The international development programs of political foundations, pursuing long term goals such as citizen's participation, democracy, pluralism and the rule of law, can only be evaluated to a limited extent using classic instruments based on “hard” indicators as applied in technical cooperation programs. Facing these shortfalls, the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) is continuously engaged in improving approaches of project planning, monitoring and evaluation. With view to the variety of subjects covered by FES-programs, priority was given to an issue oriented approach within a field of high political importance: crisis prevention and conflict management. Crisis prevention and conflict management have become a main concern of development cooperation. Within this context, political foundations play a specific role, as their programs promoting democratic transition, civil society and good governance contribute towards the establishment of a framework for stability and lasting peace. Targeted influencing of latent or of acute conflict developments demand an efficient use of instruments, which can only be selected and appropriately combined on the basis of a systematic analysis. This paper intends to give an overview of the procedures and instruments for conflict analysis in the context of political cooperation, as well as first experiences on how the results of the analysis are integrated in a conflict-sensitive project planning process. Furthermore, a number of considerations, which should be taken into account when elaborating instruments for a conflict impact monitoring during the implementation of the projects, are outlined.