Conflict sensitive approaches to development, humanitarian assistance and peace building

4 Glossary

Actors	Individuals, groups and institutions who: contribute to conflict; and / or are affected by conflict (in a positive or negative manner); and/or are engaged in dealing with conflict.
Advocacy	Third party entreaties to external decision makers and power brokers.
Advocacy campaigns	Campaigns that raise awareness about particular issues (eg landmines) or conditions, and aim to bring about policy changes³.
Beneficiaries	Participants in and recipients of interventions by the national or international community. (A controversial term that some practitioners find objectionable).
Capacities	Actors’ potential to affect the context, positively or negatively. Potential can be defined in terms of resources, access, social networks and constituencies, other support and alliances, etc.
Causes (3 types)	Factors which contribute to people’s grievances. Causes may be: Structural: pervasive factors that have become built into the policies, structures and fabric of a society and which may create the pre-conditions for violent conflict Proximate: factors contributing to a climate conducive to violent conflict or its further escalation Triggers: single key acts, events, or their anticipation that will set off or escalate violent conflict.
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 can include for example non-governmental organisations (NGOs), community-based organisations, religious bodies, professional associations, trade unions, student groups, cultural societies, etc⁴.
Conflict	The result of parties disagreeing eg about the distribution of material or symbolic resources and acting on the basis of these perceived incompatibilities⁵.
Conflict (Violent)	Resort to psychological or physical force to resolve a disagreement.
Conflict Prevention	Actions, policies, procedures or institutions intended to avoid the threat or use of armed force and related forms of coercion by states or groups to settle political disputes, or to avoid the recurrence of violent conflict⁶.
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	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.
Development	Long-term efforts aimed at bringing improvements in the economic, political and social status, environmental stability and the quality of life of all segments of the population⁷.
Donor	An institution that provides grants and other forms of financial contribution or assistance in kind to organisations such as governments, and civil society (local and international). A donor may be a bilateral agency (eg CIDA in Canada), a multilateral agency (e.g. the World Bank or the UN) or a philanthropic organisation (e.g. foundations)⁸. Some NGOs and INGOs periodically assume a donor-like role.
Dynamics	The interaction between the conflict profile, the actors, and causes.
Evaluation	A one-off assessment that typically takes place at the end of a project, although it can also be undertaken as a mid-project review. On the basis of systematically applied objective criteria, it seeks to assess an on-going or completed project, its design, implementation and overall results in relation to its stated goals and objectives.
Evaluation (conflict sensitive)	This incorporates a detailed understanding of the operating context in terms of historical, actual or potential conflict into traditional evaluation activities and processes. Conflict sensitive evaluations are used to understand the overall impact a given intervention has had on this context, and the context on the intervention. These evaluations can then be used to adjust subsequent phases of an ongoing initiative, or gain lessons for future initiatives.
Fungibility	Refers to the fact that donor funding of a project that government would have undertaken anyway (even if donor funding were not available) has the effect of freeing government resources to be used for other purposes (eg military)⁹.
Goals	Actors’ long term objectives.
Government	The machinery or system of rules that exercises public authority over a given territory. Governments operate at various levels – eg national, regional, provincial, district. 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.
Humanitarian Assistance	Activities designed to rapidly reduce human suffering in emergency situations, especially when provided by outside agencies to supplement local efforts¹⁰.
Impacts – Negative / Positive	These describe an interaction in terms of its contribution to exacerbating or mitigating violence or the potential for violence.
Implementation	The process of realising objectives by enacting the activities designed in the planning process – the operationalisation of the proposal. Implementation involves regular progress reviews to enable plans to be adjusted if necessary.
Implementation (Conflict Sensitive)	Conflict-sensitive implementation involves close scrutiny of the operational context through regularly updating the conflict analysis, in order to avoid negative impacts and maximise positive impacts on the context.
Indicators (conflict)	Specify what to measure in order to monitor and evaluate the evolution of conflict factors and dynamics that impact a given context.
Indicators (interaction)	Specify what to measure in order to monitor and evaluate the interaction between a project or intervention and conflict factors and dynamics.
Indicators (project / intervention)	Specify what to measure in order to monitor and evaluate the performance of policies, projects and programmes¹¹.
Interaction	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.
Interests	The underlying motivations of the actors.
Intervention	This refers to a range of activities, falling within one or other of the categories listed in Chapter 1 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).
Management (project / programme)	Management involves supervising the entire process of implementation and making operational decisions. Good management requires 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.
Monitoring	The regular process of examining a project’s actual outputs and impacts. Carried out during the implementation phase, monitoring seeks to provide the project team with current information that will allow them to assess progress in meeting project objectives, and to adjust implementation activities if necessary. Additionally, monitoring generates data that can be used for evaluation purposes.
Monitoring (conflict sensitive)	Conflict-sensitive monitoring incorporates an understanding of conflict actors, profile, causes and dynamics into traditional monitoring processes and activities, with the intention of better understanding the context and the intervention, as well as the interaction between the two. Conflict-sensitive monitoring is used to inform adjustments and changes to project or programme activities so that the intervention has the optimum impact on conflict dynamics.
Partnership environment	The relationships between different stakeholders who are working together.
Peacebuilding	Measures designed to consolidate peaceful relations and strengthen viable political, socio-economic and cultural institutions capable of mediating conflict, and to strengthen other mechanisms that will either create or support the necessary conditions for sustained peace¹².
Planning	The process through which certain problems are identified, their causal linkages analysed, and effective solutions developed. The result of this process is often embodied in a programme designed with predefined objectives, activities, implementation process and verifiable indicators of progress.
Planning – Conflict sensitive	Conflict-sensitive planning incorporates the conflict analysis (the profile, causes, actors, and dynamics of a conflict situation) into traditional planning. The intention is to have a constructive impact on the context to avoid further deterioration and promote more peaceful and effective solutions.
Positions	Refer to the actors’ stances on key and emerging issues in a given context.
Profile	A brief characterisation of the context within which the intervention will be situated.
Programme	A proposed plan with a medium to long-term horizon and possibly without a defined end, often incorporating strategic objectives, multiple projects and activities¹³.
Project	A set of time-bound activities typically contributing to a larger programmatic objective, which are planned, implemented, monitored and evaluated in relation to issue(s) that they seek to address¹⁴.
Project Cycle	Provides a systematic framework for the planning, implementation and evaluation of projects and programmes¹⁵.
Region	A geo-politically defined area at the sub-national level (eg an area comprising several districts). Also used to refer to a collection of contiguous countries (eg the Eastern region of Africa).
Relationships	The interactions between actors at various levels, and their perception of these interactions.
Rights-based Approach	A conceptual framework for the process of human development that is normatively based on international human rights standards and operationally directed to promoting and protecting human rights. Essentially, it integrates the norms, standards and principles of the international human rights system into the plans, policies and processes of development¹⁶.
Scenarios	Provide an assessment of what will happen next in a given context according to a specific timeframe.
Sector	A part or division (eg of the national economy: private sector, public sector, education sector). In the context of Sectoral or Sector-wide approaches, a core government function, which is related to a particular ministry and spending programme (eg health, education and roads)¹⁷.
Spoilers	Individuals and organisations that believe peace threatens their power, worldview and interests, and who seek to undermine attempts to achieve it¹⁸.
Triangulation	The verification of each piece of information with at least two corroborative or complementary sources, to obtain data that eventually “matches up”.

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