Conflict Assessment Module

This module will introduce the user to conflict assessment and outline the basic processes for conducting an assessment.

Section

3.1

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THIS MODULE INCLUDES:

Contents (Direct links clickable below)

Interactive Pages

(i.e. Worksheets) will help you…

What is a Conflict Assessment?

What is the use of a Conflict

Assessment?

Why do we conduct a Conflict

Assessment?

When should a Conflict Assessment be

used?

Who should be involved in conducting

a Conflict Assessment?

How do we use a Conflict

Assessment?

Practice conducting a Conflict

Assessment)

Use a practical sample indicator as an

example for the worksheets

If you are interested in gaining a certificate of completion for your study and knowledge of how to conduct a Conflict Assessment, please complete the Interactive Pages, and turn in completed pages to the DM&E expert at the Washington DC office.

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TOOLS IN THIS MODULE

(You can click on the underlined tool to go directly to the location of the tool in this module.)

TOOL 1: Wehr Conflict Mapping Guide

TOOL 2: Hocker-Wilmot Conflict Mapping Guide

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What is a Conflict Assessment? A conflict assessment is a process of analysing the current situation in order to understand the causes and dynamics of the conflict, and to determine possible areas for intervention. This can be done at the country, regional or community level, as appropriate. The assessment process involves an intensive visit to the country/region/community and uses a variety of different methods to gather the necessary information.

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What is the use of a Conflict Assessment?

Allows for deeper understanding of the dynamics inherent in the conflict Helps identify possible needs and opportunities to work in that context

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Tip: There is a difference between conflict

analysis and conflict assessment. A conflict assessment is an exploration of the realities of the conflict and an analysis of its underlying causes. Assessments aim to identify needs and opportunities for programmes or projects as well as determine appropriate strategies.

A CONFLICT ASSESSMENT is undertaken in order to understand and represent a conflict situation and its causes. The conflict assessment aims to identify programmatic needs, opportunities, as well as determine appropriate strategies.

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Why do we conduct a Conflict Assessment?

Ideally, conflict assessment is done prior to implementing a programme/project in the conflict area. This is because the assessment is often what provides the necessary information for deciding whether or not to move forward with the programme/project. Conflict assessment should also be conducted at other times as a way of monitoring the changing nature of the conflict and whether SFCG should be considering additional or different approaches to programming in the country or region.

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Who should be involved in conducting a Conflict

Assessment?

The initial conflict assessment is usually conducted by a team consisting of SFCG headquarters staff or consultants. When SFCG has in-house staff capacity in the country/region, it is important to engage them as well as including local sources who have well-grounded knowledge of the conflict context.

How do we use a Conflict Assessment?

A conflict assessment should include the information below: Conflict context Parties

o Primary: Directly involved in the outcome of the conflict o Secondary: Have an indirect interest in the conflict o Third parties: May

intervene to help resolve the conflict

Causes and Consequences o Interests o Identity o Rights

Importance of the Conflict Assessment in Nepal A conflict assessment was conducted in 2005 in Nepal, where evaluators compiled and analysed the positions, interests and tactics of involved parties. In this way, they were able to map out the situation in the area of intervention in a comprehensive and focused way, ultimately feeding back recommendations for SFCG in Nepal.

Tip: To facilitate conducting a

conflict assessment in a country that is new to the organization, Search For Common Ground usually has some contact(s) in the country/region where it are invited to conduct an assessment. These connections often provide some guidance on groups/individuals with whom to speak.

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o Cultural differences Divergent beliefs and values Goals and Interests Dynamics of a conflict Functions of a conflict Potential for management

With this information, recommendations regarding programming can be made.

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Paul Wehr authored Conflict Regulation in 1979 and in it provided a "Conflict Mapping Guide." This resource aims to provide a clearer understanding of the origins, nature, dynamics, and possibilities for resolution of conflict for both the intervener and the parties in conflict. The map should include the following information:

1. Summary Description (one-page maximum) 2. Conflict History. The origins and major events in the evolution both of the

conflict and its context. It is important to make this distinction between the interactive conflict relationship among the parties and the context within which it occurs.

