HUMANITARIAN TAKEAWAYS: TRIPLE NEXUS |
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Dear friends of CHA,
The seventh issue of Humanitarian Takeaways is finally here! This time we are putting the focus on the Humanitarian-Development-Peace Nexus – also known as HDP Nexus or the Triple Nexus, – a concept still full of mystery, despite being introduced in 2016 (time flies!)
Our selected research articles and reports explore various aspects related to the Nexus: the systemic risk management as a contribution to the Triple Nexus; Nexus from the local feminist perspective; the connection between climate change and the Triple Nexus; as well as the 'peace' dimension of the Triple Nexus.
With respect to the featured blog articles, they discuss experiences from Iraq, South Sudan, and Somalia, and include reflections on the relationship between the Nexus and the humanitarian principles, Nexus-related solutions to climate change induced problems, as well as Nexus funding. As usually, we have also selected a few resources – this time they include a Triple Nexus explainer, a podcast series, and a learning platform.
In case you have missed our previous issues and would like to catch up, they are all on the CHA website. We wish you an insightful reading and really hope that you will find these takeaways helpful. As always, we would be happy to receive any feedback or suggestions that you might have!
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Research articles and reports |
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By Katie Peters, Nancy Balfour, and Diego Osorio (ODI, 01/2023)
Article length: 10 pages
(Sub)topics: systemic risk management; DRR; Nexus; natural disasters; peacebuilding
This policy brief explores the role of systemic risk management* as a starting point to a more aligned and comprehensive approach to the Triple Nexus. The authors note that there is a need for action specifically on the intersection of disaster risk reduction (DRR) and peacebuilding, a progress area also identified within the interim progress review of the HDP principles. According to the authors, 'if [it is] successful, systemic risk management provides an improved vantage point to identify and catalyse DRR-peacebuilding collaborations' (p. 3).
For this, work needs to take place so that coherent and consistent terminology is employed by different technical experts, and the starting point should be a genuinely comprehensive understanding of risk. Additionally, financial incentives are required for collaboration, which includes integrating DRR outcomes and conflict and peacebuilding programmes, and vice versa. Beyond that, networks between DRR and peacebuilding actors need to be established, and Nexus literacy should be promoted by focusing on enhancing technical capabilities. Finally, the authors address the need for advocacy (within the Agenda 2030 monitoring processes) to emphasise potential contribution of systemic risk management to the Triple Nexus, including the connections between DRR and peacebuilding.
* The authors conceptualise systemic risk management as a way to 'recognise, connect, and articulate interrelated risks spanning different sectors and stakeholders' (p.3).
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By Niki Ignatiou and Alice Ramsay (ActionAid UK, 11/2022)
Article length: 28 pages
(Sub)topics: Nexus; gender; feminist humanitarian action; women’s rights organisations (WROs); women-led organisations (WLOs); Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) agenda; Haiti; Lebanon; Myanmar; Somaliland
This research aims to bring new insights into the Triple Nexus debate by drawing on the experiences of women’s rights organisations (WROs) and women-led organisations (WLOs) in Haiti, Lebanon, Myanmar, and Somaliland. In total, 53 key informant interviews and 18 focus group discussions were conducted; and 178 women leaders, WROs, and WLOs participated in the quantitative survey data collection.
According to this research, although gender equality is a significant area of overlapping commitments between humanitarian, development, and peace actors, the international community is still failing to integrate a gendered perspective into the Nexus. At the same time, while the international community is still struggling with the Nexus, WROs and WLOs are, and have been, implementing a ‘Nexus approach’ within their communities.
The research emphasises that the lack of gender transformative programming makes it harder for development and peacebuilding activities to be meaningful, and thus important opportunities for change are wasted. As noted by the authors, ‘working closely with WLOs and WROs is not only the morally right way to work in humanitarian action but also produces higher quality programming, policy and impact’ (p. 22).
