Prof. Dr. Ir. Khin Ni Ni Thein's Page

What motivated you (or your organization) to become involved in peace and conflict resolution?

I am Buddhist by tradition and by choice. I practise Vipassana Meditation and apply in my daily life. My profession is Water Engineering and Management and I have been working in the Water Sector for 27 years and I will remain working in the same sector for the rest of my life. I have initiated "Water and Peace" documentary and also advocate to use Water as a medium for creating of genuine Peace and Sustainable Development in my country Myanmar-Burma. I started this initiative since 2000 and after nine years I can see some improvements along this line of thought. My country and my fellow country peoples are the root of my motivation to become involved in peace and conflict resolution. However, I must also give credit to my profession "Water" because by training I am a proactive stakeholder of International Water Sharing and Conflict Resolution.

Please feel free to provide a short bio about yourself or the work of your organization (no more than 3 paragraphs)

Prof. Dr. Ir. Khin Ni Ni Thein is Vice President for Development and Resources at Asian Institute of Technology, http://www.ait.ac.th. Formerly she worked as Chief of the Sustainable Water Management Section under the Division of Water Sciences in UNESCO, Paris. She is Water Engineer and Hydroinformatician by training. Mrs. Thein was born in Yangon, Myanmar in 1959. She obtained B.E (Civil), M.E. (Water Resources Planning and Development) degrees with distinctions from Yangon Technological University, Myanmar. She also has a post graduate diploma in Hydraulic Engineering with distinction and a Master’s degree in Computational Hydraulics and a Doctorate in Hydroinformatics from UNESCO-IHE, Delft, the Netherlands.

She has acquired a broad range of professional skills in civil and water resources planning and management engineering through her experience in the fields of advisory, consultancy, research and teaching. As for service, she has total 28 years of experience in the water sector, of which 12 years in undergraduate and postgraduate level teaching, 10 years in applied research, 11 years in senior management, and more than 4 years in United Nations. The integrated water resources management (IWRM) of Transboundary Rivers and the multistakeholder processes are her main research interests/expertise. Capacity building, technology transfer, project preparation and result-based management, networking and application of Hydroinformatics through Information and Communication Technology (ICT)) are main areas of her work. Her research and teaching career in Europe constitutes 17 years out of 28. She combines extensive technical know-how in numerical and Physical River modelling with substantial management, fund raising experience and self-acquired social knowledge and compassion to perform those tasks. She has strong credentials in negotiation, mediation, and information and knowledge management.

Her career started in Myanmar as a project engineer in the irrigation department designing and building hydraulic infrastructures and dams. She moved into academia in 1983 being responsible for graduate and postgraduate teaching, research and training. In 1987 she moved to IHE, Delft continuing her research and training career in integrated water resources management and the integration of environmental and social aspects into
decision-making. Since 1991 to date she resides in the Netherlands. Her research and teaching career in Europe is mainly in the fields of computational hydraulics, river morphology, hydroinformatics, integrated water resources management, gender and multi-stakeholders process. Since 1997, she has been Executive Director of the Water Research and Training Centre and active in international initiatives for capacity building and gender issues. She combines extensive technical know-how in numerical and physical river-modeling with substantial management experience as the President and Founder of a scientific NGO, action-oriented knowledge centre WRTC. She has effective planning, management and negotiation skills and strong credentials in information management and processing. She is a highly motivated, hard-working self starter and has the ability to interact well with people at all levels, from international diplomats to consultants to students and grass roots. In 2001 she has established the 'Salween Water Partnership' as a pilot multi-stakeholders-project as a test case for trans-boundary rivers. She contributed her service to the International Women University (ifu) and University of Applied Sciences (http://www.fhnon.de) as visiting professor. She is also involved in the establishment of the International Water and Soil Management Course and that of Women's Institute of Technology and Culture (WIT) in Germany. Dr. Thein was an elected steering committee member of the Gender and Water Alliance http://www.genderandwateralliance.org for 2002-2003 term.

Please list the countries and/or regions in which you (or your organization) have direct and significant expertise

Myanmar-Burma, Thailand, The Netherlands, Nairobi, Denmark, Norway, China, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, India, Lao PDR, Cambodia, The Philippines, Bhutan, Pakistan.

What is your current country of residence (or location of your organization)?

Myanmar and The Netherlands.

What is your current job (and organization) and/or where and what field are you studying?

Vice President for Development and Resources, Asian Institute of Technology

What is your personal or organizational website?

http://www.wrtcmyanmar.org

Which are your primary sectoral areas of expertise (or the primary sectoral areas of your organization) ?

Civil Society, Conflict Resolution, Development, Dialogue, Diplomacy, Education, Environment, Gender, Organizational Development

Which are your primary skills areas(or the primary skill areas of your organization)?

Advocacy, Capacity Building, Fundraising, Program Design, Program Implemenation, Training

What are some of your current areas of research (if any)?

From Potential Conflict to Cooperation Potential in transboundary rivers, international water sharing, water and peace, low level mediation, conflict resolution