Join us for the Belfast launch of the Christian Aid/Mitchell Institute report, “Integrating Conflict Prevention in Humanitarian Resilience Programmes,” based on preliminary fieldwork conducted in Burundi, DRC, South Sudan, and Myanmar.  Dr Julie Norman (previously QUB now UCL) and Drew Mikhael (QUB) are the authors of the report. This research was designed to assess the integration of conflict sensitivity and prevention in humanitarian resilience programmes with the aim of building resilience in conflict settings.

Findings indicate that conflict analysis can help to enhance the conflict sensitivity of resilience programmes by contributing to understanding of how the conflict context and the resilience programmes interact.  This understanding helps aid organisations, local partners, and communities work together to maximise the positive potential of programmes in conflict settings while minimising potential negative outcomes, especially those that further contribute to conflict.

The participatory element of Christian Aid’s Integrated Conflict Prevention and Resilience (ICPR) approach is especially crucial for enhancing local conflict sensitivity and resilience.  The integrated approach starts with conflict analysis, including local level (the immediate setting of targeted communities) and ‘macro’ (national/provincial) conflict dynamics, to help distinguish which conflict issues are highly local and which link to higher-level dynamics. 

The conflict analyses support the design of the Participatory Vulnerability and Capacity Assessment (PVCA), a participatory process in which communities identify risks, potentially including risks of violent conflict, which may generate humanitarian needs.  Crucially, the PVCA process also helps communities to identify their own capacities and create a plan to address risks or advocate for assistance to do so.  However, further steps are needed to achieve conflict prevention, through identifying specific conflict risks and designing proactive measures that directly address them.

The authors would like to thank those who contributed to the research process including all Christian Aid staff and local partners in Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Myanmar and South Sudan.

This event is hosted by the Mitchell Institute and Christian Aid.