Crisis and violent conflict has a differential impact on minorities: Minority communities are particularly vulnerable during times of crisis. The position of marginalisation in which many minorities live means that any instability within a country can push them beyond their means to survive or to protect their communities. Minorities often become internally displaced persons or refugees, which can impact on inter-communal dynamics in neighbouring countries. Some conflicts in the recent past have been characterized by ethnic cleansing. Even in cases where minority issues were not at the centre of the conflict, violent conflict provides a fertile ground for minority groups to be classified as ‘disloyal’ making oppression and expulsion easier. Minorities may simply flee the war, but find their property and homes have been seized making return unlikely due to their weaker access to justice and security. Minority women may also be particularly vulnerable during and after conflict as targets of rape or human trafficking. agreements that are intended to bring conflicts to an end might contribute to fixing and simplifying identities, and work against the multiple, cross-cutting identities that help to emphasise what people have in common rather than what divides them. The exclusion of minorities from peace processes exacerbates this divide. While some measures are needed to secure a peace agreement, the exclusion of minorities from temporary peacemaking arrangements tend to become permanent. These arrangements will undermine long-term integration and social cohesion, laying the ground for future conflict. Key Messages  Ignoring minority concerns in crisis and conflict recovery can reignite tensions in the future.  Smaller minority groups and minority women are often overlooked in crisis and conflict recovery Minority issues are not systematically addressed in post-conflict recovery: “Do no harm” development for minorities: Post-conflict recovery is a window of opportunity for addressing minority grievances and realizing protection of minority rights. Post-conflict contexts pose a particularly difficult challenge: during times of conflict, identities tend to be ‘simplified’, made one-dimensional, normally emphasizing the identity that is at the core of the conflict (e.g. religious identity, ethnic identity). Women belonging to minorities may often feel this narrowing of identities most acutely, as they may be required to suppress their specific grievances (including repression from within the community) in the name of prioritizing the ‘more pressing’ conflict with the State. Power-sharing Development programmes that are insensitive to the particular issues of minorities may ‘do harm’ by promoting and reinforcing tensions. Badly planned economic and development policies and programmes can deepen inequalities, entrench power and economic hierarchies, and stimulate or aggravate inter-ethnic tensions leading to conflict. Development that clashes with the priorities and needs of minorities, such as through the appropriation of lands, could lead to development conflict. Project aid also can exacerbate tensions among different groups if the project is vulnerable to ethnic distortion by individuals and groups involved in its implementation. 58 M A R G I N A L I S E D M I N O R I T I E S I N D E V E LO P M E N T P R O G R A M M I N g