The humanitarian-development-peace Nexus
- Page updated on18 de April de 2025
Development cooperation, humanitarian action and peacebuilding are related. On the one hand, structural problems such as inequity and injustice can result in political instability and conflict. On the other hand, in complex humanitarian emergencies, without peace it is not possible to find lasting and sustainable solutions to the needs of affected people.
This has been understood as such for many years, and has been reflected in numerous conceptual frameworks, which have evolved over time. This evolution has led us to the humanitarian-development-peace nexus (or Nexus). The Nexus is the interconnection of these three elements to respond to needs, reduce risks and address people's vulnerability more effectively.
Table of contents:
The Humanitarian-Development-Peace Nexus proposes an integration
Although we cannot predict the future, we know that humanitarian crises are becoming more recurrent, that conflicts are becoming more complex and protracted and that these emergencies are exacerbated by environmental degradation and climate change. Therefore, it is not enough to understand the relationship between humanitarian action, development and peace only sequentially.
What the Nexus suggests is that all three elements must be implemented at the same time. We cannot wait until the humanitarian emergency is over to start thinking about long-term development because if the structural problems that led to the conflict are not solved, the conflict will continue. Likewise, it makes no sense to work on development cooperation without anticipating and preparing for an eventual humanitarian response or without trying to maintain peace.
Effectively addressing this requires changes in the way humanitarian and cooperation actors work. The humanitarian-development-peace nexus requires collaboration between actors who until now worked separately and important structural changes in how international cooperation is coordinated, financed and produced.
The new approach is intended to result in a shift in focus from "offering help" to "ending need".
Practical recommendations for applying the Nexus
With the World Humanitarian Summit and Grand Bargain 2016, the link between development, humanitarian and peacekeeping or peacebuilding received a strong push from numerous actors. Thus, the Humanitarian-Development-Peace Nexus was not only raised as a theoretical framework, but also prioritized the development of tools to implement it.
In 2018, the Nexus ended up materializing beyond a conceptual issue into practical guidelines for its application and operationalization by donors. That year, the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which brings together the more than 30 major donor countries, published an agreement for the operationalization of the Nexus with eleven recommendations for better aid coordination, programming, and financing (as well as key actions for each recommendation):
- Analyze the underlying causes and drivers that contribute to conflicts.
- Provide appropriate resources for leadership for effective coordination among humanitarian, development and peace actors.
- Use advocacy and other tools to prevent crises, resolve conflicts and build peace.
- Prioritize prevention, mediation and peace building, investing in development whenever possible.
- Put people at the center, avoiding exclusion and promoting gender equality.
- Ensure conflict sensitivity of actions, so that they do not cause unintended harm and negative consequences.
- Adapt development, peace and humanitarian programs to effectively address the risks present in crisis and conflict contexts.
- Strengthen the capacities of national and local stakeholders.
- Invest in learning and evidence generation.
- Develop funding strategies to ensure effective resource allocation.
- Use multi-year, flexible and predictable financing whenever possible.
These recommendations not only have value in isolation, but connect the need to address the needs of the affected population from peace, development and humanitarian action, with other elements that have been identified as key to humanitarian reform. Thus the Nexus is necessarily connected to localization, community participation and the need for better quality humanitarian financing.
Many organizations have embraced the Nexus, at least in theory.
Since its publication, donors and humanitarian actors have adhered to these recommendations, including NGOs and UN agencies. For example, the IASC adopted the Nexus as a strategic priority from 2018 to 2020. All of this has resulted in a mountain of position papers, guides, guidance documents and even recognized frameworks for collaboration among actors, such as the Global Compact on Refugees, published in 2018 by the United Nations. This level of normative progress is impressive, given the complexity of the issue and the sheer diversity of actors involved.
