Conflict and Development  | | War victims in Sudan receiving relief
supplies from USAID – Widespread,
deadly violence now affects nearly
60% of the countries in which USAID
operates. | A peaceful, stable world is a key foreign policy priority for the United States. Yet violent conflict and instability are widespread in the developing world, affecting almost 60 percent of the countries in which USAID operates. Many of the most important causes of violence, extremism and instability – such as stagnant or deteriorating economies, weak or illegitimate political institutions, or competition over natural resources – are the central concerns of aid. Development assistance must take this into account. Therefore, the Office of Conflict Management and Mitigation (DCHA/CMM) was created to change the way aid is planned and implemented.
Strengths of The CMM Office
Cost-Effective Strategizing
Rather than develop and sponsor new, stand-alone activities, DCHA/CMM helps USAID Missions and partners do more to address conflict with resources that are already available.
DCHA/CMM also collaborates extensively with other U.S. Government agencies such as the State Department and the Department of Defense. These new partnerships have formed the basis of building government capability in the Global War on Terror.
Cross-Cutting Capabilities
DCHA/CMM’s operational reach is global and cross-cutting, extending to all USAID missions, geographical bureaus, and sectors. A key part of DCHA/CMM's mandate is to integrate or ‘mainstream’ best practices of conflict management into more traditional development sectors such as democracy and governance, economic growth, natural resource management, security sector reform, social development, and peace building.
Innovative Thinking and Design
DCHA/CMM seeks to put innovate ideas and greater creativity into USAID’s work so that the agency may better understand and respond to conflict. The office is supporting USAID missions by developing a series of toolkits, to help clarify the relationship between areas of development work such as youth programming and livelihoods development, and to recommend policies and project designs to address these issues. To learn more about these publications, see our Toolkits Page.
Learn more about what we do... | 
