Conflict sensitivity is about being aware that our work, presence, and behaviour can have potential negative or positive effects on tensions and conflicts in contexts where we are working. It is also about taking actions to avoid these negative effects and to reinforce the positive effects.
The purpose of this publication is to illustrate what conflict sensitivity looks like in practice. It presents a collection of experiences from Helvetas staff around the world. The 39 examples from 15 countries cover all Helvetas’ working areas. They illustrate the different ways in which our interventions can have unintended effects in the social contexts in which we operate and how staff acted to prevent potential negative impacts of our work or adapted when tensions did arise. The publication is organized into three chapters:
- This first chapter gives a short overview of Helvetas’ approach to conflict sensitivity and summarizes the lessons learned from our experiences of applying conflict sensitivity.
- The second chapter focuses on different kinds of unintended consequences of our actions.
- The third chapter focuses on the important role of behaviour, i.e. the way in which we carry out our activities.
Readers can navigate the publication in two ways. First, by reading straight through, following the given structure of the publication. This offers an overview and illustration of the different ways in which our presence, activities and behaviour can affect the contexts in which we operate. Alternatively, the publication can be browsed as a small database of stories of how Helvetas staff implemented conflict sensitivity. Each example is tagged to indicate the relevant working area, country and relevant cross-cutting themes such as advocacy, partnership, inclusive systems, gender and social equity, urban engagement, and youth. To find the relevant examples for each category of interest, it is easiest to first consult the cross-reference index.
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