Context and Conflict Analysis

Some people suggest that a clear distinction needs to be made between “context” and “conflict” analyses. Is this so?

A conflict analysis is one type of context analysis for a specific topic, just as an economic analysis or a political analysis is. All of these analyses (and others) use different tools in order to arrive at a specific analysis. None of these sectoral analyses covers every topic.

It is true that a context analysis can seem overwhelmingly broad. After all, everything can go into a context analysis. How do you know what is important or not? Many of the available tools in use today for context analysis attempt to be all-inclusive and, as such, they are ill-suited for generating a practical understanding. The tools themselves are too broad. This is because they do not differentiate what is important for the purposes of a given intervention.

This is why all analysis tools should have clear and well-defined categories that get at what is important for the specific analysis of impacts on that context. A conflict analysis tool, therefore, should focus on what is important to know about the conflict so that the analyst (or the analyst’s organization) can have an impact on the conflict. By the same token, a context analysis should focus on what is important to know about the context in order to have impacts on it.

Dividers and Connectors Analysis (DCA) is a context analysis tool, not a conflict analysis tool. In the broad collaborative learning of the early Do No Harm Project, experience consistently showed that understanding the two factors—what issues divide people and how people’s interests and goals are connected—provides a comprehensive, but practical, map of a context on which interventions have impacts. Social dynamics exist in all contexts where people interact.

Limiting DCA to conflict situations or limiting the factors to be considered (i.e. treating DCA as a conflict analysis tool) binds it unnecessarily. Indeed, DCA often reveals elements of a context that are not about conflict per se, but do contribute to the tensions or connections people feel.

The results of a DCA can be refined, if necessary, by adding subsequent categories or filters. Using a conflict analysis to overlay the Dividers and Connectors can be a useful way to understand key driving factors of a conflict.

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