Section 3 | RULES OF THE GAME 3.5 Civil Society During the five decades of military rule, civil society was comprised of government-organized “non-governmental” organizations (GONGOs) that often took the form of membership associations, such as the Myanmar Maternal and Child Welfare Association, which claimed to have approximately 14 million voluntary members in 2011,238 or the Myanmar Computer Enthusiasts Association (MCEA), which reportedly had 100,000 student members.239 Womenfocused GONGOs like the MMCWA or Myanmar Women’s Affairs Federation (MWAF) often mediated visible commitments to gender equality like CEDAW and the MDGs, and officially they had representatives at ward/village tract, township, state, regional, and national levels.240 They stood staunchly by the party line that Myanmar enjoyed gender equality.241 However, a gender analysis conducted by the ADB prior to 2014 found little evidence of active work, and during field work for this report none of the historically prominent GONGOs was mentioned, not even related to the NSPAW. ICT-focused GONGOs like MCEA or the Myanmar Computer Federation (MCF) seem to have provided limited input on government technology policy (for example, MCF is involved in the current USF Working Group) but also lack grassroots membership services. Civil society today faces legal and financial obstacles to sustainability, despite political changes since 2011 that have allowed significant growth of independent CSOs, including a handful that focus explicitly on the gender digital divide (see section 4.4 below). Several recent gender assessments have noted that women in Myanmar are well represented among leaders and staff in CSOs and INGOs working on development issues. For example, Cited in ADB, Technical Assistance to Myanmar, footnote 47. We were unable to verify, but this was cited by Myanmar Centre for Responsible Business, Institute for Human Rights and Business (IHRB), and Danish Institute for Human Rights (DIHR). Myanmar ICT Sector-Wide Impact Assessment, September 2015. 240 Minoletti, Women’s Participation in the Subnational Governance of Myanmar. 241 Harriden, Authority of Influence. 238 239 Ending the Gender Digital Divide in Myanmar: A Problem-Driven Political Economy Assessment | 72