Guide to context analysis: Informing FAO decision-making – Approaches to working in fragile and conflict-affected contexts

This FAO guide focuses on context analysis in fragile and conflict-affected settings, offering a structured approach for designing conflict-sensitive interventions.

It provides tools for causal, conflict, and stakeholder analysis to help assess impacts on key sectors like agriculture and natural resource management.

This guide developed by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) aims to support context analysis in fragile and conflict-affected settings. While the guide is primarily intended for FAO’s decentralised offices, it offers valuable insights for other M&E practitioners working in similar environments. The guide provides a structured methodology to document and institutionalise knowledge of local contexts, essential for designing conflict-sensitive interventions that align with FAO’s mandate. This is particularly important in regions where conflict disrupts agricultural production and natural resource management.

Key features

• Structured approach for context analysis: The guide outlines key steps for context analysis, including a country overview, causal analysis, stakeholder analysis, and conflict lines. Each section includes the purpose, process, and guiding questions to help users understand conflict dynamics and assess the impact on FAO’s areas of intervention.
• Causal and conflict analysis: It emphasises the need to understand structural causes of conflict, conflict drivers, and peace drivers. This analysis is crucial for ensuring that interventions do no harm and can actively contribute to peacebuilding.
• Stakeholder analysis: The guide offers tools to map key actors and analyse their influence on the conflict. It encourages practitioners to consider gender, minority, and vulnerable groups when assessing stakeholders.
• Impact on FAO areas of intervention: The resource helps users assess the direct and indirect effects of conflict on agricultural production, rural livelihoods, and natural resource management. This ensures that FAO interventions are responsive to the unique challenges posed by conflict.
• Conflict-sensitive recommendations: The guide helps generate actionable recommendations for FAO’s programming, including strategies for engaging stakeholders, promoting sustainability, and minimising unintended consequences.
• Monitoring and evaluation: The guide highlights the importance of continuous monitoring to adapt programming as the context evolves, ensuring FAO interventions maintain their conflict-sensitive approach throughout the project lifecycle.
• Annexes with practical tools: The guide includes annexes that provide useful tables for conducting a comprehensive analysis, including a grid for Causal Analysis and Contextual Drivers, a table for Stakeholder Analysis, and a table for documenting Conflict Lines. These tools help structure and simplify the analysis process for practitioners.

How would you use the resource?

M&E practitioners, including those outside of FAO, can use this guide to ensure that interventions in fragile and conflict-affected contexts are informed by thorough context analysis. Its structured methodology helps document conflict drivers, assess impacts on key sectors, and develop adaptive, conflict-sensitive recommendations that inform both project design and evaluation. The focus on monitoring evolving conflict dynamics is useful for ensuring interventions remain relevant and responsive.

Why are we recommending it?

This resource offers a clear, adaptable framework for conducting context analysis in conflict-affected settings. While designed for FAO’s decentralised offices, its practical tools and approaches make it a valuable asset for any M&E practitioner seeking to implement conflict-sensitive interventions in fragile contexts.