Good practice note: Conflict sensitivity, peacebuilding and sustaining peace

This document offers guidance on integrating conflict sensitivity into programming to ensure that humanitarian and development activities do no harm and contribute to peacebuilding.

It provides practical tools, indicators, and additional resources for M&E practitioners to design, implement, monitor and evaluate conflict-sensitive interventions.

This document provides a detailed framework for integrating conflict sensitivity into development, humanitarian, and peacebuilding programmes. It guides practitioners on how to ensure their activities not only avoid exacerbating conflict but also contribute to peacebuilding and sustaining peace. The document is divided into two parts: the first covers key concepts and practice, while the second focuses on operationalising these approaches. The guidance is particularly relevant for M&E practitioners working in fragile and conflict-affected settings, offering step-by-step strategies to improve the impact of interventions.

Key features

• Two-part structure:
  • Part 1. Concepts and Practice, which defines conflict sensitivity and peacebuilding, and presents three steps for conflict sensitivity: understanding the context, analysing how activities interact with peace and conflict, and adapting activities to manage risk interactions.
  • Part 2. Operationalizing Conflict Sensitivity, Peacebuilding, and Sustaining Peace, which elaborates five practical steps for UN activities: understanding the peace and conflict context, analysing interactions, managing risks, leveraging peace opportunities, and monitoring and evaluating conflict sensitivity.
• Monitoring and evaluation focus (Step 5): The final step, Monitoring and Evaluating Conflict Sensitivity, provides tools to assess the impact of activities on peace and conflict dynamics.
• Conflict sensitivity and peacebuilding indicators: Under step 5, specific indicators are provided to assess the interaction between activities and conflict dynamics, ensuring that M&E frameworks capture the influence of interventions on conflict settings.
• Do No Harm: The guidance emphasises not only the Do No Harm principle but also the importance of proactively contributing to peacebuilding, aiming to create conditions for long-term stability and sustainable peace.
• Theories of change: The document provides guidance on formulating theories of change to explicitly link programme activities with peacebuilding outcomes. It recommends developing these theories early in the programme design process to identify how interventions can address conflict drivers, mitigate risks, and promote sustaining peace. Theories of change should be revisited regularly to adapt to shifting conflict dynamics and ensure ongoing relevance.
• Additional resources for each step: The document includes Additional Resources sections under each step, offering links to useful handbooks, tools, and online training opportunities for further learning. These resources, such as conflict analysis tools and online training modules from UNICEF and other UN agencies, provide practical support to staff implementing conflict-sensitive approaches.
• Practical tools for risk management and peacebuilding: The guide offers concrete tools for conflict analysis, theory of change, peacebuilding markers, and monitoring frameworks, all designed to support adaptive management in unstable contexts.

How would you use the resource?

M&E practitioners can use this guide to embed conflict sensitivity into programme design, implementation, and monitoring. Step 5 on Monitoring and Evaluating Conflict Sensitivity offers practical tools and indicators for assessing the impact of interventions on conflict and peace dynamics. Additionally, the Additional Resources sections provide access to handbooks, toolkits, and training, which can help practitioners strengthen their capacity to manage risks and leverage opportunities for peace.

Why are we recommending it?

This resource provides a structured and detailed approach to integrating conflict sensitivity into programming, making it a valuable tool for M&E practitioners working in FCV settings. Its clear framework for monitoring and evaluation, along with practical tools for conflict-sensitive programming, ensures that users can design activities that both do no harm and contribute positively to peace.