Furthermore, the research problematises several issues related to the operationalisation of the Nexus: the lack of contextual knowledge by the international actors; WROs and WLOs having to meet specific donor requirements to receive funding; the diversion of funding from gender issues; the inflexible, short-term, and siloed funding modalities; transfers of risk to local actors without transferring the resources; as well as the lack of donor accountability. Moving forward, the authors stress the need to meaningfully include and recognise local women leaders and their organisations at the international level. Patriarchal societal norms inhibit access to certain spaces and processes, and institutional barriers – like international actors' requirements with respect to resources or language – constitute barriers to meaningful participation.
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By Rodrigo Mena, Summer Brown, Laura E. R. Peters, Ilan Kelman, and Hyeonggeun Ji (11/2022)
Article length: 17 pages
(Sub)topics: Nexus, peace, climate change, disasters, disaster risk reduction (DRR)
This paper by is based a critical literature review and synthesis with respect to the Triple Nexus, including its peace element, as well as the connections among disasters, climate change, and the Triple Nexus / peace. The authors argue that climate change, including disaster risk reduction (DRR), should be integrated into the Triple Nexus rather than be added as a separate or stand-alone stream. The article demonstrates how the Triple Nexus already incorporates DRR, and how DRR already incorporates addressing climate change impacts (e.g., with anticipatory action). By contrast, adding climate change as additional stream might and exaggerate the role of climate change in disasters and conflict, weaken the ability to effectively integrate and link climate change to existing Nexus initiatives, and create new silos.
The authors point out that two scientifically unsupported justifications fuel the idea of adding human-caused climate change as a separate stream into the Triple Nexus: 1) the assumption that climate change is creating and will create more disasters, and 2) the assumption that climate change is creating and will create more conflicts.
Regarding the relationship between the Triple Nexus, human caused climate change, and disasters (1), drawing on preexisting research, the authors underline that disasters result from the interaction between hazards and vulnerabilities, and therefore are the result of mismanagement, as opposed to being 'natural'. Therefore, 'long-term development investments, including climate change adaptation and mitigation incorporated within wider contexts, can reduce the need for sudden urgent emergency relief if the root causes of vulnerability are tackled' (p. 328). Humanitarian action, in the meantime, can respond to short-term needs and lay foundations for integrating climate change adaptation and mitigation into long-term development investment. According to the authors, the Humanitarian-Development Nexus 'gains substantially by encompassing DRR, which in turn encompasses human-caused climate change' (p. 329).
Regarding the role of conflict, peace, and diplomacy in the Triple Nexus (2), the authors discuss preexisting research and conclude that the effects of climate change on conflict might be overestimated, and it is the systems and politics that primarily determine and influence conflict. Drawing on the experiences in the areas of disaster/climate diplomacy and environmental peacebuilding, the authors underline that 'the processes (i.e., how decisions are made and implemented) in addition to discrete outcomes underpin contributions to peacebuilding' (p. 331).
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By Carina Böttcher and Andreas Wittkowsky (12/2021)
(EN: 'Give „P“ a chance: Peacebuilding, peace operations, and the HDP Nexus')
Article length: 38 pages
(Sub)topics: Nexus; peace operations; UN Peace and Security Architecture; 'small p' and 'big P'
This ZIF study aims to contextualise and deepen the understanding of humanitarian, development, and peace discourses and situate them within the general debate on networked or comprehensive approaches. To this end, it first examines the Triple Nexus, including its earlier debates, core elements, implementation, controversies, as well as the extent to which peace has been included as an equal third pillar of the Triple Nexus. Furthermore, the study analyses the UN's Peace and Security Architecture, peace operations, and their connections to the Triple Nexus. By doing this, the authors identify common questions in order to consider how to better connect these two discourses.
