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Active Citizens is a social leadership training programme. We build trust and understanding by supporting people to take action on issues they care about.

Active Citizens is a non-profit programme that promotes acceptance, intercultural dialogue, personal transformation and community-led social development through the Active Citizens learning journey.

Through our Active Citizens social leadership training programme, we've encouraged hundreds of thousands of people to take action on the issues they care about most. This leads to them taking on some of the biggest social challenges of the 21st century.

Run by the British Council and partner organisations, it aims to increase the contribution of community leaders towards achieving sustainable development both locally and globally.

Over the last ten years, the programme has had a truly significant impact in Myanmar. Ten years of committed and motivated individuals. Ten years of amazing stories of courage and inspiration. Ten years of communities taking the lead on generating positive change. 

The programme has worked with more than 40 local partners and trained 256 master facilitators, who have then cascaded their learning to over 10,000 active citizens and engaged with 70,000 community members. 

Active Citizens in Myanmar have also been contributing globally by sharing their learning and making connections around the world. It also encourages peer-to-peer relations across cultural, geographic and political boundaries via a lively online social network of participants, as well as occasional international exchange visits as our strapline suggests “Globally Connected, Locally Engaged.” 

Active Citizens doesn’t just work with individual persons or organisations. It connects change makers driving positive change across social and political life, whether through social enterprise, civil society, private sectors or government, helping them to address economic, social or environmental issues. The programme has reached 14 regions and states ranging from Karen and Mon states, to the northern parts of Shan State as well as Rakhine State in Western Myanmar.

Partners

Active Citizens is delivered through a range of local Myanmar partners, including universities, civil society organisations, and Millennium Centres across the country. 

By 2019-2020 the programme worked with 12 universities and partnered with dozens of organisations and networks working on youth empowerment and advocacy initiative in their communities.

Active Citizens partners in 2020 include

  1. University of Yangon
  2. University of East Yangon
  3. Taunggyi University
  4. Taunggyi Millennium Centre
  5. Dawei Millennium Centre
  6. Kulatel Youth Centre 
  7. Myitkyina Millennium Centre
  8. Actizens, Dagon University 
  9. Social Enterprise Development Association Myanmar
  10. Loikaw Millennium Centre
  11. Yadanarbon University

' Active Citizens has taught me to see the world through the lens of possibility. Collectively, we can even move the world. '
Chan Hein (Active Citizen, Myanmar)

Active Citizens have launched 81 community-led social action projects in Myanmar across a variety of themes, including 

  • youth empowerment
  • development of inclusive and just democratic society, 
  • environmental protection, 
  • inclusive education and educational change 
  • sustainable and inclusive economies. 

Social action projects go beyond volunteering, encouraging Active Citizens to learn more about the problems and issues they want to resolve and to understand better how their actions can create opportunities for all community members to contribute to positive change. 

'Being an Active Citizens is Loving your community and yourself.'
Kaung Su Thar (Active Citizen, Myanmar)

Active Citizens don’t wait around for change to happen. They drive the change themselves. 

Because change can happen through us, not just to us.

Anyone can be an Active Citizen. For more information about Active Citizens Programme please contact : Ja Htoi Aung

Find out more about the Active Citizens.