Description
Deep into the 21st century, conflict remains the greatest driver of humanitarian needs as well as the main impediment to principled humanitarian action. Contemporary conflicts are characterised by the erosion of IHL, the manipulation of humanitarianism by political actors and, increasingly, the use of food as a weapon of war. As the world’s largest humanitarian agency, WFP operates in many contexts where it risks getting caught up in political/military dynamics and inadvertently exacerbating the very conflicts it seeks to mitigate. WFP has therefore committed to a “conflict sensitive” approach, meaning it will endeavour to: understand the contexts it operates in; understand the interactions between its interventions and those contexts; and use this knowledge to minimise negative impacts and maximise positive impacts on conflict. WFP’s 2023 corporate Conflict Sensitivity Mainstreaming Strategy will equip staff with the capacities to recognize and mitigate conflict sensitivity risks. Recognising that such risks can arise from any part of a humanitarian operation, the strategy adopts a whole-of-organisation approach, establishing pathways to build capacities and mainstream conflict sensitivity across programmes and operation. This paper will explore WFP’s adoption of conflict sensitivity as a minimum standard, as well as the process and intended impact of its new strategy.