3. Conflict Context. It is important to establish the scope and character of the context or setting within which the conflict takes place. Such dimensions are geographical boundaries; political structures, relations, and jurisdictions; communication networks and patterns; and decision-making methods. Most of these are applicable to the full range of conflict types, from interpersonal to international levels

4. Conflict Parties. Decisional units directly or indirectly involved in the conflict and having some significant stake in its outcome.

1. Primary: parties whose goals are, or are perceived by them to be, incompatible and who interact directly in pursuit of those respective goals. Where the conflict parties are organizations or groups, each may be composed of smaller units differing in their involvement and investment in the conflict.

2. Secondary: parties who have an indirect stake in the outcome of the dispute but who do not feel themselves to be directly involved. As the conflict progresses, secondary parties may become primary, however, and vice-versa.

TOOL 1: Wehr Conflict Mapping Guide

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3. Interested third parties; those who have an interest in the successful resolution of the conflict.

Pertinent information about the parties in addition to who they are would include the

nature of the power relations between/among them (e.g., symmetrical or asymmetrical);

their leadership; each party's main goals(s) in the conflict; and the potential for coalitions

among parties.

Issues Normally, a conflict will develop around one or more issues emerging from or leading to a decision. Each issue can be viewed as a point of disagreement that must be resolved. Issues can be identified and grouped according to the primary generating factor:

1. Facts-based: disagreement over what is because of how parties perceive what is. Judgment and perception are the primary conflict generators here.

2. Values-based: disagreement over what should be as a determinant of a policy decision, a relationship, or some other source of conflict.

3. Interests-based: disagreement over who will get what in the distribution of scarce resources (e.g., power, privilege, economic benefits, respect).

4. Nonrealistic: originating elsewhere than in disparate perceptions, interests, or values. Style of interaction the parties use, the quality of communication between them, or aspects of the immediate physical setting, such as physical discomfort, are examples.

With few exceptions, any one conflict will be influenced by some disagreement emerging from each of these sources, but normally one source is predominant. It is useful not only to identify each issue in this way but to identify as well the significant disparities in perception, values, and interests motivating each party. (Values are here defined as beliefs that determine a party's position on any one issue [e.g., economic growth is always desirable]. Interests are defined as any party's desired or expected share of scarce resources [e.g., power, money, prestige, survival, respect, level).

Dynamics Social conflicts have common though not always predictable dynamics that if recognized can help an intervener find the way around a conflict. The intervener must seek to reverse some of these and make them dynamics of regulation and resolution. They include the following:

1. Precipitating events signaling the surfacing of a dispute. 2. Issue emergence, transformation, proliferation. Issues change as a conflict

progresses--specific issues become generalized, single issues multiply, impersonal disagreements can become personal feuds.

3. Polarization. As parties seek internal consistency and coalitions with allies, and leaders consolidate positions, parties in conflict tend toward bipolarization that

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can lead both to greater intensity and to simplification and resolution of the conflict.

4. Spiraling. Through a process of reciprocal causation, each party may try to increase the hostility or damage to opponents in each round, with a corresponding increase from the latter. Also possible are deescalatory spirals, in which opponents reciprocally and incrementally reduce the hostility and rigidity of their interaction.

5. Stereotyping and mirror-imaging. Opponents often come to perceive one another as impersonal representations of the mirror-opposite of their own exemplary and benign characteristics. This process encourages rigidity on position and miscommunication and misinterpretation between conflict parties.

