WeWorld-GVCPrinciples on the Humanitarian, Development & Peace Nexus

May 2020

TITOLO GENERALE

WeWorld-GVCPrinciples on the Humanitarian, Development & Peace Nexus

Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

WeWorld-GVC Nexus principles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Localization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Programmatic Engagement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Adaptable and Shared Context Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Adaptable management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

People’s Informed Decisions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Exit Strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Bottom-up Conflict Sensitivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Foreword

Following the commitment to action made by all major parties involved in international

assistance, during the Grand Bargain at the 2016 World Humanitarian Summit - itself a

culmination of a long process in recognizing the need to consolidate humanitarian,

development and to an extent, peace efforts globally - the Humanitarian-Development-Peace

Nexus (Nexus) came forth as a rallying call to action for all involved in the assistance of those

left most vulnerable to natural and man-made disasters worldwide.

The present document identifies WeWorld-GVC core components that constitute the

organization’s definition of the Nexus and establishes the responsibilities of WeWorld-GVC in

incorporating them in the organization’s activities. WeWorld-GVC emphasizes the need to

commit further; to ensure that real change as a result of the implementation of a Nexus

approach in the structure of the organization and the operationalization in the field, must

always be achieved with the goal of Community Protection at its core.

For more information on the Nexus and further exploration of the concepts and reasoning

behind each of the principles, please refer to WeWorld-GVC - The Humanitarian,Development and Peace Nexus in Brief.

METHODOLOGICAL NOTE

Each principle contains: a) the related OECD Recommendation of reference through highlighted words (Coordination); b) the detailed reasoning sustaining the Principle; c) some quick-win in applying the principles drawn upon WW-GVC operations.

Figure 1: WeWorld-GVC Nexus Principles

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WeWorld-GVC Nexus principles

Figure 2: WW-GVC Nexus Principles definitions

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LocalizationLocalization is not only the involvement and transfer of responsibilities to local actors. Local actors become agents of strategies and programs.

Coordination – Program – FinanceThe understanding of Localization brought on by the Grand Bargain, does not capture thecomplexity of working in fragile and conflict prone contexts, where the advancement of theNexus is a pressing necessity.

Establishing a partnership with local communities should ground the intervention’s reform

agenda by involving local actors in the drafting of context analysis, the establishing of

collective outcomes and in further phases of monitoring, evaluation and learning. The

implementation of activities should respect the principle of reinforce and do not substitute,

prioritizing the strengthening of local leadership and response capacity.

Investing in local mechanisms to respond to shocks should be embedded in the design of

different sector projects and programs, within a strategy to phase out from humanitarian

assistance, leaving the design, implementation, adaptation and monitoring of actions to local

mechanisms. The environments in which interventions occur are complex and dynamic,

requiring periodic context analyses that capture actors’ role, social, cultural and power

dynamics, as well as political and protection aspects.

International aid actors must build functional connections with local mechanisms to enact

additional resources in case of sudden shocks or emergencies. These functional connections

should be maintained through the exchange of data concerning the status of communities’

coercive environment and needs, when possible, linked to early warning systems for violations

of IHL, IRL and IHRL.

Ensure that Power and Social dynamics are included in the joined-up analysis duringthe implementation of different projects.

Apply a solid Age, Gender and Diversity sampling and/or representative approach

Include emancipatory action research – EAR – in Monitoring and Learning (MEAL)systems.

Introduce Accountability in the definition of the primary objective: the one of theactor(s) providing Aid – including WW-GVC – and the one of Duty-Bearers.

Plan with public authorities to strengthen local response.

Plan around public authorities if there is concurrent lack of capacity or duty-bearersare perpetrators of violations.

Establish Early Warning Mechanisms and link them to a localized Early Response(avoid centralized-only nation-wide Emergency Response Mechanisms).

Apply Theory of change to programming, to define Exit Strategies (from provision ofAid).

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Programmatic EngagementEngagement with local actors is purposeful and based on a programmatic approach leveraging the intervention of the best-placed actor.

Coordination – ProgramThe traditional understanding of good programming is not enough to embrace the New Way ofWorking. Comprehensive stakeholders’ engagement is based on shared and common goalsinscribed in programmatic approaches by different actors, all participating according to theirexpertise to achieve the Collective Outcome.

Brokering with and among local civil society organizations must be applied to reinforce

positive coping mechanisms and foster community interconnectedness and self-reliance.

