Extraordinary changes --- I witnessed first hand these events, plus the lesser reported 18 month conflict between Arakan Army and Tatmadaw in Rakhine State. The levels of dialogue necessary to address even the basic essential emergency needs of the people were multi-layered, complex and tiring. Adding the need to consider capacity development in such changing circumstances was given lower priority, but is sorely needed. To address the comment, we chose to leverage existing capacities, where possible and take on what we called the Balanced Approach ensuring we support all parties. In short, it seemed to work for a while. The current situation, has required almost a reset of all previous dialogue. It is like we hit the snake in the game Snakes and Ladders

Source author: Shane Wilkes swilkes4129@gmail.com