What is Conflict?

According to GTZ (2002), conflict is defined as:

“A relationship between two or more interdependent parties in which at least one of the parties perceives the relationship to be negative or detects and pursues opposing interests and needs. Both parties are convinced that they are in the right. Conflict is an essential ingredient of social change. What is important is that conflicts should be solved in a peaceful and constructive manner.”

While this is a useful working definition, conflict is an ambiguous concept that takes on different meanings for different groups and in different contexts. There is no standard definition—different communities, donors, and organizations may all have a different view of what it is. Some definitions understand conflict as a negative phenomenon, synonymous with violence. But a broader approach to understanding conflict is also possible, recognizing that differences in interests and opinions between groups are natural and that conflict is present in every society.

The key question is how such differences are expressed and managed. Conflicts may be managed through structures, processes and mechanisms within society that enable the peaceful and constructive management of differences, for example, access to justice, or traditional community arbitration. Conflict becomes violent when parties no longer seek to attain their goals peacefully, but resort instead to violence in one form or another.

 

CARE and Conflict Analysis

Whether a Country Office intends to work directly on the causes of conflict or whether it is ensuring that all of its programming is based on a good understanding of the local conflict dynamics in each country, conflict analysis is an important step in project or program design. It is a key part of conflict sensitivity and can provide not only a better context understand, but also an understanding of the interaction between the intervention and the context.

Conflict analysis can be done at local community level, at provincial level, at national level, or at an international/regional level to capture cross-border dynamics. The issues and dynamics at the national level may be different from those at the local level. While the level of analysis should correspond to the level of programming intervention, good conflict analysis should also seek to find the links between the different levels and understand how they impact on one another. There are many different tools that can be used at each different level, and some are listed in the resources section below. This section focuses on guiding questions for macro (national or regional) conflict analysis.

CARE has not developed standard conflict tools or best practices that are in use across all Country Offices. Much of CARE’s macro conflict analysis is conducted ad hoc, as desk research, and often by consultants. While many of these analyses have been vital to informing CARE programming and program shift, there is also interest across CARE in exploring other macro tools with more emphasis on staff participation that may help in the design of conflict-sensitive programming—particularly in extremely fragile or complex contexts with cross-border and regional dynamics. World Vision has been using a set of conflict analysis tools known as Making Sense of Turbulent Contexts (MSTC), which uses an interactive and participatory workshop methodology to capture the economic and social dynamics of violence and conflict. This is included among the tools below, and, at writing, is being piloted within CARE.

However, Country Offices are mainly conducting conflict analyses to better understand the historical and structural drivers of violent conflict through more traditional desk reviews, key informant interviews and mapping. Recognizing that conflict analysis is still a fledgling field, this section provides some key concepts and questions that should be covered in these analyses, however they are conducted.

 

Analyzing Conflict

Conflict analysis is the systematic study of the profile, causes, actors, and dynamics of conflict. At the macro level, this involves understanding long-term, cyclical and political characteristics of contexts chronically affected by conflict. Understanding conflict is about understanding the background and historical trends/context of a situation, along with the key stakeholders and their views within a given context. However, conflict analysis can be carried out at various levels (community, regional, national) and the issues and dynamics at the national level may be different from those at the local level. It is important to determine the linkages between levels of conflict dynamics as a part of the analysis process.

While conflict is natural and can catalyze positive change, the key question is what drives conflict to escalate into violence. There is an increasing consensus that developmental “business as usual” often exacerbates the situation. It is important to develop a strategy that is sensitive to the conflict environment, and takes into account the underlying causes of conflict and how they can best be addressed.