Humanitarian and Development activities should take advantage of the presence in the field of

best-placed actors, keeping in mind that the first actor responsible towards populations’ need

are always the respective Duty-Bearers.

The liaison between communities and respective duty-bearers needs to be brokered or

supported, enhancing the responsiveness of institutional actors to the needs of the

community. Specific efforts should be devoted towards the inclusion of communities’ needs in

strategic development planning. Empowering local leadership to protect and to dialogue at

different levels of governance ensures the compliance, accountability and transparency of

duty bearers.

For Collective Outcomes to be achievable, humanitarian and development actors must

examine their own position, to determine whether a better-placed local actor can deliver

specific programmatic actions.

Collective Outcomes should not be used to adapt existing mandated programmatic

approaches, but to assess same sets of activities and engagement in the same areas, and

identify whether there is complementarity or hindrances, with the option to readjust or pass

on activities to others, where possible.

Coordination should include the design and application of a principled Comparativeadvantage monitoring and programming framework.

If funds are not flexible and/or no new funding mechanisms are established, a multi-sector local strategic program should guide the design of individual projects.

Apply Politically Smart local approaches when working between communities andpublic authorities: risk analyses and do not harm principles enact multi-stakeholderengagement frameworks.

Community leaders’ accountability and capacity to protect (applying checks andbalances systems) must be at the centre of programming.

If there are illegal discriminatory planning and permit regimes, programming shouldfocus on overcoming structural limitations to operations and establishing risk-sharinginitiatives.

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Adaptable and Shared Context AnalysisThe Context Analysis is an area-based shared responsibility: jointly agreed, bottom-up and embedded in specific project/program-oriented data collection and monitoring.

CoordinationThe concept of Joined-up Analysis supporting common planning and programming, advanced

by the OECD-DAC recommendations on the Nexus, states the key necessity for humanitarian

and developmental actors to work more productively together, yet falls short in defining what

is, at times an “impossible task”. Agencies-led frameworks fail to establish the role of target

communities as primary actors in ensuring sustainable, adaptable and meaningful Analysis, to

truly attain added value of a joined-up approach.

Data deriving from various sectors does not serve programmatic strategies if it neglects the

identification of communities’ vulnerabilities, threats, capacities and coping strategies. This

data must be grounded in an understanding of the context built in partnership with the

members of the community and local actors.

Specific opportunities for participation must ensure capturing both quantitative and

qualitative data reflecting protection-oriented perspectives of communities’. to reveal the

structural and systemic vulnerabilities the population faces that would otherwise escape

identification. Examining data collected within these parameters coherently asserts the added

value of system-wide analyses.

The analysis must be designed as an embedded and sustainable monitoring of multi-sector

needs and protection risks to ensure a constant evidence-based approach and enabling a data-

strong basis for joint efforts. The joint systems of analysis should consider the presence of

multiple actors that together, contribute with shared updates of relevant information/data on

the basis of comprehensive and tailored local plans, to achieve an effective operational multi-

stakeholders approach.

Data-sharing and Access to common data should be guaranteed to stakeholders with a

presence in the same territory. The true achievement of a common understanding of Collective

Outcomes, ensuring the transfer of knowledge that can serve complementary actions, is not

possible if we do not see unilateral efforts of collecting data as a common good for other actors

to act upon.

Must be multi-sectorial & include both root causes, immediate actions and long-termneeds.

Design the analysis clearly adapting to the context.

Build up and systematize data collection processes to take stock of human rights,international humanitarian law and international refugee and displacement laws´

violations in every sector affected by the persistence of conflicts.

Social and power dynamics used as targeting and programming criteria in thedefinition of the analysis.

Tackle complexity through narration.

Re-design the project-specific monitoring to contribute to the joined-up analysis, andensure a data-strong continuous context understanding.

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Adaptable managementManagement of activities is guided by a programmatic and adaptable approach formulated with Dignity and Safety objectives.

ProgramNGOs cannot be fully flexible with the funding instruments at their disposal, but they canenact adaptable management by examining all of their actions in a territory under a uniqueprogrammatic framework, to achieve Collective Outcomes and gear towards ensuring theDignity and Safety of the population.

Interventions should pave the way for area-based (community specific), programmatic

frameworks that can be referenced by local institutions, INGOs and donors as a unified

planning modality, grounding multi-stakeholder engagement for complementary and

coordinated programs.

