (NCDDP) and Ar Yone Oo Social Development Association. Next, she experienced as Assistant Branch Manager at Myanmar Access to Rural Credit (MARC Project). She is currently working as a Finance and Admin Assistant at the FishAdapt Project, FAO Representation in Myanmar.
He activated The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM) at 80 townships in Myanmar and operated the Community awareness raising on Avian Influenza Program (Mekong Region 4 Countries Program) closely coordinated with WHO, UNICEF, FAO and especially collaborated together with Livestock Breeding and Veterinary Department at 210 townships in Myanmar. Moreover, he energetically performed Rehabilitation program in Cyclone Nargis Delta area and, he took diverse positions such as National Monitoring and Evaluation Consultant, Senior Program Officer (Behavior Change Communication and Intervention) during CARE International. After that, he implemented at UNODC -Food security program for opium cultivation people in Southern Shan State, Myanmar as a National livestock Specialist atmosphere. When he worked for Food Security Working Group (FSWG), he made a role of Program Manager and implemented together with 182 organization of FSWG Networking members and commonly, most of the projects and program emphasized on Food security related policy and Land tenure policy for small-scale farmers in Myanmar. During Mercy Corps, he contributed as a Township Technical Advisor- Team Leader/Training specialist in National Community Driven Development Project (World Bank Program). The project engaged on basic infrastructure development and collaborated with Department of Rural Development and implemented over one thousands villages. Now he is working as a State/Region Project Coordinator for UNFAO- FishAdapt project in Myanmar.
Through a couple of decade, he participated numerous national also international workshops, symposiums, seminars and mainly, he learned and reflected on several projects/program included private sector as well as civic-based capabilities.
Aung Nyein Lin was awarded Bachelor’s Degree in Botany from Sittwe University in 2004 and Diploma in Medical Laboratory Technician (Grade-2) at Laboratory Department Training School of Pathein Hospital in 2002. He had completed many certificate courses of Managing Organizations and Projects.
He worked as different position in different organizations for 19 years. He has a lot of professional working experiences in many sectors focus on Medical Health, Resilience, DRR and Climate Change, Child Protection, Safe School, Livelihood and Emergency Response. He has strong organizational skills, high problem solving skills, good communication and coordination skills, well aware of local culture and situations of conflict areas in Rakhine.
He is currently working as a regional coordinator of Rakhine Region in Fish Adapt project at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Representation in Myanmar.
Thang Lien Mung is graduated from the University of Kalay with Mathematics in 2009. With over 10 years of professional working environments in UN, INGO, NGO and private sectors in many areas of climate change and climate risk management, early warning system and disaster risk reduction, livelihoods, infrastructure improvement, rural road rehabilitation, capacity development, infectious decease control and banking setting. He is highly adept in programme development oversight and evaluation, possess excellent communication, coordination and problem solving skills, and strongly collaboration with the government officials, implementing partners and stakeholders, committed to a culture that encourages professionalism and excellence through learning and development, and supports innovative approaches and solutions, and continuous search for new ways to support the goals of the organizations.
Now, he is working as Regional Trainer and Facilitator (Yangon Region) of the FishAdapt Project of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (UNFAO).
Naing Min Tun received a Bachelor’s Degree in Geography from Pathein University. He worked in different positions in UN and NGOs, such as UNDP, Swanyee foundation and Plan International Myanmar since 2009, mainly focus on DRR program, School Safety program and Resilience Program.
He has over 10 years’ experiences and professional expertise in Facilitation in Soft skills, hard skills and Awareness Raising Trainings, Mobilizing Community, Monitoring and Evaluation Project Activities. He is patient and able to work precisely and diligently. He has good interpersonal skills, strong ability to support colleagues and coordinate with related organizations. He is good organizer and communicator as well.
He is currently working at UNFAO as Regional Trainer and Facilitator (Rakhine Region) of the Fishadapt project.
Naw Fancy Day is working for the FishAdapt project national office as a office helper since 2018.