What is the ICAF?
The ICAF is a framework that can be used to help people from different U.S. government departments and agencies work together to reach a shared understanding of a country’s conflict dynamics and consensus on potential entry points for additional U.S. government efforts. This assessment will provide for a deeper understanding of the underlying conflict dynamics in your country or region.
ICAF teams are situation-specific and should include Department/agency representatives with relevant technical or country expertise. ICAF teams are often co-led by the Conflict Prevention division of S/CRS and USAID’s Office of Conflict Management and Mitigation because people in those offices have conflict assessment expertise, but anytime two or more Departments/agencies want to conduct an ICAF, they may do so. Unless they have conflict assessment experience, however, they should request assistance from S/CRS/CP or USAID/CMM.
An ICAF allows an interagency team to identify potential entry points for future U.S. government efforts in conflict prevention and conflict transformation, but it does not make direct recommendations for program design. That is the role of the Sectoral Assessment. Use of sectoral assessments is consonant with use of ICAF in the following ways:
- Results from sectoral assessments performed in the past provide data that is fed into the ICAF
- During a situation assessment, the results of an ICAF identify sectors most critically in need of an in depth sectoral assessment prior to planning, or
- After an ICAF is conducted and a plan has been created, sectoral assessments are conducted to assist in the design of programs.
Download the ICAF Document for more details.
Read Rest of Department of State Overview of ICAF Process