Integrated Protection as entry point of a programmatic approach upholds a long-term

approach towards the uprooting of the root causes of vulnerabilities and needs, ensuring

Safety and Dignity of communities and individuals at all times. In practice this means to:

Deliver inclusive and participatory strategies to establish the protective environmentof communities and individuals, starting from local capacities and resources of thecommunity;

Define sector-specific activities to address the coercive factors affecting the dignityand safety of the population;

Enact community-wide systems of preventive and response assistance whileincorporating multi-localized coordination mechanisms to identify, support and monitorindividual and families,

Employ a rights-based approach in analysis and strategy, to inform decisions made byindividuals and empower communities to engage duty bearers and claim their own rights

Sequence activities in a multi-year plan on the basis of the ICRC Egg ProtectionFramework ; in which humanitarian and development activities are planned according towhether the outcome of any intervention aims to tackle immediate to long-term factors,and/or re-address unbalances or misbehaviors of stakeholders and/or duty-bearers.

Applying a clear path-way to achieve goals»» Joined-up Analysis »» Project or Program »» Adaptable Management»» Dialogue with best-placed Actors (existing and potential) »» Flexible

implementation»» Systemic and yearly monitoring (Joined-up Analysis)

Adapt and organize available instruments (i.e. sector-specific rojects) to addressCollective Outcomes.

Adaptability comes from evidence-based monitoring and learning that is not only“Project-based”.

Coordination, advocacy and support activities serving as benchmark to establishdialogue with human rights, political and institutional channels of intervention.

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People’s Informed DecisionsCommunities and individuals’ capacity to make safe and informed decisions consequentially determines the success of any meaningful collective outcome.

Coordination - ProgramBuilding resilience reduces dependencies on the international community and ensures thatcrises both present and future can be tackled on the terms set by the communities themselves.Ultimately, real resilience lies in the capacity of communities and individuals to make their owndecisions, in full control, rightly informed and supported by a proper protection system.

More often than not, approaching communities as the catalysts for self-driven, transformative

change that builds upon localized capacities is far more effective than universal solutions that

negate the particular advantages of a community. Nation-wide Nexus strategies can be highly

effective as long as local communities and individuals are directly driving and driven by their

outcomes.

Sustainable solutions require international organizations to transition to programmes that

serve groups of communities and foster their connectivity, as well as the launching of

innovative and locally-driven models of services provision and management. These goals can

be guaranteed with the early inclusion of key donors and partners in the conceptualization and

planning of such programmes.

The limitations to community engagement and locally-driven models should not be used

routinely as a myth to propose “more-efficient” actions that focus only on “delivery”. Actors

can share responsibility on community engagement and locally-driven models. Multi-

stakeholder actions can be enacted to leveraging on individual projects and initiatives aiming

to ensure that the population has the necessary instruments to make safe and informed

decisions.

Resilience objectives for communities and individuals should be geared to achieve thefull capacity of taking safe, informed decisions, with the awareness of their rights andof the ways to engage actors to pursue such goals.

Prime the establishment of checks and balances as an ongoing, soft component in theimplementation of projects.

Introduce the reduction of aid-dependency as an operational strategy in the design ofall interventions

Include interventions that build the capacity of communities to identify needs andrights, specifically tailored to establish safe channels for the mobilization of duty-bearers and/or stakeholders working in support.

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ProgramAddressing systemic causes that lead to power imbalances both within a community andbetween a community and other groups, the work of international actors can assist withreasserting the protection of their rights and demand responsibility to be taken by duty-bearers.

The strategy of engagement should be geared to pursue an Exit Strategy to develop localcapacity, ownership and localize the interventions to reduce the divide between thecommunity and the duty bearers. International actors become facilitators that provide thecommunity with mechanisms to safely voice concerns and feedbacks that can meaningfullychange the way aid is delivered.

Mindful involvement of local and national authorities, even in conflict, is essential in ensuringthat progress in reducing threats and vulnerabilities, as well as increasing capacities, remainsustainable. The phasing out from assistance and service provision should be included a prioriin each action and project, and operationalized through the inclusion of communities’ ininstitutional decentralized systems of planning.

Virtuous authorities can work closely with communities to apply territorial solutions thatserve multiple areas. Joint planning with communities can pave the way towards exerting agreater influence on the agenda set by the authorities themselves, to enact multi-stakeholderstrategies to build greater cohesion in addressing problems, risks and needs.

