Humanitarian crises and conflicts are increasingly protracted in nature and causing the rise of humaniatrian needs. In the last 25 years appeals grew from US$2.3 billion to almost US$40 billion last year.

Against the backdrop of the Agenda 2030 and the “Leave No One Behind” promise, as well as the 2016 World Humanitarian Summit we recognized that it is not enough to address humanitarian needs, but that we need to collectively reduce them. While a humanitarian response is efficient in addressing needs, we also need strengthened development programming and investments into fragile settings to address underlying drivers of need in protracted crises.  

Since that time there has been significant work, both globally and in-country, on the “nexus” between humanitarian, development and peace actions. Strengthened collaboration between humanitarian, development and where possible with peacebuilding partners in country has focused on sharing analysis of risks, needs and vulnerabilities, to set priorities for collaboration with the aim to reduce needs and engaged in joined-up planning and programming towards those outcomes.  At the global level, lessons learned and best practices have been summarized in useful guidance such as: the IASC Light Guidance on Collective Outcomes, the OECD DAC Recommendations on the HDP Nexus, the HDP Companion Piece for the Collaboration Framework or in OCHA’s step by step approach towards operationalizing collective outcomes.

The main objectives of this Priority Topic will be to brief the audience on how different actors from the humanitarian, development and peace community come together at country level or at global fora to strengthen humanitarian-development and peace collaboration with the overall aim to reduce humanitarian needs.