The Politics of National Land Use Policy Formulation in Myanmar

This paper presents the interaction of state and society around a land policy formulation in a country where the government is in transition towards a democratic system and, the civil society is composed of strong professional advocacy organizations and weak social movements. It finds that “political space” by state reformists and the capacity of policy advocacy to work with and influence on both sides of state and society are necessary for mutually empowering interaction between state reformists and pro-reform social actors to-wards pro-poor land policy formulation. The interaction between state and society is political dynamic and not static. This paper uses state-society interaction approach and pro-poor land policy concepts as analytical lens to research into the interaction of state and society around National Land Use Policy formulation in Myanmar which is still in process.