(see Annex 2 for additional resources)

Building and reinforcing conflict-sensitive skills will support the mainstreaming process and at the same time ensure that the institution is able to maintain the capacity for conflict sensitivity that it has already built. Too often, however, training is conducted as a one-time event with little or no follow-up. Such training is useful for raising awareness, but offers minimal capacity development. Effective training will build on the organisation’s existing culture, processes and strengths to offer long-term support and development of the skills and information required by staff to be conflict sensitive. The following recommendation for increasing the effectiveness of gender mainstreaming in peace operations is relevant:

“Existing gender-awareness training programmes for peacekeepers should be given in a more systematic manner accommodating the usual six month rotation of peacekeepers and integrating context based gender- awareness. This should in turn be linked to monitoring and evaluation of the application of this training”. ²

It is a mistake to offer all staff the same training. Some organisations have taken this approach to the Do No Harm tool or Interest-based Negotiations, for example. A more effective approach is to offer all staff in the organisation an introduction to conflict sensitivity, followed up with specifically tailored training for different areas of the organisation: eg policy analysts, planners, project implementers, monitoring and evaluation specialists, field staff, senior managers. Conflict sensitising existing courses and staff development opportunities can be an effective way of achieving this tailoring.

The training itself, general or job-specific, also needs to be followed up with a long-term capacity development plan. Staff need to be encouraged and given the space to apply their course learning to their daily work, to try new approaches and to learn from their mistakes. Conflict advisers can be used as mentors to help work through challenging issues. Performance objectives and reviews can also be used to provide staff with the space and encouragement to explore areas of conflict sensitivity for themselves. For example, a water specialist may participate in a general introductory course on conflict sensitivity, but then be encouraged to research various aspects of the intersection between conflict and water resources. The water specialist could then share the new learning with other staff or with partner and like-minded organisations to ensure that as many people benefit as possible.

Organisations frequently rely heavily on training, workshops and seminars to meet their staff capacity development needs. But formal training courses are not the only approach available, and – depending on an organisation’s culture, structures and resources – may well not be the most effective approach.

As Box 6 above shows, peer learning and exchanges can provide an opportunity for staff to learn from others who are already knowledgeable about the material, and also about the organisational context.

Other approaches to training can be categorised under three headings: Share, Learn, and Support.

Sharing can involve approaches like secondments, where a staff member is temporarily posted to a part of the organisation that has had some success in implementing conflict sensitivity, or an important component of conflict sensitivity. Secondments can also be to other organisations where effective learning can take place. Conversely, an organisation that has had some success mainstreaming conflict sensitivity may consider seconding an appropriate member of staff to a partner organisation that is having less success.

Exchanges are similar to secondments, except that two organisations benefit rather than just one. For example, the peacebuilding department of an organisation may offer a conflict specialist to the monitoring and evaluation department of either their own organisation or an outside organisation. In exchange, the peacebuilding unit gets the expertise and support of a monitoring and evaluation specialist so they can learn more about the opportunities and challenges for mainstreaming conflict sensitivity in monitoring and evaluation processes.

Partnering is another form of sharing learning and experience that builds on the advantage of diversity and economies of scale. In Uganda, for example, a group of development agencies designated representatives from each of their organisations to form a working group to learn about conflict analysis together. The working group then worked together to build capacity for conflict analysis in each member organisation. In this way the team was able to build on each member’s strengths and ensure that each organisation benefited from the diversity of the group. Another approach would be to take advantage of economies of scale by bringing together a group of organisations and designating lead responsibilities for learning and dissemination to different members. Organisation A might focus on conflict analysis, organisation B on indicator development, and so on. Then, when a member organisation needs help on a particular aspect, they could turn to the responsible organisation for specialist support.

Including partners in conflict-sensitive skills development is essential. Joint skills development with collaborating partners can support and reinforce conflict sensitive capacity development within a wider range of organisations.

Learning can also involve working with partner or like-minded organisations. A network of practitioners, either from within the organisation or outside, can provide an important source of experiential learning. As with the example of partnering above, the network need not be comprised of conflict sensitivity specialists. Gender and environment specialists, for example, can often provide a wealth of information with respect to successes and challenges of mainstreaming. A formal or informal community of practitioners from like-minded organisations is all that is required to share experience and seek the advice of others. These groups may already exist at some level, perhaps in the form of a donor coordination committee or a network of volunteer-sending agencies, or it may be necessary to create them. Brown-bag lunches can be very effective within an organisation or for organisations located in close geographic proximity to each other, while e-mail networks can be useful for connecting across large distances. Such networks are not complicated to establish.

Space for reflection is also an important aspect of learning. Informally reflecting on past practices and completed projects can be an effective means of better understanding the complexities of conflict sensitivity and for informing decision making around new project or programme design. External space for reflection is equally important, and may take the form of support for education leave, night classes or summer schools, and self-funded leave. Even just one day per month at a local library or equivalent can provide staff with important space for reading and learning from previous experience.

Support is an equally important component of skills development. The Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) offers a help desk service that connects practitioners working in the field with academics and researchers at two leading Universities. For example, if in the course of conducting a conflict analysis in Bolivia, a development worker discovers substantial issues with land rights, but knows nothing about land rights in Bolivia, the worker can find out if there are any experts in that area through an easily accessible thematic and geographical database on the organisation’s intranet. They can then make contact with the expert directly, or contact a SIDA conflict adviser. SIDA had previously used this approach successfully as a mainstreaming tool for environmental issues.

Resource centres can also provide an effective means of support. Whether virtual (eg internet based) or real (eg a library or document centre), resource centres can provide a useful repository of reference materials for practitioners, policy staff and others. When designing a conflict analysis, for example, it is often helpful to see what types of analyses other organisations have used. There are unlikely to be tools or frameworks that can be used as they stand, but the experience of others can provide a useful base and source of new ideas or approaches. Resource centres must be easily accessible, with data and lessons learned stored in a format that is easily retrievable.