Conflict sensitivity: taking it to the next level

Over the past years, the need to adjust any intervention in crisis-prone environments to the particular challenges of fragility and conflict has received growing attention. This awareness has produced critical reflection on the type and modalities of engagement, but is yet to translate into conflict-sensitive action.

Drawing on a retreat organised by Swisspeace in October 2014, a group of leading Conflict Sensitivity experts decided to advance the thinking by taking stock of the current debate and its practical ramifications. The result of this collaborative effort is presented in the working paper "Conflict Sensitivity: Taking it to the Next Level".

In one of its chapters (chapter 3) Senior Research Fellow Anette Hoffmann invites to critically reflect on the underlying assumptions of the current conflict-sensitive business discourse. From there she derives what it would take to close the gap between narrative and practice, stressing, among others, an urgency for the international development community to collaborate with the private sector to build up a business case for conflict-sensitive firm behaviour.