KUNO publications

Linking Thinking: Why is it so hard and what can we do about it? Reflections on current debates on the humanitarian development and peace Nexus

For decades, the international aid community has recognised the importance of strengthening collaboration, coherence and complementarity between humanitarian, development and peace efforts. This ‘linking thinking’ is important since different types of aid are operating alongside each other, as environmental, crises, and poverty trends are increasingly overlapping.

The publication

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About the publication

In 2019, KUNO published a paper on the ‘Nexus’ between international, humanitarian, development and peace efforts. The paper aims to find out whether the latest round of ‘linking thinking’ has overcome hurdles encountered by similar efforts over the past three decades. 

By providing a historical perspective, this paper reveals four key challenges that have persisted through previous iterations of ‘linking thinking’. The new wave of collaborations, which started in 2015, saw important shifts in what, who and how collaboration between humanitarian, development, and peace efforts will take place. This includes aid becoming more people-centred rather than state-centred by focusing on those left behind. While significant steps are being made to overcome the challenges of previous decades, further improvement is still needed. 

Authors

  • Joanna Macrae, former head of international nature financing at the United Kingdom’s s Department of the Environment, Food and Agriculture, current head of Strategy and LEAF at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.