How to guide to conflict sensitivity

All organisations working in conflict-affected areas, including aid agencies, will inevitably have an impact on local peace and conflict dynamics. Saferworld has contributed to a ‘How to guide to conflict sensitivity’ which offers practical advice for aid agencies on how to understand this impact – and what steps they can take to ensure that their work helps build  peace rather than undermine it.

The guide was developed by the Conflict Sensitivity Consortium, a group of 35 humanitarian, development and peacebuilding agencies of which Saferworld is a member. The consortium, a four year initiative funded by UK Aid, was set up to take advantage of members’ collective experience to strengthen their own policy and practice on conflict sensitivity and to develop guidance for the wider sector. The guide provides practical information on how to integrate conflict sensitivity both in specific projects or programmes and within organisations. It draws on consortium members’ experience from Kenya, Sierra Leone and Sri Lanka to illustrate what conflict sensitivity looks like in practice.

“Any project set in a conflict-prone region will inevitably have an impact on the peace and conflict environment—positive or negative, direct or indirect, intentional or unintentional.”

How to guide to conflict sensitivity