For over three decades, the international aid community has recognised the importance of working more closely together, in order to get better outcomes for people affected by ‘natural’ disasters and conflict-related crises. However, achieving this in practice has proved remarkably difficult. What is new in the latest round of ‘linking’ thinking and has it a greater chance of success than previous efforts?
The Humanitarian – Development Nexus is high on the agenda. Again. Discussions about the Nexus lead to strong disputes within the humanitarian sector. Some humanitarian professionals argue they have been working with the Nexus for decades and that we just all should start working on it. Other humanitarian professionals, confronted with the Nexus debate, underline the differences between humanitarian action and development work, and stress the humanitarian principles. All argue the Nexus has been discussed for decades, but did not bring the desired results.
• What can we learn from the discussions of the past decades?
• Is the current context different?
• What are useful ways forward?
• And what is needed for this?
KUNO asked researcher Joanna Macrae to take stock of the ongoing debate and to look forward. This resulted in the research-paper ‘Linking Thinking’ Why it is so hard and what can we do about it? which you can read here.
KUNO organized the presentation of the report ‘Linking Thinking’ on Friday 28 June.
Kick off by: Joanna Macrae.
First reactions by:
- Gerrit-Jan van Uffelen, independent consultant & lecturer Disaster Recovery Management at Van Hall Larenstein University.
- Inge Leuverink, expert emergency preparedness and humanitarian aid at Cordaid.
After that, the findings of the report and necessary next steps with all humanitarian professional present were discussed.
To read the report of this event, click here.
