BICC Reports

IMPLEMENTATION CHALLENGES FROM A DECOLONIAL PERSPECTIVE.
INSIGHTS FROM IRAQ, MALI AND SOUTH SUDAN

The humanitarian–development–peace (HDP) nexus is a new way of working for UN agencies and international and national NGOs, introduced at the Global Humanitarian Summit in 2016. It aims to closely link humanitarian aid, development assistance and peacebuilding through a bottom up approach and joint conflict analysis. 
The need for a nexus approach is often justified by the fact that humanitarian and development organisations face increasingly complex and protracted humanitarian crises. However, it has been also a response to widespread popular dissatisfaction with the existing system of humanitarian aid. More recently, the aid sector has witnessed the emergence of a decolonial critique from within INGOs and NGOs in all three fields. This critique asks how today’s power imbalances between the global North and the global South are rooted in a colonial past, and how greater equity can be achieved beyond a bottom up approach. 
 
The authors of the BICC Reports argue that a bottom up approach to the HDP nexus requires a change of mindset to succeed. By adopting a decolonial lens that makes power imbalances more visible, the HDP nexus offers a chance to uncover and reflect on the political positioning of international humanitarian actors in their respective contexts of intervention. Only when such power imbalances are reflected in day-to-day aid operations can they be addressed and the influence of local actors on project design be increased.
 
Furthermore, experiences from Iraq, Mali and South Sudan illustrate different obstacles and strengths in their approach reflecting the key findings of our BICC Reports:

\ The HDP is largely being implemented from the top down.

\ A localisation approach runs the risk of reproducing existing power imbalances rather than overcoming them. 

\ Peace activities can be controversial or too politically sensitive to be implemented at all.

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