Responsible Development: A Note on Conflict Sensitivity

The document highlights that even the best-intentioned development interventions can have negative impacts and exacerbate problems. Conflict sensitivity evolved from the humanitarian principle of "Do No Harm," which recognizes that aid can cause harm but can also be used to strengthen local capacities for peace in communities affected by disaster and conflict. Conflict sensitivity is a practice and approach that focuses on understanding explicit and implicit context dynamics to adapt and respond to complex operating environments. It acknowledges that conflict is an inevitable and natural part of human interaction and occurs in every family, community, and country. Development and humanitarian professionals can incorporate conflict sensitivity during periods of stability and peace as well as of instability and conflict. USAID/CVP offers several resources for further understanding and applying conflict sensitivity, including Conflict Sensitive Aid (CSAid) Training, Advanced Conflict Assessment (ACA) Training, and direct field support to USAID Missions. The document also highlights the importance of assessing the interaction of conflict dynamics with USAID programming, mitigating risk and preventing conflict and violence, using collaborating, learning, and adapting (CLA) approaches, and setting a precedent for peace. A conflict-sensitive approach requires an understanding of the context in which the intervention is working, recognizing how the intervention interacts with the context, and continually revisiting the programming approach to ensure that no harm is being done and that interventions have positive outcomes and contribute to peace. This approach empowers USAID staff and partners to reconsider standard development and humanitarian approaches in a framework that mitigates the potential harm of interventions and maximizes opportunities for prosperous, healthy, and resilient populations in stable and peaceful communities. The document provides examples of how a conflict-sensitive approach can differ from a traditional approach to a development challenge. For instance, a traditional development approach to livelihoods for economic growth might focus on increasing land and seed distribution, building capacities in new farming technology, and refurbishing local markets to sell excess products. However, a conflict-sensitive approach would regularly engage the local community to understand how the activity impacts group dynamics and tensions and how these tensions may affect the ability to achieve the intervention objective. In the example provided, a conflict-sensitive approach would consider behaviors and attitudes between non- and former combatants, how the conflict affected populations, possible repercussions of inclusion of former combatants (male and female), and who might feel intentionally excluded from the activity. This approach would identify and address obstacles to achieving the same pace of learning and productivity, ensuring that the activity does not threaten villagers' economic interests. Overall, Responsible Development: A Note on Conflict Sensitivity from USAID's Center for Conflict and Violence Prevention (CVP) emphasizes the importance of conflict sensitivity in international development and provides guidance on how to apply this approach in practice.