Programming Tool 8

Purpose

This Tool includes a sample of key messages that illustrate strategic interactions between WASH and conflict, and that capture key themes (resilience, fragility, triple nexus, climate, water security, gender, youth). The messages can be adapted to the operational context and substantiated with context-relevant evidence, and be deployed to support internal and external advocacy and can be used in conjunction with the above Tool 7 –- WASH for Peace Internal & External Advocacy Strategy Canvas).

Conflict and WASH interactions

• Conflicts pose a significant threat to the safety and well-being of children and the number of children directly affected by conflict is massive and increasing; 420 million children (nearly one in five) live in areas affected by armed conflict and fragility and by 2030 this figure is likely to rise by 80 per cent if nothing is done to prevent it.
• Children who live in extremely fragile contexts are three times as likely to practise open defecation, four times as likely to lack basic sanitation services and eight times as likely to lack basic drinking water services.
• Children under 15 in conflict contexts are on average nearly three times more likely to die from diseases linked to unsafe water and sanitation than from direct violence.
• Attacks on water systems directly impact children – when clean water becomes unavailable children are forced to rely on unsafe water, putting them at risk of disease
• Conflict-induced displacement compounds these vulnerabilities and is on the rise – UNHCR estimates that 35 million (42%) of forcibly displaced people by the end of 2020 were children below 18 years of age with the majority of those displaced are fleeing conflict and violence.
• The interplay between conflict, climate change impacts, and the COVID-19 pandemic has worsened the plight of children globally – further stretching WASH systems and services in fragile and conflict-affected contexts and worsening the poverty and inequality that drives fragility and conflict.
• Protracted conflicts are on the rise and are now the main drivers of humanitarian needs –- 80 per cent of all humanitarian needs are driven by violent conflicts and 70 per cent of UNICEF’s resources are spent in conflict-affected or fragile countries. Investing in conflict prevention is not only right, it is also cost-effective - for each 1 US$1 spent on conflict prevention US$16 is saved down the road.

Risk-informed and conflict-sensitive WASH

• Despite good intentions, WASH interventions in fragile and conflict-affected contexts are at risk of unintentionally worsening conflict or contributing to wider conflict dynamics.
• The choice of where to drill boreholes, how to share and manage resources among refugee/internally displaced populations and host communities, whether to allow water points to be used for crops and/or livestock, how to govern water resources, distribution/access to WASH services in contexts where exclusion is prevalent, can all be contentious issues that if not managed effectively can escalate into conflict.
• WASH interventions that do not systematically consider how programming decisions can intersect with larger social, political, economic, cultural and environmental factors can contribute to, or exacerbate, conflict dynamics.
• WASH-relevant conflict analysis is paramount to determine how WASH interventions may exacerbate tensions and conflict, or potentially address and resolve these issues.78
• Conflict sensitivity is a minimum requirement for UNICEF programming in fragile and conflict-affected contexts (FCCs) and particularly relevant in humanitarian action where conflict-sensitive approaches are essential to avoid doing harm through quick and ill-informed interventions.

WASH for Peace

• WASH can be a powerful catalyst for peace – the OECD has identified WASH as a ‘politically neutral’ service system, which can serve as a platform for social cooperation and partnerships between citizens and government.
• WASH can serve as an important ‘peace dividend’ if associated with the cessation of violence and as an outcome of a peace process or agreement between divided communities.
• WASH services offered as peace dividends can: reduce social tensions through the provision of tangible, needed services, create incentives for non-violent behaviour and support state-building efforts at critical points in the peace process.
• WASH provides unique and valuable opportunities to address not only the impacts, but also the drivers of fragility and conflict. Global crises such as climate change, water scarcity and the COVID-19 pandemic have placed a spotlight on WASH as a critical sector and opened space for CSPB approaches as a means to strengthen programming in fragile and conflict-affected contexts.
• Establishing more accountable and transparent mechanisms for WASH governance, bridging state and non-state stakeholders, can lead to more effective water management, and increased trust in the government, thus building vertical social cohesion.
• WASH programming can create incentives for joint action and provide platforms for collaboration that allow community-level trust and horizontal social cohesion to be strengthened.
• WASH programming that identifies and seizes opportunities to prevent and transform conflict can support UNICEF’s contribution to realizing SDG6 and SDG16 in FCCs.

WASH for Peace and Gender

• The integration of a gender lens to the above can amplify the positive impacts of WASH programmes on peace, by reducing the distinct vulnerabilities of women and girls in FCCs and by engaging them meaningfully in the pursuit of inclusive solutions and promoting their role as agents of peaceful change in their communities.
• WASH contributions to peace need to consider the gendered dimensions of peacebuilding. This includes the importance of enhancing efforts to address the power structures, dynamics, roles and relations between women/girls and men/boys.
• The transitional period following violent conflict can present opportunities to address and even transform these dynamics and negative gender norms.
• Sustained peacebuilding results are more likely when equitable gendered rights and positive gender roles and power relations are central aspects of the process. Integrating gender sensitivity and responsiveness can promote the triple and mutually reinforcing dividends of WASH, gender, and peace outcomes.

WASH for Peace and Youth

• One in four of the world’s 1.8 billion young people live in countries affected by armed conflict and organized violence.
• Adolescents and young people experience conflict and perform distinct roles in conflict and peace – programmes and interventions that build their peacebuilding competencies can help to address specific conflict drivers associated with adolescents/youth and/or address intergenerational conflict that impedes their meaningful and constructive engagement in WASH for peace initiatives.
• Young people are powerful advocates and agents of change for sustainable use and management of water, protection of the environment, and brokers of peacebuilding and conflict prevention.