What is the role of international donors in complex conflict settings? How can the providers of humanitarian and development assistance take seriously the impacts they inevitably have on conflicts without overstepping their assistance-focused mandates and without compromising their commitment to political neutrality and impartiality? These questions have been at the heart of the work known internationally as the “Do No Harm Project,” which is a collaborative effort of many UN agencies, donor governments and international and local NGOs begun in the early ‘90s. Through this project, many individuals and institutions involved in international assistance have examined and analyzed the interrelations of international assistance that is given in conflicts to the dynamics of those conflicts. This work has now included over forty conflict areas.

To View the Report (1.25MB)