1) In addition to providing the indicator value, report separately on the percentage of people who experienced conflicts a) at home; and b) in the community.
2) If you conduct aid distributions in several phases (or in several locations), do not wait to conduct the PDM until all distributions are over. Starting with the PDM immediately after the first phase / location will help you identify potential issues and address them in the remaining distributions/activities.
3) If the aid recipients are primarily men (as the heads of households), it is important that such an assessment is also conducted among female members of the household. This can be done by either using a representative survey or conducting (less resource-demanding) in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with randomly selected female relatives of the aid recipients.
4) Consider crosschecking the findings with information provided by other stakeholders who might have experienced conflicts, such as local authorities, sellers, or non-beneficiaries.
5) The indicator can also be phrased in positive terms such as “% of the [specify the assistance] recipients who did not report experiencing any tensions or conflicts due to the provided assistance”.
6) In some contexts, your enumerators might encounter people who experienced physical or sexual violence related to accessing or using the provided assistance. Collecting information about such incidents is sensitive and poses risks to the respondent as well as to the enumerator. Furthermore, people might find it difficult or not be willing to report on the incidence of violence. As a very minimum, adopt the following measures:
- read and apply the Ethical and Safety Guidelines for Implementing the DHS Domestic Violence Module (see attached below)
- ensure that the enumerators are familiar with and carry with them the Constant Companion listing 1) the main DOs and DON’Ts and 2) contacts for relevant service providers that can provide support to people who experienced violence (see at the bottom of this site)
- ensure that all enumerators were trained in the principles of gender-sensitive interviewing and are not from the same communities as the interviewees
- instruct the enumerators to ensure that the interviews are conducted in a place where no one else can hear or observe the respondent (if the enumerators cannot ensure complete privacy, they should skip this part and move to less sensitive parts of the questionnaire)
- instruct the enumerators to reassure the respondent about the confidentiality of their answers
- train the enumerators to quickly switch the topic if during the interview someone comes near the respondent
- train the enumerators in how to close the topic and move to the next part of your survey in a sensitive manner
- ensure that there is emotional support available to the enumerators
7) It is important that the enumerators have the same and correct understanding of what “tension” and “conflict” mean and are able to explain it to the respondents, if required. This must be done in a clear and neutral way, so that it does not influence the respondents’ answer.
