Capacity Development
This section complements the Conflict and Peace Analysis, Programming, and M&E Guides to provide pathways and suggestions to develop the internal capacity of WASH teams and other relevant UNICEF staff.
Purpose
This section complements the Conflict and Peace Analysis, Programming, and M&E Guides to provide pathways and suggestions to develop the internal capacity of WASH teams and other relevant UNICEF staff, as well external capacity, including that of implementing partners and other relevant stakeholders. An internal evaluative review of UNICEF’s approaches to conflict sensitivity and peacebuilding noted that much of this work is outsourced without a clear strategy on how to ‘internalize’ it within UNICEF and that institutional commitment to this agenda must be coupled with a “long-term strategy for in-house capacity development at headquarters, regional office, and country office levels”. The report noted that “staff capacities necessary for peacebuilding and social cohesion is too limited right now for the organization to have a deeper footprint in peacebuilding as a UN agency”.
Conflict sensitivity and peacebuilding are relatively new areas of work for many WASH colleagues, and while many possess highly relevant skills and experience gained through the development and implementation of risk-informed interventions in FCCs, there is a need to ‘upskill’ and equip WASH staff to integrate distinct WASH for Peace approaches practically into their work. UNICEF country offices in FCCs that, through a conflict analysis, identify specific and relevant interactions with WASH that warrant the integration of conflict-sensitive/peacebuilding approaches, must couple programme adaptation with capacity development support to relevant staff and external counterparts as needed.
The Conflict Sensitivity Community Hub (CSC-Hub) is a global network of organizations and individuals working on conflict-sensitive approaches in their field. It provides resources to support conflict-sensitive
programming, including the “How To” Guide to Conflict Sensitivity’ that has informed the content of this Guide
Key considerations:
- Balance specialized external capacity and expertise and outsourcing of specialized activities (e.g. conflict analysis, evaluations) with highly relevant local knowledge and skills – engage national staff, local partners, national counterparts, and participating communities’ experiences and knowledge of the context.
- Leverage diverse capacity and expertise found within UNICEF country offices and sector partners (e.g. social policy, planning, protection, legal, etc.) that can support the multidisciplinary approach required for conflict and peace work, using and adapting as needed the Capacity Development Tool 1 –- Sample WASH Conflict Sensitivity and Peacebuilding Focal Points Guide that accompanies this guide to engage, develop and sustain relevant capacity.
- Tap into the specialist technical capacity embedded in UNICEF and sector partners’ regional and global offices, using the resources and tools included in the Partnerships for Peace Guide & Toolkit to map and identify relevant capacities in the area of intervention.
- Ensure that partners and key technical contractors (e.g. Environmental and Social Safeguarding consulting firms) possess or acquire the minimum required and foundational competencies to uphold conflict-sensitive approaches leveraging and adapting as needed Partnerships Tool 1 – Partner Conflict Sensitivity and Peacebuilding Capacity Assessment Tool Capacity Development Tool 2 – Conflict sensitivity competencies.
- This guide was developed for use as a capacity development resource, as it includes step-by-step guidance and tools that can be used by country offices and WASH teams to accompany a capacity development process. Below is a suggested pathway to develop the capacity of WASH the team and relevant staff.