The authors maintain that the Triple Nexus is mainly discussed in development cooperation and humanitarian action, whereas peace and security actors remain underrepresented. Overall, there is little agreement on the 'peace' pillar, which in the UN system includes security actors and peace operations. In terms of the 'peace' pillar, the authors differentiate between 'small p' and 'big P'. For humanitarian and civil society organisations, the 'peace' dimension often consists of what is referred to as 'small p': supporting political processes that promote societal peace and social cohesion through development policies that are conflict-sensitive. By contrast, the 'big P' refers to high-level political dialogues, diplomatic initiatives, or peace operations, and the actors that are mainly concerned with the 'big P', as well as security aspects, are hardly present within the Triple Nexus approach. As far as they belong to the UN system, the reform of the UN Peace and Security Architecture is their anchor point.
The authors underline that when humanitarian crises are accompanied by smouldering or open conflicts, it is often not sufficient to promote peace solely in the sense of a "small p". Here it is important to link activities on the project level with the goals and actors of the "big P".
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By Imrul Islam, advocacy manager for the Norwegian Refugee Council in Iraq (HPN, 30/05/2023)
Against the backdrop of the ending UN’s stewardship of humanitarian aid in Iraq, Imrul Islam from NRC reflects on future assistance to Iraq. While breaking silos between humanitarian and development assistance is important, large-scale development projects tend to target people based on feasibility rather than vulnerability. Additionally, a ‘whole of society’ approach does not always benefit everyone, since not all who need support across Iraq are in the same phase of recovery. Considering this, a ‘Compact for Iraq’ could be a follow-up document to Iraq’s transition strategy, identifying key areas of need, sources of funding, and lines of state responsibility.
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By Jacob Mbudzi, humanitarian practitioner in South Sudan (CHA, 24/01/2023)
Jacob Mbudzi, a frontline humanitarian and development practitioner in South Sudan, outlines the difficulties encountered when promoting an innovative solution to climate change-induced problems. If innovations are proposed by humanitarian actors on the ground, local actors bear the risk alone. Success, on the other hand, is quickly attributed to all. Influencing development policies and humanitarian action from the bottom thus feels like ‘an almost insurmountable task’.
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Interview with Muktar Hassen, Oxfam Somalia, by Jessica Fullwood-Thomas (Oxfam, 09/05/2022)
In this interview, Jessica Fullwood-Thomas talks with Muktar Hassen who is Emergency Food Security and Vulnerable Livelihoods Advisor at Oxfam Somalia, with responsibility for Nexus and Resilience. Mr Hassen discusses the 2017-18 East Africa food crisis which was a wake-up call that pure humanitarianism did not work any more. Therefore, Mr Hassen and his team are trying to create a mindset of 'Triple Nexus as standard practice'. Furthermore, donors also need 'to walk the talk' with respect to Triple Nexus funding.
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Is something missing?
Send us your feedback – we are eager to hear it:
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A briefing by ALNAP (2023)
EXplain is a series of briefings published by ALNAP to distribute knowledge and best practices in the humanitarian sector. This issue on the Triple Nexus highlights the evidence on progress on the Triple Nexus implementation to date, including the experiences of investing in Nexus skillsets, and the refugee and forced displacement settings as the strongest examples of coordination between humanitarian and development actors. At the same time, the progress is slow due to the lack of success criteria and leadership buy-in; confusion over what the Nexus looks like in practice and how best to operationalise it; siloed funding; as well as the confusion and difficulties related to the 'peace' component. In addition to this, the briefing also discusses the role of local actors as key for the Nexus implementation and addresses climate as a potential fourth dimension to the Nexus.
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A podcast series by IASC Results Group 4 (2022)
The podcast series 'The Nexus Collection', offered by the Inter-Agency Standing Committee Results Group 4, addresses forced displacement, protection, and anticipating disaster – all in connection with the Triple Nexus. Additionally, it also provides insights into the platform of the Nexus Academy.
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An initiative by DAC-UN Dialogue
The Nexus Academy is a DAC-UN Dialogue initiative provided by the UNDP Crisis Academy. The platform offers information, learning material, and practical insights, with various free course modules designed to help develop a common understanding of Nexus approaches across the humanitarian, development, and peace pillars.
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