M-POWER Working Group Meeting, 7-8 March 2011, Chiang Mai, Thailand

by M-POWER (2011)

Introduction

The M-POWER 2011 Working Group (WG) meeting will be held in Chiang Mai, Thailand from 7-8 March and will comprise both plenary sessions and working group parallel sessions. Meeting objectives:

• to provide opportunities for collective learning, sharing and exploring governance issues throughout the Mekong region;
• to encourage and motivate participants to interact and share their experiences and research learning; and
• to design, develop and refine specific products and develop associated action plans, such as assessment tools, policy briefs, books and special issues.

The meeting is an opportunity to share our practical experiences and research findings with interested colleagues across the Mekong Region. This meeting will be focused on particular projects of the network and will involve a high degree of reflection on some of the significant engagements and discoveries of M-POWER researchers and their implications for water governance in the Mekong Region in the context of rapidly changing development.

M-POWER stands for the Mekong Program on Water, Environment and Resilience. The network brings together people committed to improving local, national and regional governance in Cambodia, China, Laos, Burma/Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.

Our strategic objectives include: (1) convening, facilitating and supporting inclusive forums; (2) supporting and establishing mechanisms to better represent politically marginalized groups; (3) analyzing, proposing and promoting institutional changes; (4) synthesizing understanding about how to democratize water governance; and (5) supporting regional networks of researchers committed to critical analyses and actions to support democratizing water governance.

M-POWER convenes an annual meeting for network members and invited guests. These meetings are conducted in different locations within the Mekong Region in order to provide opportunities for membership engagement and for exploring issues throughout the region. The annual meetings encourage and motivate participants to interact and share their experiences and research learning. Meetings are utilized to design, develop and refine specific products, such as assessment tools, policy briefs, books and special issues. Past meetings were held in 2010, Phnom Penh; 2009, Kunming, China; 2008, Hanoi, Vietnam; 2007, Chiang Mai, Thailand; 2006, Chiang Mai. These meeting papers include the Working Group Agenda, Session outlines and participant list.