South Sudan has faced many shocks in recent years, including but not limited to continuous cycles of conflict at national, sub-national and grassroots-level, manifested by floods, drought and economic hardships. We have, and continue to have, great need for humanitarian support. Whilst this is important, we know from many experiences that humanitarian interventions can inadvertently aggravate conflict if it is not delivered in conflict sensitivity way.
This is as true for national organisations as it is for international ones. National organisations in many ways have great advantages over international ones when it comes to conflict sensitivity, however; they often have better understanding of the context, can extent services to hard-to-reach locations and are more likely to have the trust of those communities from which they have emerged. In many cases, they are on the frontline of aid delivery, so are most impacted by dynamics on the ground. Yet many national organisations in South Sudan have limited institutional capacity to integrate conflict sensitivity across their programmes, operations, management, partnerships and organizational systems.
Over the last five years, I have worked with many local agencies in different parts of South Sudan, supporting them to develop their conflict sensitivity capacities, first of all in my role with the Conflict Sensitivity Resource Facility (CSRF) and then more recently in my work with the Danish Church Aid (DCA). In addition, one of the initiatives I am proud of is the Conflict Sensitivity Clinic for South Sudan – a national hub that provides hands-on support, knowledge and tools to help national organisations to operate in more conflict sensitive ways.
In this blog, I wanted to share my reflections and lessons learned from these interventions, and propose entry points for strengthening institutional capacities for conflict sensitivity uptake in the future. I hope that these lessons will be useful for colleagues working in similar areas, in South Sudan and beyond.
My Reflections
Leadership buy-in and commitment really matter.
In South Sudan, many national NGOs perceived the concept of conflict sensitivity as a donor-driven thing; a language they had to speak in order to access donor support, including funding and capacity strengthening opportunities. When agencies have this view, it can often lead to only shallow commitment, and a ‘tick-box’ approach. However, when organisations, and leaders in particular, genuinely recognize the importance of conflict sensitive practices, it facilitates much easier integration of concepts and principles into the vision, mission, policies and overall mandate of the organisation. It is really important to work with governing board members and the senior management teams to try to build this awareness and commitment. When this is done, conflict sensitivity capacity strengthening packages can produce results that are sustained.
Conflict sensitivity should be mainstreamed into operating procedures .
One of the challenges we face in South Sudan is that there has been massive staff turnover from national NGOs to international NGOs and UN agencies in search of better enumeration and working conditions. This makes it difficult to sustainably affect change in how an organization operates by providing training only. It is therefore important to try to mainstream the principles of conflict sensitivity into the organizational systems and processes that people use. When I worked with the CSRF for example, we ran a national NGOs mentoring programme which helped organisations to update their policies in order to incorporate conflict sensitivity principles and practices into their standard operating procedures, including the systems and tools they used to develop proposals, implement projects and monitor impacts. This significantly reduced the risks of relying on individual staff capacities, making impacts more sustainable.
Both one-on-one support and group reflections are important .
Allocating sufficient time and resources for one-on-one coaching and mentoring was one of the things I found helpful in supporting staff to adopt conflict sensitivity practices and principles in their daily work. But it is also important to include peer-learning and group reflections sessions among staff within an organisation, as well as encouraging organisations to share learning and experiences with each other. This can help people to learn from others who are in a similar situation, rather than just from people who are offering support from outside.
International NGOs, donors and multi-lateral institutions play an important role .
The role of international NGOs, donors and multi-lateral institutions is critical in shaping and incentivising the uptake of conflict sensitivity in national organisations. The provision of quality, multi-year funding can enable national NGOs to sustainably build their capacity and effectively respond to the evolving and ever-changing conflict dynamics in South Sudan. The current practice of short-term funding cycles, unequal partnership framework and complicated donor requirement limits reflections, learning and meaningful adoption of conflict sensitivity.
Conflict sensitivity tools and guidance should be adapted to the context .
It is crucial to contextualize conflict sensitivity tools to local languages, traditions and customs and local power structures. This enhances contextual appropriateness and realities. Templates and guidelines that are not context-informed may ignore established cultural structures and systems, communal relations, power dynamics and alliances. As Mary Anderson notes in her key book introducing the Do No Harm concept, contextualizing conflict sensitivity tools to local realities improves reliability of context analysis and support evidence-informed programming.
Conflict sensitivity and localization are two side of the same coin .
My final reflection is that localization and conflict sensitivity are deeply interconnected; when done well, they support each other. Localization enforces conflict sensitivity by making sure that local knowledge informs programming. On the other hand, conflict sensitivity promotes localization through inclusive participation of local actors. It is therefore important to recognize that conflict sensitivity is an important competency for localization to take roots in South Sudan.
Conclusion
In this blog, I have tried to capture some of the lessons learned from working with national NGOs in South Sudan. I have noticed that capacity strengthening support that is comprehensive, contextualized and customized can help to support leadership commitment, build systems and improve programming standards for conflict sensitivity. These approaches I believe are more sustainable compared to one-off trainings. Investing in institutional conflict sensitivity offers a pathway for effective and accountable interventions by the national NGOs in South Sudan and, in other conflict affected contexts.
Maring Losimbi Garamoco is a humanitarian, development and peacebuilding practitioner with extensive experience working for national and international NGOs in fragile and conflict affected contexts. He has worked extensively in peacebuilding programming and capacity strengthening initiatives. Maring is interested in advancing conflict-sensitive and locally-led approaches that strengthen resilience and social cohesion. He has strong facilitation, coaching and mentoring skills. Beside his professional practice, Maring has academic interest in the area of conflict, peace and development. He is currently pursuing a master’s degree in peace and development studies in the University of Juba in South Sudan. Finally, Maring is the co-founder of the National Conflict Sensitivity Clinic, a hub that is contributing to conflict-sensitive humanitarian action in South Sudan.
Institutional Support for Conflict Sensitivity Adoption: Lessons from Capacity Strengthening of National NGOs in South Sudan March 17, 2026 Maring Losimbi Garamoco South Sudan has faced many shocks in recent years, including but not limited to continuous cycles of conflict at national, sub-national and grassroots-level, manifested by floods, drought and economic hardships. We have, and continue to have, great need for humanitarian support. Whilst this is important, we know from many experiences that humanitarian interventions can inadvertently aggravate conflict if it is not delivered in conflict sensitivity way. …
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