Many actors have also been able to translate these recommendations into their own way of working. Some of them have reorganized their internal management structures to better integrate the different approaches or have updated their programs and strategies with this vision in mind. Others have prioritized preparedness actions for potential humanitarian emergencies, or have developed tools to improve their conflict sensitivity. Major donors such as the World Bank have also been open to intervening in protracted humanitarian emergencies and countries in conflict.
Why hasn't the Nexus gone even further?
Lack of understanding for practical application
There are still important gaps in the understanding and collaboration between actors, in the participation of civil society in processes and discussions, or in the effective integration of peace into the rest. Likewise, there is still a need for greater understanding of how to deal with the potential problems that may result from the Nexus for humanitarian action. For all these reasons, the humanitarian-development-peace Nexus is sometimes still seen as a conceptual rather than a practical proposal.
There are fears about the possible negative impact of the Nexus on humanitarian action.
Some people have expressed concern that humanitarian action would be diluted into a development and resilience agenda, or that humanitarian principles could be diluted.
On the one hand, if humanitarian actors are perceived in some contexts as collaborators in development actions or peace operations, their work can be effectively compromised. Moreover, peace operations are usually perceived as being directly involved in conflict dynamics, which may clash with principles such as neutrality. On the other hand, development projects are often led by public authorities, which may clash with the principle of independence. If the public and the actors with whom humanitarian organizations must sometimes negotiate access to affected populations perceive a lack of independence or neutrality in them, negotiations may be undermined.
In addition, the Nexus may worsen the funding problems. Basically, if financial resources for international cooperation do not increase, with the same resources with which previously only humanitarian action was done (for example) now peacekeeping and development must also be done. As a result, the protection of the most vulnerable may be compromised.
The Nexus has a confusing rhetoric that makes it difficult to be accepted.
Many people have criticized the vagueness - at least initially - of the approach, the confusing rhetoric, and the difficulty in translating the idea into a concrete practical application. The jokes about how difficult it is to understand the Nexus have been recurrent and reflect the fact that, in many environments, the proposal has been slow to catch on or has failed to do so.
There are also voices that simply ask that this proposal be supported by evidence of effectiveness, and not just apparent good ideas.
It is not easy to integrate the third element of the Nexus: peace.
From the beginning there were concerns about the possible link with military actions in peace processes, as a result of the indefinition of the proposal in the way of understanding peace. There have been tensions between humanitarian action and the Nexus, for example in Mali, where the military forces of the UN peacekeeping mission MINUSMA offered humanitarian projects and services, politicizing and jeopardizing the perceived neutrality of humanitarian actors.
It has been necessary to clarify, first, that "peace" in the Nexus refers to peacebuilding and not to military peace actions. It has also been explained that the most important thing about the integration of peace in the Nexus is possibly the conflict sensitivity of humanitarian actors. This requires to analyze and be cautious of the potential effect that humanitarian actions may have in a conflict zone..
Finally, it has been argued that, in highly politicized and militarized contexts, the Nexus may not be advisable or feasible.
Reforms and changes to the system
External links
- IASC, 2024. Mapping Good Practice in the Implementation of Humanitarian-Development-Peace Nexus Approaches – Synthesis Report.
- ALNAP, 2023. The nexus: current status and discourse.
- IASC, 2023. Guidance Note : Advancing the humanitarian-development-peace nexus approach through IASC global clusters.
- OECD, 2022. The HDP Nexus interim progress review.
- European Union, 2022. HDP Nexus: challenges and opportunities for its implementation.
- The New Humanitarian, 2020. Triple nexus.
- IASC, 2020. Issue paper: Exploring peace within the Humanitarian-Development- Peace Nexus (HDPN).
- IASC, 2020. Light guidance on collective outcomes.
- Oxfam, 2019. The humanitarian-peace-development nexus. What does it mean for multi-mandated organizations?
- UN, 2018. Global Compact on Refugees.
- OECD, 2018. DAC Recommendation on the Humanitarian-Development-Peace Nexus.
English 
Español