On the DVB website, Ashley South this week published a neat, informative and persuasive article on Norwegian government engagement with a hydropower project in Kyauk Kyi Township, eastern Bago Region. Should it go ahead, the project will result in a dam being built, lives and livelihoods being affected, and a very precious environment being impacted. The point of the pre-feasibility study in which Ashley participated was to trigger a process of finding out what local people think about this – in response to an invitation from the Karen National Union’s 3rd Brigade. There was therefore widespread consultation and, in the course of it, a discernible shift in community attitudes from considerable hostility to wary collaboration. Ashley writes: “In terms of peacebuilding, I found it extraordinary to see the Myanmar government, the KNU (and its armed wings, the KNLA and KNDO), Karen CBOs and local communities discussing together in a spirit of friendship and cooperation – albeit with some understandable caution and concerns on the part of local people.” Following half a century of armed conflict, then, “multi-stakeholder participation in peacebuilding” is starting to flourish in some parts of Myanmar. As Ashley notes, it needs to become routine practice in other parts where, at present, government and donor agendas are frequently decisive – usually to the detriment of local interests.