Section 3 | RULES OF THE GAME connectivity speeds, and training on skills and gender issues. To address this lack of incentive, one public-private partnership to pilot cloud-based educational technology in thirty-one schools provided special training for MoE staff by professional, private ICT trainers to help them move from abstract understanding to a concrete sense of how digital technology can strengthen educational outcomes (see case study Connect to Learn on page 56). Feedback from the trainers indicated that the audience of civil servants required substantial extra time to complete the curricula, whereas feedback from MoE staff stated that the technology trainers went too fast, illustrating the need to calibrate awareness and skillbuilding efforts with institutional absorptive capacity. Given that there have been and are currently no stated government priorities related to the gender digital divide specifically, interviewees pointed to ongoing efforts to develop a universal service strategy as the most likely “home” for a gender digital divide champion. Led by the MoTC with support from the World Bank, Intelecon Research, A4AI, and the Myanmar Computer Federation,181 the goal is an enforceable universal service strategy with dedicated resources to expand public access, improve infrastructure, and provide renewable power in underserved areas. If the conversation can be shifted from underserved areas to include underserved groups, then the gender digital divide is clearly within the strategy’s priority areas. Alternatives include the four institutional mechanisms cited in the most recent large-scale gender assessment as likely champions of equality initiatives: the Department of Social Welfare (DSW), which is the government focal point on gender equality and women’s rights; the Myanmar National Committee for Women’s Affairs, an interministerial policy-related mechanism established in 1996 and tasked with implementation of the CEDAW and the Beijing Platform for Action; the Myanmar Women’s Affairs Federation, established in 2003 as a government-resourced and staffed NGO that assists the National Committee for Women’s Affairs to implement CEDAW and the Beijing Platform for Action nationwide; and the Myanmar Maternal and Child Welfare Association, which was established in 1991 to promote maternal and child health and wellbeing in remote areas. Only DSW carries out discernible activities such as employability training for women, but to date it has not embraced digital literacy as part of its work. Interestingly, the latter two of the four are GONGOs that have historically been associated with military wives and a lack of discernible grassroots activities (see section 3.5 below).182 STATE AND REGIONAL GOVERNANCE BODIES For the first time in Burmese history, the 2008 Constitution created a decentralized system of fourteen subnational governments based on territorial and ethnic divisions.183 The president was empowered to appoint chief ministers of the seven state and seven regional governments; within the states there are also six ethnically-determined selfadministered zones. As a result of this centralized control over appointments, the leadership of the regional executive bodies does not necessarily reflect local election results or the corresponding makeup of the state and regional legislatures. Indeed, in 2016, the president appointed NLD legislative representatives to all fourteen subnational chief minister 181 182 183 Alliance for Affordable Internet, “A4AI Myanmar Coalition Working Group Meeting Report.” Harriden, Authority of Influence. Callahan and Steinberg, Drivers of Political Change, 36 Ending the Gender Digital Divide in Myanmar: A Problem-Driven Political Economy Assessment | 55