Alternative Routes to Solution(s) of the Problem(s) Each of the parties and often uninvolved observers will have suggestions for resolving the conflict. In conflicts within a formal policymaking framework, the options can be formal plans. In interpersonal conflicts, alternatives can be behavioral changes suggested to (or by) the parties. It is essential to identify as many "policies" as possible that have already surfaced in the conflict. They should be made visible for both the conflict parties and the intervener. The intervener may then suggest new alternatives or combinations of those already identified. Conflict Regulation Potential In and for each conflict situation are to be found resources for limiting and perhaps resolving the conflict. The mapping process notes these resources, albeit in a preliminary way. They may include the following:

1. Internal limiting factors like values and interests the conflicting parties have a common, or the intrinsic value of a relationship between them that neither wishes to destroy, or cross pressures of multiple commitments of parties that constrain the conflict.

2. External limiting factors like a higher authority who could intervene and force a settlement or an intermediary from outside the conflict.

3. Interested or neutral third parties trusted by the parties in conflict who could facilitate communication, mediate the dispute, or locate financial resources to alleviate a scarcity problem.

4. Techniques of conflict management, both those familiar to the different conflict parties and third parties and those known to have been useful elsewhere. Such methods range from the well-known mediation, conciliation, and rumor control to fractionating issues and extending the time range to encourage settlement.

Using the Map The conflict map is most useful (and quite essential) as the initial step in conflict intervention. Mapping permits an informed judgment about whether the intervention should continue. The map is also helpful in assisting conflict parties to move back from

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and make sense out of a process to which they are too close. If the mapper decides to further intervene, sharing the map can loosen up the conflict, making it easier to resolve. Finally, the map helps demystify the process of conflict that, for so many people, seems a confusing, unfathomable, inexplicable, and thoroughly frustrating phenomenon.

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The Hocker-Wilmot Conflict Assessment Guide is constructed quite creatively: using only questions as its approach to assessing a conflict. The guide focuses on the nature and styles of conflict as well as the components of power, goals, tactics, assessment, self-regulation and attempted solutions. In this way, the guide aids in drawing a focus to one aspect of conflict and can also serve as a check on gaps in information. The guide is best used over time so that the interplay of conflict elements can be clearly highlighted. The Conflict Assessment Guide can be used in a variety of contexts. Students who are writing an analysis of a conflict can use the questions as a check on the components of conflict. Using extensive interviews with the conflict parties or constructing a questionnaire based on the guide enables one to discover the dynamics of a conflict. The guide can also be used for analyzing larger social or international conflicts, but without interviewing or assessing the conflict parties, one is restricted to highly selective information. Nature of the Conflict

1. What are the "triggering events" that brought this conflict into mutual awareness?

2. What is the historical context of this conflict in terms of (1) the ongoing relationship between the parties and (2) other, external events within which this conflict is embedded?

3. Do the parties have assumptions about conflict that are discernable by their choices of conflict metaphors, patterns of behavior, or clear expressions of their attitudes about conflict?

4. Conflict elements: 1. How is the struggle being expressed by each party? 2. What are the perceived incompatible goals? 3. What are the perceived scarce rewards?

TOOL 1: Hocker-Wilmot Conflict Assessment Guide

(document available upon request)

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4. In what ways are the parties interdependent? How are they interfering with one another? How are they cooperating to keep the conflict in motion?

5. Has the conflict vacillated between productive and destructive phases? If so, which elements were transformed during the productive cycles? Which elements might be transformed by creative solutions to the conflict?

Styles of Conflict

1. What individual styles did each party use? 2. How did the individual styles change during the course of the conflict? 3. How did the parties perceive the other's style? 4. In what way did a party's style reinforce the choices the other party made as the

conflict progressed? 5. Were the style choices primarily symmetrical or complementary? 6. From an external perspective, what were the advantages and disadvantages of

each style within this particular conflict? 7. Can the overall system be characterized as having a predominant style? What do

the participants say about the relationship as a whole? 8. From an external perspective, where would this conflict system be placed in

terms of cohesion and adaptability? 9. Would any of the other system descriptions aptly summarize the system

dynamics?

Power

1. What attitudes about their own and the other's power does each party have? Do they talk openly about power, or is it not discussed?

