Burma’s president is set to appoint Khin San Yi, formerly a deputy minister of planning and economic development, as the new education minister, bringing the number of woman ministers in the government to two.

The Women’s Forum for the Economy and Society, which describes itself as the “world’s leading platform featuring women’s views and voices on major social and economic issues,” is hosting its inaugural conference in Rangoon on Friday and Saturday (6- 7 December). The meeting will be the third Forum event this year, with others previously held in France and Brazil.

Myanmar needs to change its constitution as fast as possible to put the country firmly on the path to democracy, Nobel Peace Prize winner and leader of the country's democratic opposition Aung San Suu Kyi said on Tuesday.

Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) won a landslide victory in last year's parliamentary by-elections, giving her a seat in parliament.

But the 68-year old faces a tough challenge to have the constitution changed to push on with reforms and to allow her to run for presidency in 2015.

The Women’s Initiative Network for Peace (Win-Peace) has expressed serious concern at the continued imprisonment of hundreds of political prisoners including women activists in various Burmese jails and urged the reform savvy from President Thein Sein to take necessary initiative to release them at the earliest.

The Win-Peace asserted that the authority maintains its repressive laws followed by more arrests and hence appealed to the Myanmar National Human Rights Commission to take serious note on the situation.

On August 6, National League for Democracy (NLD) leader Aung San Suu Kyi visited NDI's new Parliamentary Resource Center (PRC) in the capital city of Naypyitaw.

Although not yet officially open, the PRC is attracting the interest of MPs from many parties in the Hluttaw, or parliament.

We invite you to read the full article published August 7, 2013 by our partner, NDI