Exit Strategies A-priori programmatic road maps transitioning out from provisionof assistance and services are embedded in any Nexus strategy.Duty-Bearers’ responsibility is achieved through population’s agency.

Early involvement of community and local authorities must be factored into analysisprocesses and in the development of contextualised response strategies.

Increase the understanding of coping strategies and local capacities, to design actionstailored to have a degree of ownership from the onset.

Promote at all times the need for the recognition of responsibility of duty-bearers inensuring the protection of the population.

Prioritize inter-agency capacity development and knowledge-sharing in anyprogrammatic approach.

Mobilize donors and international agencies in supporting civil society and dialoguemechanisms with local authorities and incentivize community driven andparticipatory localized plans, in line with local and national plans.

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ProgramTo avoid politicising and jeopardising the work of NGOs, satisfying the third pillar of the Nexusmust not compromise the trust, accountability and commitment to humanitarian principlesthat international actors strive for in their engagement with communities. Humanitarianassistance that addresses immediate needs is guaranteed in all interventions, withoutcompromise or being subject to alterations.

From a humanitarian perspective, peace efforts entail the risk of encroachment of politicallysensitive objectives into humanitarian actions, threatening to erode the ability to uphold corehumanitarian principles.

Taking into consideration this aspect, bottom-up peace actions rooted in communities´

dynamics are central in any meaningful approach to address context-specific needs by way oftackling root causes and driving factors. Communities’ members must play a proactive role ineducational activities, intra-community conflict prevention and social cohesion efforts.

Conversely, the inclusion of state actors, security forces or other groups posing a threat to theprotection of communities should be scrutinized critically. International actors should divergefrom or reassess any type of action that can potentially place communities at risk and/or de-legitimized their role as a neutral, independent and impartial actor into question.

In instances where joint programming is put in place, the targeting of humanitarian assistancemust always be based on a set of principled criteria separated from peace-building and SSRactions, and strive to include aspects of positive peace (community-based conflict-sensitiveapproaches) to enact constructive conflict resolution dynamics, whereby international actorsbecome catalysts or multipliers to ensure the safety and dignity of the population

Bottom-up Conflict SensitivityPeace initiatives are bottom-up, based on community driven approaches to address driving factors and root causes of the population needs and risks.

Introduce conflict-sensitivity in programming to protect principled humanitarianassistance and gear it towards constructive processes at local levels.

Prime communities as the primary agent of change.

Introduce always locally-driven Early Warning Mechanisms as an instrument tomonitor, report and respond to the different forms of violations to which communitiesare subjected to.

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Inter-agency Standing Committee. The Grand Bargain—A Shared Commitment to Better Serve People in Need. (2016).https://interagencystandingcommittee.org/system/files/grand_bargain_final_22_may_final-2_0.pdf

We-World-GVC defines community as “Community represents different groups of people that maybe exposed to similar physical, psychological, and/or social impacts from multiple coercive factorsand/or share the same resources, often, but not exclusively, related by place”, drawing upon IFRC’sdefinition (2012). As such Community Protection entails a strategic approach purposely designedto address any coercive factor affecting the population in a specific area or territory (being rural,urban, semi-urban or other) in order to resolve the consequences of primary and long-standingmulti-sector risks, needs and problems affecting the population’s life.

OCHA. New Way of Working. (2017). OCHA Policy Development and Studies Branch (PDSB):https://www.unocha.org/sites/unocha/files/NWOW%20Booklet%20low%20res.002_0.pdf

OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC). DAC Recommendation on the Humanitarian-Development-Peace Nexus. (2019). OECD/LEGAL/5019: https://legalinstruments.oecd.org/en/instruments/OECD-LEGAL-5019

Any analysis must properly reflect the situation of the population through a protection perspective,meant as the “conditions of the environment affecting the safety and dignity of the population”.Any vulnerability or need is identified within an understanding of the vulnerability/need compared

to all contextual factors (social, political, cultural, etc.) of each specific area or territory.

Caverzasio, S. G. (Ed.). Strengthening Protection in War: A Search for Professional Standards:Summary of Discussions Among Human Rights and Humanitarian Organizations. (2001).International Committee of the Red Cross, Central Tracing Agency and Protection Division.

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