Image Source: "Smoke from artillery fire in Yemen (1994)," Wikipedia Commons.

Cause: Conflicts are brought about by entities who are usually fighting over territory or land. The conflict managment phases are needed because civilians are often caught in the middle of these battles, and need protection, as they flee from place to place.

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Effect: The end result of implementing the guidelines of these different phases is a structured management plan, during the conflct. The result provides a means to assist in the reduction of life, provide safe areas from the conflict, and provide for the needs of the people.

Image Source: "Wells provide substanabilty during and after conflict," Stockcake.

Conflict Phases

 ***Humanitarians assess the location and the needs of those displaced at the begining, during and after the conflict, continuously, because conflict events change often. 

• ​​​Mitigation: Humanitarians reduce the affects of the conflict by collaborating with governmental and conflicting entities to ensure all follow the International Humanitarian Law (IHL). (1) Another means of reducing conflict is via the Geneva convention. It provides a way of mediation between those who are in the conflict and, in turn, may possibly eliminate the conflict, all together. If these avenues fail, many Humanitarians often try to interject by asking for a 'ceasefire' or reduction of sanctions so that people receive aid. If these advocacies are adheared to by all entities, then this will decrease injuries, reduce casualites, provide safe corridors, and prevent the decrease of distributing goods and services.

• Prepare: The Humanitarian prepare by identifying the stages and type of groups in the conflicts. The phases are when the conflict is beginning, stablizing, escalating, in the process of peace or have completely de-escalated. This is based on the entities, such as state-based conflict, one-sided conflict and non-state conflict. (2) Hence, they have plans prepared to effectively react to these levels and groups, so that they can negotiate movement and diminish the negative effects from the conflict. This ensures that they can effectively locate, protect and provide safe havens for themselves, displaced people and for the transportation of goods and services (land, air, sea). This includes conserving supply areas as needed during conflict.​

• Response: Humanitarians collaborate with the government, conflicting entities, and other humanitarain organizations to provide food, water, shelter, etc. to those displaced. This is accomplished by determining the capacity of the evalcuation centers, displaced tents, vehicles, and hospitals for the distribution of the supplies; the time and distance to get to these places; and provide assess, if applicable, to border crossing to receive or distribute aid.

• Recovery: Depending on the country the recovery stage can last for years. This phase focuses on bringing or maintaining a way of life when they flee to other areas. However, conflict areas change, constantly, therefore they are often uprooted, hence maintaining their original way of life can be difficult. Humanitarians remain aware of this by collaborating with government officials and the International Community to assess the stituation (i.e. providing safe refuge, protect infrastructure, constructing water wells, providing housing, supplying temporary tents, education, sanitation, etc.).