Conflict sensitive approaches to development, humanitarian assistance and peace building

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3 Working with indicators

In addition to traditional (eg project, sectoral) indicators, conflict sensitive approaches require conflict sensitive indicators to monitor and measure: (a) the context and its changes over time; and (b) the interaction between the context and the intervention. They have three elements:

Conflict indicators

Used to monitor the progression of conflict factors against an appropriate baseline, and to provide targets against which to set contingency planning (see below).

Project indicators

Monitor the efficiency, effectiveness, impact and sustainability of the project (see Chapter 3 Module 1, step 3).

Interaction indicators

Measure the interaction between the context and the project (see Chapter 3 Module 1, step 2 c).

Conflict indicators
Conflict analysis provides just a snap-shot of a highly fluid situation. It is therefore important to combine an in-depth analysis with more dynamic and continuous forms of monitoring to provide up-to-date information from which to measure the interaction between the context and the intervention. Indicators are useful in this respect, as they help reduce a complex reality to a few concrete dimensions and represent valuable pointers to monitor change. The conflict analysis will have looked at the relationship between specific actors, causes and profile, in order to gain an understanding of the conflict dynamics. Indicators can then be developed in order to reflect these relationships and how they evolve over time. It is important to have a mix of perception-based and objective indicators, each of which should reflect qualitative and quantitative elements. Good indicators reflect a variety of perspectives on the context. It is good practice to involve communities and other actors in identifying the indicators; not only should this produce better indicators but it is also an important opportunity to build a common understanding of the context, to ascertain joint priorities and to agree on benchmarks of progress.

Since each conflict is unique, there is no standard list of indicators applicable to all contexts. The following table provides some examples of sample perception-based and objective indicators for the four key elements.

Table 1: Sample of conflict analysis indicators
Key element	Example	Sample Indicators (a)objective and (b) perception-based
Profile	Geographic mobilisation around natural resources	(a) What is the price of timber? How has it evolved over time? (b) (In the view of the respondent) How has conflict intensity changed around this particular area?
Causes	Human rights abuses	(a) Has the number of political prisoners risen or fallen? (b) To what extent can you/others openly criticise the government?
Actors	Diaspora	(a) Have overseas remittances increased or decreased? (b) To what extent does the diaspora support or undermine the peace process?
Dynamics	Increased commitment to resolve conflict	(a) Has the frequency of negotiations increased or decreased among conflict parties? (b) Do you believe that party X is committed to the peace process?
Note: the examples in Table 1 relate to each specific key element only (eg sample indicators for profile have no relation to the example or sample indicators for causes).

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