Working Better Together in a Team Europe Approach

The Humanitarian-Development-Peace Nexus (HDP-Nexus) aims for collaboration, coherence and complementarity between humanitarian, development and peace actors.

It seeks to capitalise on the comparative advantages of each pillar – to the extent of their relevance in the specific context – in order to reduce overall vulnerability and the number of unmet needs, strengthen risk management capacities and address root causes of conflict. This chapter should be read in conjunction with the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee’s Recommendation on the HDP-Nexus⁶⁰, bearing in mind the UN’s efforts to move towards a new way of working together following the outcomes of the 2016 World Humanitarian Summit⁶¹. In its 2017, in its Conclusions on operationalising the human development nexus⁶² (which subsequently became the Humanitarian-Development-Peace Nexus, as peacebuilding was identified as critical to successfully interlinking humanitarian and development work in fragile contexts), the Council recognised that short-term humanitarian relief, medium- to long-term development cooperation, and conflict prevention and/ or peacebuilding approaches and diplomacy, are all required to effectively work together in fragile and crisis contexts. Based on lessons learned and good practices from several pilot countries, the EU has developed a specific methodology for implementing the Nexus process. In 2019, the EU adhered to the OECD DAC recommendation on the HDP-Nexus, which highlights 11 principles across strategic coordination, joint analysis, joint programming and more flexible multi-year financing. In 2022, the Czech Presidency of the Council, in close collaboration with the EU, elaborated a guidance paper, ‘Good practices in the operationalisation of the HDP-nexus’.

Building on the EU methodology and the DAC recommendation, this paper identifies six steps for effective implementation of the Nexus: (i) coordination mechanisms (including joint advocacy); (ii) joint analysis of root causes; (iii) joined-up planning and programming; (iv) supporting peace-building efforts; (v) appropriate financing mechanisms, and (vi) joint monitoring and evaluation⁶³.

60 https://legalinstruments.oecd.org/en/instruments/OECD-LEGAL-5019
61 https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/842411
62 https://www.consilium.europa.eu/media/24010/nexus-st09383en17.pdf
63 https://data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/ST-15274-2022-INIT/en/pdf