One Map Myanmar

The OneMap Myanmar initiative aims at democratizing access to high-quality spatial data on land, thus contributing to more transparent and accountable development planning and governance of land and other natural resources. To achieve this goal, CDE is partnering with over 20 government agencies, civil society organizations, and ethnic groups and communities, to jointly produce, enhance, verify, and share data, information, and knowledge on key land issues. Through this engagement at national and local levels, OneMap Myanmar provides new spaces for multistakeholder dialogue and negotiations for the resolution of land conflicts and the sustainable development of the country.

The online, open-access spatial data platform developed under the project compiles and makes available land data from various sources, both governmental and non-governmental. It brings together government authoritative data on land use, cover, and tenure – with participatory maps developed by local communities and public contributions through crowd-sourcing approaches. By supporting these multiple parallel work streams and data sources, OneMap Myanmar highlights in a spatially explicit manner the multiple – and sometimes contradictory – claims on land that national governance mechanisms must address to shift towards a more sustainable use of land resources. 

Started in 2015, OneMap Myanmar is a long-term commitment of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), implemented by CDE in partnership with the Land Core Group, a Myanmar-based civil society organization working on land issues. The eight-year project supports capacity development of government agencies and civil society, generation and enhancement of key spatial datasets, and elaboration of innovative tools and knowledge products to promote evidence-based decision-making in the highly complex context of Myanmar today.