"Since 2011, Myanmar has embarked on a series of development reforms to promote a more "people centered" and "bottom-up" approach to government planning and budgeting. Inter alia, these reforms have led to the establishment of Local Development Funds (LDFs) to identify and fund community development projects. LDFs in Myanmar, and the government institutions that manage them, are both recently formed and evolving at a rapid pace. To date, little research on these funds has been conducted. The objectives of this study are to: provide a general understanding of international best practice and common uses for LDFs, assess how community needs are identified and aligned with LDFs in Myanmar, provide an overview of the most relevant LDFs in Myanmar, and give some analysis of how these funds impact fiscal decentralization and local development planning."