2. What do the parties see as their own and the other's dependencies on one another? As an external observer, can you classify some dependencies that they do not list?

3. What power currencies do the parties see themselves and the other possessing? 4. From an external perspective, what power currencies of which the participants

are not aware seem to be operating? 5. In what ways do the parties disagree on the balance of power between them?

Do they underestimate their own or the other's influence? 6. What impact does each party's assessment of power have on subsequent

choices in the conflict? 7. What evidence of destructive "power balancing" occurs? 8. In what ways do observers of the conflict agree and disagree with the parties'

assessments of their power? 9. What are some unused sources of power that are present?

Goals

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1. How do the parties clarify their goals? Do they phrase them in individualistic or system terms?

2. What does each party think the other's goals are? Are they similar or dissimilar to the perceptions of self-goals?

3. How have the goals been altered from the beginning of the conflict to the present? In what ways are the prospective, transactive, and retrospective goals similar or dissimilar?

4. What are the content goals? 5. What are the relational goals? 6. What is each party's translation of content goals into relationship terms? How do

the two sets of translations correspond or differ? Tactics

1. Do the participants appear to strategize about their conflict choices or remain spontaneous?

2. How does each party view the other's strategizing? 3. What are the tactical options used by both parties? 4. Do the tactical options classify primarily into avoidance, competition, or

collaborative tactics? 5. How are the participants' tactics mutually impacting on the other's choices? How

are the tactics interlocking to push the conflict through phases of escalation, maintenance, and reduction?

Assessment

1. What rules of repetitive patterns characterize this conflict? 2. Can quantitative instruments be used to give information about elements of the

conflict?

Self-Regulation

1. What options for change do the parties perceive? 2. What philosophy of conflict characterizes the system? 3. What techniques for self-regulation or system-regulation have been used thus

far? Which might be used productively by the system? Attempted Solutions

1. What options have been explored for managing the conflict? 2. Have attempted solutions become part of the problem? 3. Have third parties been brought into the conflict? If so, what roles did they play

and what was the impact of their involvement? 4. Is this conflict a repetitive one, with attempted solutions providing temporary

change, but with the overall pattern remaining unchanged? If so, what is that overall pattern?

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5. Can you identify categories of attempted solutions that have not been tried? Top of the document

Overall, this module can be used by a variety of actors. A consultant to organizations can use the guide by modifying it for direct use. Similarly, an intervener in private conflicts such as those of a family can solicit information about the components of a conflict in an informal, conversational way by referring to the guide as an outline of relevant topics. In either case, care should be taken to modify the guide for the particular task, for the conflict parties, and for your intervention goals. If one is a participant in a conflict, the guide can be used as a form of self-intervention. If both parties respond to the guide, you can use it to highlight what you and the other party perceive about your conflict. Usually, we recommend that a questionnaire be constructed for both persons to answer, and once the data are collected, the parties can discuss the similarities and differences in their perceptions of the conflict. Whatever your preferred assessment technique, or combination of approaches, the assessment devices in this chapter can enable you to see some order and regularity in conflicts that at first appear confusing and overwhelming. With careful assessment, the dynamics of conflict can come into focus so you can fashion creative, productive options for management.

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Additional Resources The following resources are particularly good for the development of goals and objectives. FEWER. “Conflict Analysis”, Chapter 2 of the Resource Pack from FEWER, International Alert and Saferworld programme on conflict-sensitive approaches. http://conflictsensitivity.org/resource_pack.html USAID. Conducting a Conflict Assessment, USAID Conflict Management and Mitigation Office, April 2005. http://www.usaid.gov/our_work/crosscutting_programs/conflict/publications/docs/CMM_ConflAssessFrmwrk_May_05.pdf Wehr, Paul. Conflict Mapping, Beyond Intractability, September 2006. http://www.beyondintractability.org/essay/conflict_mapping/?nid=6793. May 1, 2007.

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