Next: 2 Key steps to sensitise the implementation process
1 What is conflict-sensitive implementation?
Implementation is the process of achieving objectives by undertaking activities designed in the planning process. It involves regular progress reviews and adjustment of activities as required.
Conflict sensitive implementation additionally involves close scrutiny of the operational context through regularly updating the conflict analysis, linking this understanding of the context to the objective and process of achieving the activities, and adjusting these activities accordingly.
It builds on the conflict analysis and planning processes (see Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 Module 1). The key elements are to:
- sensitively manage the process of implementation (activities, staffing, information networks, finances etc)
- regularly monitor the operational context and the interaction between the intervention and the context, using the indicators defined in the conflict analysis and planning stages
- adjust the project in light of new information gathered through monitoring, focusing particularly on the objectives and the process of implementation.
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Management involves the ability to see the bigger picture: how all the elements of the intervention, its operational context and the interaction between the two, fit together. It involves supervising the entire process of implementation and making operational decisions. Monitoring requires gathering, reviewing and analysing information in order to measure progress and change using the conflict indicators, project indicators, and interaction indicators described in Modules 1 and 3, and Chapter 2. Adjustment means changing the plan in response to unforeseen changes of circumstance. The choices of what, who, where, and when may periodically require alteration and may change substantially. In certain situations more extreme measures may be required, such as fundamentally changing the project’s implementation approach. |
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Example 1 (violent conflict): Purchasing a vehicle may seem like an innocuous activity. However, even this relatively minor activity could be highly conflict insensitive. Purchasing the vehicle from a given supplier can support one group or actor over another. The funds received from the sale of the car could be diverted to the war economy, or be taxed by a conflict actor. It is not uncommon for INGO vehicles, bearing their organisation’s logos to be taken and used by military or other conflict actors. Example 2 (structural violence): In rural Nepal, a development organisation implemented a project designed to empower members of the lower castes. As part of their education, the trainees learned that they enjoy equal rights to those of other castes within their community. One of the trainees chose to exercise his right at a subsequent village meeting by sitting on a chair alongside members of higher castes. The higher caste members – who themselves had not benefited from caste empowerment training – were upset by what they saw as an inappropriate actions by the lower caste member, and physically assaulted him. |
Understanding the context is crucial to conflict-sensitive implementation. As the two examples in Box 2 demonstrate, activities that may be well-intentioned, or even apparently unrelated to conflict dynamics, can unintentionally exacerbate conflict factors if the context is not well understood.
Effectively monitoring, managing and adjusting an
intervention requires efficient information networks. To effectively triangulate
information (see Chapter 2,
Box 10), these networks will be based on multiple sources and should be
set up in the planning stage. Such information networks can prove particularly
challenging in conflict-affected contexts, or situations at risk of violent conflict, as information that
is politically sensitive may be
difficult to obtain (see Chapter 3 Module 1). Equally important is the
commitment to honest self-reflection and learning. Only through such commitment
can changes be made to the objectives and process of implementation to ensure
that an intervention remains conflict-sensitive.
Next: 2 Key steps to sensitise the implementation process
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