"This policy briefing gives an overview of politics and development in Myanmar, focusing in particular on minority conflicts as well as the national context. The role that international aid agencies can play is explored, and recommendations are offered for policy and practice. There is a risk that pressure to build good relations with the government and to spend pledged funds will lead donors to overlook significant ongoing problems in conflict-affected border areas and elsewhere. Yet, the right kind of foreign aid, implemented effectively, can play a potentially useful role in supporting peace, justice and development. Donors need to learn from experience elsewhere, recognising that many challenges will arise over the coming years despite recent reforms. Through a careful understanding of Myanmar’s political economy at the local and national levels, and by incrementally establishing programmes, they will be able to build domestic capacity in support of sustainable peace and poverty reduction. Continued engagement can generate opportunities for promoting international standards including human rights. Recent Changes Despite continued uncertainty, Myanmar’s recent transition is now generating significant political, economic and social change. After decades of rule by an opaque and chiefly selfinterested military junta, some political space is opening up and media censorship is being relaxed. Economic and development policies have continued to shift, with signals emerging that the leadership is more responsive to the needs of Myanmar’s ethnically varied and predominantly poor population of around 55 million. External coverage of Myanmar has for decades presented the country’s travails as a black-andwhite morality play: villainous generals opposed by the virtuous angels of the Burmese people represented in particular by Nobel prize-winner Aung San Suu Kyi. In practice, some changes had already occurred before the military junta carefully selected its civilian successors in 2011, including gradually improved economic management and ceasefire agreements that had reduced bloodshed in the many long-running conflicts affecting most of the country’s outlying, border regions. Various foreign aid agencies had already established a presence with a limited range of humanitarian and social programmes despite the sanctions imposed by many Western states..."