Th e key challenges for the National League for Democracy (NLD) gov-ernment are to both manage a long- term political transition from mili-tary to civilian rule and initiate a durable economic transformation towards a more broad- based economic growth model with the benefi ts of development spread more evenly amongst the population. In the short- to- medium term, however, natural resource extraction will remain a key source of national income and foreign exchange. A  successful political and economic transition to entrenched democratic rule therefore requires a far more comprehensive and inclusive approach to natural resource governance than has previously been attempted (Bauer, Shortell and Delesgues  2016 ).