Dilemmas of Development, Humanitarian and Peace Building Work in Conflict

From Peacebuilding

Contents 1 Purpose 2 Time 3 Participants 4 Materials 5 Process

Purpose

To explore the dilemmas of development, humanitarian and peace building work in conflict.

Time

30-40 minutes, more if needed.

Participants

Any number. This activity works better with at least 6-8 participants.

Materials

• Flip chart papers;
• Markers;
• Masking tape.

Process

I) Introduce the activity by stating a simple sentence to stimulate reflection on the interaction between aid assistance and conflict.

Example: Development, humanitarian and peace building programs are likely to affect - and be affected by - the conflict and context where they operate.

Write down the sentence on a flip chart page, visible to all participants.

II) Ask participants to come out with factual statements generated by your statements - these should not be solutions or answers to your sentence, but rather statements that complement it.

Example: Participants come out with statements like:

• Aid agencies that operate their programs unaware of the realities of conflict have a great potential to deteriorate it.
• When aid agencies start getting concerned of how their programs interact with conflict they might loose their impartiality and do something that was not originally their mandate. They might start to play politics.
• International aid agencies often know very little of the contexts where they operate.
• Expatriate staff, who usually retains most of the decision making in programs, are often ignorant of the local realities and conflict, they rarely even speak the language.
• Donors’ guidelines make it difficult for agencies to apply the necessary flexibility in order to respond to the continuous changes originated by conflict.
• Etc.

Take note of all participants’ statements and make a bulleted list.

III) Ask participants to select the most relevant 5 (or 7, 10) statements from the list.

IV) Divide the plenary into work groups of 3-5 individuals. Assign to each group one or more of the statements selected.

V) Communicate the groups’ task: to work on the assigned statement(s) and complete the following six sentences related to each statement:

• Is a consequence of…
• Is similar to…
• Is related to…
• Might lead to…
• Can be solved by…
• It would be better if…

Write down the sentences on a flip chart page for participants to see (better prepare the flip chart page in advance). Ask each group to write down their answer on a flip chart page. Distribute flip chart papers and markers to each group to take note of their findings.

Example: One group is assigned to work on the following sentence: "Expatriate staff, who usually retains most of the decision making in programs, are often ignorant of the local realities and conflict, they rarely even speak the language". Through discussion they come to complete the six sentences as follows:

• Is a consequence of the hiring process in international aid agencies, mostly the fact that agencies look more for staff who are able to spend large resources in a short time and account for it. Qualities like conflict resolution background, capacity to perform conflict analysis and a commitment to learn the local language are too often disregarded.
• Is similar to the fact that also in agencies HQ there are staff who know even less of the local context/conflict and yet take decisions over millions in resources.
• Is related to a paternalistic approach towards development assistance from agencies from the West.
• Might lead to reduced effectiveness of aid programs in the best of cases, misuse of resources and fuelling conflict in the worst.
• Can be solved by different criteria and procedures for hiring expatriate staff; TORs include responsibility for learning the local language; more power to local staff in decision making; Project cycle management having participative processes that are built in.
• It would be better if international aid agencies and donors gave more concrete meaning to the sentence “development cooperation”. Too often this so called cooperation is just a sophisticate way of post-colonialist practices.

VI) After group work ask participants from each group to stick their flip chart papers on a specific section of the room, so that everybody can see them.

VII) Invite representatives from each group to present their work. Induce discussion.