ADVISORY COMMISSION ON RAKHINE STATE 53. The Government should facilitate the registration process for civil society organizations from all ethnic and religious groups. The process should be simplified, entailing a reduced amount of required documentation and lowered application fees. 54. The Government should mandate regular (for instance quarterly) township-level civil society dialogue meetings, to be independently organized by civil society actors, and attended by representatives from local administration, relevant line ministries, and members of the State Parliament. These meetings should seek to gather detailed feedback from communities and civil society on the design of policies currently being considered at state level. 55. The Rakhine State Government should establish a mechanism which would serve as the focal point for information dissemination and feedback on government performance, and gather community and civil society feedback on policies under consideration. Such feedback should be conveyed to the Union Government along with recommendations for adaptations based on community input. 56. The Rakhine State Government and General Administration Department in Rakhine State should ensure that all 10- and 100-household leaders, Village Administrators and Village Tract Administrators are directly elected by the residents of each village/ village tract. 57. As for IDPs, in February 2017, international agencies in Rakhine submitted to the Rakhine State Government a revised Terms of Reference and Code of Conduct for the CMCs. The provisions seek to increase the representativeness of the CMCs and to curtail corruption. The Commission urges the Government to implement the plan. 58. In line with Myanmar law, the Government should consider establishing the post of Ethnic Affairs Minister for all ethnic minorities in Rakhine with more than 0.1 percent of the population. 59. A Women’s Affairs Department should be established within the Rakhine State Government, responsible for coordinating women’s empowerment initiatives, and providing technical support to line ministries and GAD offices on adapting implementation approaches to suit the needs of women and girls. FINAL REPORT 49