Conflict sensitive approaches to development, humanitarian assistance and peace building

2.1 Understanding the motivation and interest that guides the assessment and the associated resources

Before assessing the institutional capacity for conflict sensitivity within an organisation (or any unit or department) there should be a frank understanding of the motivation and interest that guides the assessment and of the resources (human and financial) that are available to undertake it. Individual motivation should not be confused with the organisation’s motivation, interest and resources. Individuals need to understand the motivation that will either support or undermine their organisation’s ability to mainstream conflict sensitivity.

Motivation, interest and resources will vary significantly from individual to individual, agency to agency, experience to experience, and can stem from many different personal, semi-formal or formal sources. Some examples are given in Table 4.

Table 4: Examples of motivation / interest
Type of motivation / interest	Definition	Example
Personal	A motivation or interest primarily stemming from an individual commitment to conflict sensitivity	An individual attends an external course in conflict analysis and sees its importance and relevance to her work. She realises that without the right institutional capacities her ability to implement programmes in a conflict-sensitive manner is severely limited. Although holding a relatively low position in a large bureaucracy she wants to see how they can promote conflict-sensitive practice in her organisation.
Semi-formal	A motivation or interest stemming from an informal institutional desire to improve conflict sensitivity	A department within the agency has become increasingly concerned about the possible negative impact of their work on conflict dynamics. The Head of Department has called in all middle managers for a workshop about how the organisation could do better in responding to conflict. They want to have a framework for this workshop.

Type of motivation / interest	Definition	Example
Formal	A motivation or interest arising from a formal institutional desire to improve conflict sensitivity	After some mixed experiences in conflict areas, concerns expressed by local stakeholders, and consistent bottom-up pressure from staff located in conflict regions, senior management has instigated an institution-wide reflection process to define better practice in pursuing their core mandate in conflict areas. They have asked a group of individuals in the Quality and Evaluation Unit to develop a framework to analyse the institutional challenges involved.

The level and depth of the analysis will depend not only on the motivation which guides it, but also on the resources (human, time and financial) that are available. Investing the necessary amount of resources is essential to the quality of the analysis (and subsequent plan of action and impact), but it is important to be realistic about the resource constraints the organisation may be facing.

Next: 2.2 Depth and level of analysis