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DO NO HARM

• Local Capacities for Peace Project
• A collaborative effort, inductive and reflective
  learning process involving donor agencies,
  international humanitarian agencies and local
  /field aid workers (from 1992) Triggered by
  events in Eastern Europe Africa
• The framework is a series of steps (a set of
  tools) for systematic analysis of the various
  factors that describe and identify a specific
  context of violent conflict and interactions
  between humanitarian /development assistance and
  the conflict situation
• It helps aid /development workers and donors
  to understand the complex relationship between
  aid and a conflict
• It can be used as a planning, monitoring,
  evaluation and a programme review tool

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O P T I O N S
O P T I O N S
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Lessons Learned

• The Context of Conflict is characterized by two
  sets of realities.
• The Division and Tensions between groups - War
  Interests or Capacities for War
• Surprising and far more interesting - the context
  of conflict is also characterized by things that
  connect the sides at war - local capacities for
  peace.
• Humanitarian/development assistance is given to
  meet emergency /development needs of the client
  communities

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• Lessons Learned Cont
• These needs are, at least in part, created by
  insecurity, warring and or breakdown in social
  institutions
• When aid is given in the context of conflict, it
  becomes a part of that context and either
  reinforces and exacerbates the divisions and
  tensions or supports and strengthens capacities
  for peace
• Even where there is there is no active violent
  conflict development assistance can trigger
  latent conflict into valence
• Not all aspects of the entire Aid have a purely
  positive or a poorly negative effect but only
  discrete elements (details) within it

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Step 1

• Analysis of the
• CONTEXT OF CONFLICT
• Identify and describe the actual (geographical)
  location of conflict where ?
• Identify the conflicting parties, describe and
  name them describe other groups behind the
  scenes and those not actually fighting who?
• Describe how the fighting is organized, and
  weapons used how?
• Describe and quantify the nature and magnitude of
  destruction of property, loss of lives,
  displacements and suffering what?, who?, how
  many?
• Describe the activities which the groups are
  normally engaged in when there is no war daily
  lives, non-war activities
• Find out reasons why the groups are fighting
• Describe, if any, the kind of assistance provided
  by any agency, how it is provided and who are the
  primary and secondary stakeholders
• Ensure that your conflict profile is as detailed
  as possible if your analysis is incomplete, your
  conclusions will be insufficient and your project
  design inadequate

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Step 2

• Identify, analyze, disaggregate and categorize
• DIVIDERS
• The more obvious tensions and divisions or war
  interests in conflict situations are called
  Dividers. These are categorized as follows-
• Systems and Institutions
• Attitudes and Actions
• Different Values and Interests
• Different Experiences
• Symbols and Occasions

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Step 3

• Identify, analyze, disaggregate and categorize
• CONNECTORS
• In the midst of warfare, there continue to exist
  a whole series of things that connect people who
  are fighting. These are called Connectors and are
  categorized as follows-
• Systems and Institutions
• Attitudes and Actions
• Shared Values and Interests
• Common Experiences
• Symbols and Occasions

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Step 4

• Analyze, disaggregate and un pack the elements of
  the
• AID PROGRAMME
• Aid programmes are multi-layered and wrapped up
  "packaged" in organizational policies and
  programmatic issues and decisions. Each and
  every decision has its own effects on the
  dividers and connectors
• 1. Organizational Layers
• The Organizational mandate
• Headquarter Policies and Arrangements
• Fund raising Resource mobilization, allocation
  and donor conditions
• Aid and emergency relief are often provided with
  the best of motives
• to assist people in desperate situations to
  recover their dignity
• to support their efforts to build sustainable
  livelihoods in the future,
• to empower them to challenge injustice.

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Step 4 cont

• Analyze disaggregate and un pack the elements of
  the
• AID PROGRAMME cont.
• 2. Programme Layers
• The usual programme planning monitoring and
  evaluation Questions and Issues
• Why? - Justification
• Where? - Location
• What - Hard /Software
• When? - Time frame
• With Whom? - Partners
• By Whom? - Staffing
• How? - Strategies
• Answers and details for each of these questions
  matter

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Step 5

• Identify and analyze the
• MECHANISMS
• by which Aid interacts with and dividers /
  connectors
• There are two clear patterns in through which aid
  interacts with conflict
• Resource Transfers (RTs)
• Implicit Ethical Messages (IEMs)
• From these patterns and relationships
• anticipate interactions in different settings
• think in advance, on how to avoid the negative,
  conflict-reinforcing impacts
• encourage the positive, conflict-reducing impacts

