Last Tuesday the Asia Foundation released an important report – Kim Jolliffe’s Ethnic Conflict and Social Services in Myanmar’s Contested Regions. Noting that international aid agencies typically with work and through host state institutions, Jolliffe examines ways forward for Myanmar, where in many areas social services have long been provided by ethnic armed organizations and associated networks. He argues that getting policy right in this domain will boost not only development, but also peace.

Jolliffe opens by explaining that in contested parts of Myanmar’s eastern border country social services are often delivered by actors engaged in a larger struggle: the fight for the right to govern. Particularly for EAOs, social service provision is a central plank of overarching governance strategies. Moreover, going forward ethnic minorities have a clear desire to exercise real control over all programmes. This simple wish is expressed by a Karen teacher cited on page 8 of the report: “Everyone wants to lead their own development.” Aid agencies therefore need to tread very carefully, for the decisions they take will have shaping effects on broader political issues found in the peace process.

To frame policy analysis, Jolliffe therefore maps the complex territorial claims made by groups operating up and down the border, placing them in a typology of six main forms. He then shows how some aid interventions have increased local tension and spread grassroots fear of state expansion. He also profiles cases of meaningful collaboration and coordination in Mon national education and Karen healthcare. He uses these contrasting examples to argue for conflict sensitivity on the part of aid agencies, short-term enhancement of support for service provision linked to EAOs, and efforts to boost links within the intricate mosaic of social service providers.

As established aid donors close down their border operations and move inside Myanmar, and new players open Yangon offices and ramp up service provision, this careful analysis of the special challenges generated by ethnic areas needs to be widely read.