Conflict sensitivity

This means the ability of your organisation to:

• understand the context in which you operate;
• understand the interaction between your intervention and the context; and
• act upon the understanding of this interaction, in order to avoid negative impacts and maximise positive impacts.

Note: the word ‘context’ is used rather than ‘conflict’ to make the point that all socio-economic and political tensions, root causes and structural factors are relevant to conflict sensitivity because they all have the potential to become violent. ‘Conflict’ is sometimes erroneously confused with macro-political violence between two warring parties (as with a civil war between a national government and a non-state actor).

Context

This refers to the operating environment, which ranges from the micro to the macro level (eg community, district / province, region(s), country, neighbouring countries). For the purposes of this Resource Pack, context means a geographic or social environment where conflict exists (see the Introduction for a description of the various elements in the conflict spectrum) and is comprised of actors, causes, profile and dynamics.

Government

The machinery or system of rules that exercises public authority over a given territory. Governments operate at various levels – national, regional, provincial, district, etc. Governments seek to determine and implement public policy, to defend the country and maintain order, and to provide public services. They are responsible for raising revenue and managing public expenditure.

Note: Where the formal machinery of government has broken down, authority may be exercised by others (eg local warlords) who assume the role of the governing power.

Donor

An institution that provides grants and other forms of financial contribution (or assistance in kind) to organisations such as governments or to civil society (local and international). A donor may be a bilateral agency (eg DFID in the UK), a multilateral agency (eg the World Bank or the UN), a philanthropic organisation (eg a foundation), or an INGO providing funding for a local partner.¹

Civil society

A domain parallel to, but separate from the state and the market, in which citizens freely group together according to their own interests. It encompasses a self-initiated and voluntary sector of formally associated individuals who pursue non-profit purposes in non-governmental organisations (NGOs), community-based organisations, religious bodies, professional associations, trade unions, student groups, cultural societies, etc.²

Intervention

This refers to a range of activities, falling within one or other of the categories listed in Box 1. An intervention can be very small (eg helping villagers build wells) or very large (eg a peace process or setting up a new government structure). It may be at project level (see Chapter 3) or at sectoral level (see Chapter 4).

This refers to the two-way relationship between an intervention and the context in which it is situated, ie the impact of the intervention on the context and the impact of the context on the intervention.

Negative / positive impacts

These describe the above interaction, in terms of its contribution to exacerbating or mitigating violence or the potential for violence.