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Step 5 cont

• Resource Transfers
• All aid programmes involve transfer of some
  resources into a resource-scarce environment of
  conflict
• For the local people, these resources represent
  power and wealth. Hence they become part and
  parcel of the conflict, frequently changing the
  balance of power in the community.
• The five mechanisms include
• Theft, Allocation Effects - Diversion of
  resources
• Market Effects - Distortion of local economy
• Distributional Effects - control of resources
• Substitution Effects - Undermining local
  production and creating dependency syndrome
• Legitimization De-legitimization Effects -
  Manipulation of persons and groups

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Step 5 cont.

• Implicit Ethical Messages
• While the intended message of aid is one of
  compassion and solidarity, the unintended
  messages from the attitudes , conduct and
  relationships of aid workers often reinforce
  violent conflict.
• The LCP Project has identified seven types of
  negative implicit ethical messages
• Arms and Power- Acceptance of the terms of war
• Disrespect, Mistrust - Competition among Aid
  Agencies
• Aid Workers and Impunity Waste of resources
• Different Values for Different Lives and Items -
  Undermining normal, peace-time values
• Powerlessness Not taking responsibility for
  own actions
• Belligerence attitude - Tension, Suspicion
• Publicity unbalanced reporting

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Step 6

• Develop alternative
• PROGRAMME OPTIONS
• The analysis of how a particular assistance
  programme interacts with specific conflict
  through RTs and IEMs, clarifies the impacts of
  aid on the conflict situation
• If the impact is negative i.e.-
• If some aspects of the programme tend to worsen /
  strengthen divisions and or weaken connectors
• If some aspects of the programme seem to be
  missing opportunities to reduce divisions or to
  strengthen connectors
• Develop alternative options-
• Brainstorm
• Take specific local circumstances into account
• Think outside the box
• Be creative and innovative
• Do not generalize
• Cross check ideas and options generated

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Step 7

• REDESIGN
• the Programme
• The process of programme design and redesign must
  be dynamic.
• Conflict itself is dynamic a "divider" today may
  be a "connector" tomorrow and vice versa. The
  process should therefore be interactive and
  repeatedly used to check the effects of the
  programme on conflict
• Look at the complete aid programme in its context
  and identify all the ways in which that aid
  programme interacts with the conflict.
• Think of options, in that context, for delivering
  the same goods without repeating the negative
  impacts and, where possible, enhancing the
  positive impacts.

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Discovering And Enhancing New Capacities For Peace

• In every intense conflict-
• there are people who become involved simply
  because they could see no way out.
• Others remain silent and accept what is done in
  their name because to resistance would demand too
  high a price.
• The compelling sense of group identity in, for
  example, an ethnic conflict, is born primarily
  of fear
• Group / ethnic identity overwhelms other
  sentiments such as morality and friendship with
  members of the enemy group

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AID AND PEACE

• There here are three ways in which Aid can
  strengthen and support both new and existing
  capacities for peace, without drastic changes in
  the aid programmes themselves
• Space
• Aid can provide space for people to act in
  non-war ways, and engage with those in the
  opposing side / s in joint initiatives
• Agencies can encourage people to keep alive the
  hope of a shared future, and perhaps help to work
  towards such a vision
• Voice
• Agencies can use aid to provide a forum where
  peace and cooperation can be discussed
• They initiate discussions on peace and conflict
  resolution in meetings and workshops
• Incentives
• Agencies can use their financial and other
  resources and their access to the wider world and
  to the media, to encourage actions and
  expressions of view which work towards peace.
• They can discourage activities which promote
  hostility.
• They can adopt a clear policy to counter
  war-related propaganda with information
• They motivate people to withdraw their support
  for, and participation in hostilities

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DO NO HARM CHECKLIST

• Envelop questions to check the following
• Impacts on Other Communities
• The relationship between the people your
  organization is assisting and their neighbors
• Effects of Resources on Perceptions and
  Relationships
• Other organization / s or someone else already
  doing similar activities in the same area your
  organization is operating or nearby
• Reactions
• Promotion of tolerance and acceptance
• Risk of Violence
• Assessment of the risks of violence in the place
  where the activities are implemented and in the
  surrounding areas
• Long Term Effects
• The long-term consequences on inter-communal
  relations of these activities in the way you do
  them

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Exercise