Myanmar is a country caught between its past and the future. The past is one of decades of ethnic strife in the world’s longest- running civil war, exacerbated by fifty years of a brutal military dictatorship that plunged the country into isolation, turning it into one of the least developed in the world. With the general elections in 2010, Myanmar has taken its first uncertain steps towards a more open and democratic future, by ending its isolation and instituting a civilian government. The past, however, is not quite past, and in creating its future Myanmar is faced with complex and difficult challenges.

A sixty-four-year-old widow and member of the Kachin ethnic minority, LAHPAI SENG RAW is at the forefront in facing these challenges. The daughter of a state-level public official and a teacher, she studied psychology at Yangon University. As a student, she personally experienced the military’s abusive rule when she was detained on the suspicion that she had communications with her brother who was in the Kachin insurgency. In 1987 she began to involve herself in relief work for internally displaced peoples in the Myanmar-China border. Moving to Bangkok in 1990, she then worked as development officer-in-charge in ROKA, the Kachin Independence Organization’s humanitarian wing. In 1997, with the help of faith-based groups and non-government organizations (NGOs), SENG RAW took the bold step of establishing, in military-ruled Burma, the NGO called Metta Development Foundation. Metta addressed the problems of population displacement and emergency relief in the country’s conflict zones, starting in northern Myanmar, where fighting between Kachin rebels and government forces had already displaced over seventy thousand people.

SENG RAW’s primary concern has always been that Metta build trust among all stakeholders through joint efforts in comprehensive, participative, long-term interventions. In agriculture, it has established more than six hundred farmer field schools (FFS), capacitating over fifty thousand farmers in improved farm and forest management. Metta also established schools and training centers in early childhood education. It introduced community-managed water, health and sanitation systems, and other health care projects. Metta provided funding and technical support for a wide range of livelihood projects. In 2008 when tropical cyclone Nargis devastated Myanmar—the worst natural disaster in the country’s recorded history—Metta‘s leadership, reach, and effectiveness was confirmed as it took the lead in a massive rehabilitation, reconstruction, and development effort that covered large sections of the country and benefited hundreds of thousands of cyclone victims. Under SENG RAW’s leadership, Metta has grown to be the largest NGO in Myanmar, with a staff of six hundred branches outside Yangon, and three research and training centers. Its various programs have reached over six hundred thousand people in 2,352 communities.

Working in a war-torn and socially fractured country, SENG RAW has shown both amazing courage and a unique ability to work with both government and rebels. She fully appreciates that in addressing conflict and instability, it is essential to build a foundation of stable, self-reliant communities. With this conviction, she has advocated an inclusive peace and reconciliation process in Myanmar. She has herself been an example of inclusiveness, and an embodiment of what metta means, “loving kindness.” A Kachin Christian—hence, twice a member of the minority—she has demonstrated tact and openness as a leader, working harmoniously with various groups across ethnic, religious, and political divides. After serving as Metta’s executive director for thirteen years, she has deliberately relinquished the position to empower a new generation of leaders. But she remains active in Myanmar’s NGO community, and in peace and development efforts.

In electing LAHPAI SENG RAW to receive the 2013 Ramon Magsaysay Award, the board of trustees recognizes her quietly inspiring and inclusive leadership—in the midst of deep ethnic divides and prolonged armed conflict—to regenerate and empower damaged communities and to strengthen local NGOs in promoting a non-violent culture of participation and dialogue as the foundation for Myanmar’s peaceful future.