This study explores the portrayal of the climate-conflict nexus in global and national communications on climate change response. It utilizes a qualitative inductive approach and the IPCC AR5 (2014) was chosen to represent global communication documents, while two Afghan communications, the Initial as well as Second National Communication, on climate change and response were used to represent the national level. Through a content analysis, several themes were discerned through which the climate-conflict nexus is portrayed. It can be concluded that there are several differences between the global versus Afghan communication documents, as well as between the Initial National Communication (2012) and the Second National Communication (2017). The Second National Communication overall attempts to mirror the communication used by the IPCC by using the same themes but in a more indirect way. The analysis finds that the climate-conflict nexus is often portrayed through indirect communication and that this leads to a lack of conflict-sensitivity in the Afghan national documents, concluding by making suggestions on how to improve conflict-sensitivity in these documents.

Ensuring that harm does not take place in the work conducted in other countries by the humanitarian and development sector, is vital. However, there still seems to be a lack of research looking into specific conflict-sensitive approaches. The Do No Harm (DNH) framework was developed by Mary B. Anderson in 1999 and in regards to conflict sensitivity tools, the DNH framework is one of the most well-known. Still, there is only a small amount of research that has looked into how the DNH framework has been implemented and the impact that the framework has had in the humanitarian and development sector.  This thesis aims to examine how the DNH framework has been implemented and used by the Swedish development sector. The research is conducted through a qualitative case study of the Swedish development sector and the findings are analyzed through the lens of different policy change theories.  The thesis finds that the Swedish development sector early on was aware of DNH and that the framework quite rapidly was adopted into the sector as a policy instrument. However, it also concludes that the DNH framework has not been fully implemented in the policy objectives or on the ground, which led to the addition of a research question that investigated why the DNH framework had not been thoroughly implemented. Upon looking into the reasons for this lack of implementation, the study finds that the theories of Punctuated Equilibrium and Path Dependency can provide some explanations for this. Further, it can also be concluded that there are improvements to be made in terms of applying the framework on the ground and considering the conflict-sensitive perspective in relation to development work, not only in the humanitarian field.

This thesis explores whether dialogue between a company and a non-profit organisation (NPO) can influence a company’s way of working towards being more conflict sensitive. As a case-study I analysed the dialogue between the French oil and gas company, Total S.A. (Total), and the US based NPO, CDA Collaborative Learning Projects (CDA) relating to the company’s operations in Myanmar/Burma. The objectives of the research were to ascertain if dialogue had a positive impact, and if so, what it was about the dialogue that enabled change, what was the process of change that could be observed and how embedded such change was. Drawing on post-modernism, systems thinking and complexity thinking, I have built on organisational change, conflict transformation, dialogue and cross-sector partnership literature to examine the role of dialogue as an enabler of change. While highlighting parallels in the discourses, I analyse the process and degree of change within the company through two conflict transformation models, one by Lederach (1997) and the other by Lederach, Neufeld and Culbertson (2007), which I feel best synthesise these parallels. The research is a longitudinal case-study (2002-2012), based on semi-structured interviews and document analysis. The study adds to the limited academic research on conflict sensitivity in general, and on the implications for a company’s way of working in particular. Although I find that within the business sector, the notion of conflict sensitivity is assumed in the wider concept of corporate social responsibility, noteworthy is the relevance of dialogue in change processes. Dialogue is an essential enabler as it sparks transformational levers also recognised in the literature reviewed. However it is not sufficient. The research illustrates that the dialogue between CDA and Total has played a critical role in facilitating a shift in the company’s way of working, with the contribution of other influences at play. As such, I draw attention to the complexity of the change process and discuss the current nature of the drivers of change within Total.