Donor accountability in the peace process

Peace is crucial to Myanmar’s future. International donor agencies –including both established and emerging donors – recognise this and are seeking to support the peace process.

Yet peace is also a deeply political idea, with differing assumptions about what peace should look like.

And donor agencies, especially through their funding, inevitably have an impact on the shape of these political processes.

How then are donor agencies accountable in their influence on the peace process? Who are they accountable to? Who do donors have to answer to?

Obviously donor agencies need to be accountable to their own governments, whether in London or Brussels or Canberra.

But who are they accountable to in Myanmar? Do they answer to the government? To ethnic armed groups? To civil society? Can they be accountable to all Myanmar people?

Which Myanmar actors do donors refer to when justifying their intervention in the peace process of another country? Which actors guide them in shaping their support, in ensuring that it continues to meet the changing context, or in ending their support?

Over the next two months there will be an in-depth series on the PK Forum exploring these questions of donor accountability in the peace process in Myanmar.

If you would like to contribute to this series, please contact Tamas (Forum English editor) at pkdiscussionforum@gmail.com

picture by Dustin Barter (see more of his pictures on the PK Forum Development Photography series http://www.pkforum.org/gallery )