Knowledge Sharing Series

A Collective Journey Towards Humanitarian-Development-Peace Coherence
• June through September 2022 •

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Fredrik Lerneryd / Save the Children

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2022 Knowledge Sharing Series Logo

About

Decorative green speech bubble with the text "“Humanitarian-Development-Peace (HDP)  coherence aims to promote complementary  collaboration across humanitarian, development,  and peace actors in pursuit of a common agenda.  Its goal is to maximize impact and sustainability of  programs across different kinds of assistance  and to reduce the need for humanitarian  assistance (HA) over time.”In the face of globalized environmental challenges, the changing nature of violent conflict, and recognition of an increasingly complex and interdependent world, we need to move past siloed approaches to more holistic programming that better addresses the crises that slow or reverse progress on poverty alleviation and reduced food insecurity. 

  • Humanitarian programming can meet urgent needs in a crisis, while protecting development gains, and laying the foundation for longer-term resilience. 
  • Development and resilience programming can support shock-preparedness and early response to protect local systems and avert the worst effects of crises. 
  • Peace-building and, in particular, conflict sensitivity approaches can be embedded in humanitarian and development programming, and work not only to prevent violence and mitigate conflict but also to strengthen social cohesion.

To affirm and explore the opportunity for increased HDP coherence, and the challenges associated with achieving it, USAID engaged in extensive internal and partner consultations to develop a set of programming principles. The resulting document Programming Considerations for Humanitarian-Development-Peace Coherence: A Note for USAID’s Implementing Partners was released in January 2022.

The Knowledge Sharing Series (KSS) is the next step in our collective journey towards Humanitarian-Development-Peace (HDP) coherence. IDEAL will convene humanitarian and resilience practitioners for a peer-to-peer series of events, that will give the implementing community an opportunity to:

  • Create shared understanding around HDP coherence among humanitarian and resilience practitioners;

  • Explore current practices and enabling factors for HDP coherence in different contexts; and

  • Discuss and collectively problem-solve critical issues along with peers in similar contexts.

Timelines for the KSS including dates for each thematic area.

An opening week in June 2022 will feature events to level-set our collective knowledge around HDP coherence. Starting later in June and continuing through August, a week each month will be dedicated to each of the following four thematic areas:

The Knowledge Sharing Series will build up to a culmination event in September 2022. If you’d like to receive updates about the KSS, please click the button below!

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Thematic Areas 

Four thematic areas were informed by our consultations with implementing partners. Click on the titles below to learn more about each thematic area.

Opening Week

Keynote & Opening Panel

June 1, 2022

In this session, Amy Tohill-Stull, Deputy Assistant to the Administrator, USAID Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance shared a keynote address on the imperative of HDP coherence. The keynote was followed by a rich discussion among panelists which highlighted ongoing crises such as the war in Ukraine, drought in the Horn of Africa, and escalating armed conflict in the Sahel – all compounded by the severe effects of climate change and COVID-19. Panelists  examined the main obstacles in programming for HDP coherence and identified promising practices. Finally, panelists sought a joint definition of success when it comes to HDP coherent programming – laying out what changes at household, community, and systems level. Click here to learn more about the session!

Organizing for HDP Coherence: Country Teams’ Perspectives

June 2, 2022

Achieving humanitarian, development, and peace coherence entails synergies across technical silos and adaptive work structures and cultures. How have country teams evolved and stretched their mandates to deliver HDP coherent programming? What does this look like from both a technical and an operations/management perspective? How are implementing partners coordinating internally and strengthening staff capacity to deliver coherent programming? What challenges are we facing and how are these being addressed?  This dynamic dialogue explored these questions and offered practical takeaways for how to approach HDP coherence at the project and country level. Participants were invited to join the dialogue and share their own experiences in organizing for HDP coherence. Click here to learn more about the session!

Advancing Locally Led HDP Coherence

June 21-23, 2022

Communities are the heart of the HDP nexus. Putting households and communities at the center of programming and ensuring that implementation is done with, by, and through local actors and systems are critical elements of HDP coherence. Even before humanitarian, development, or peace assistance is designed, intentional community engagement and concerted efforts are needed to support, rather than duplicate or potentially undermine, existing local capacity. Cultivating relationships, building trust with and between communities, and being intentional about mutual capacity strengthening is essential for advancing locally-led HDP coherence.

Sessions under this thematic area gave local and international humanitarian, development, and peace actors opportunities to come together to discuss centering local knowledge on HDP coherence; working through local systems for emergency preparedness and response; and effective, inclusive, and participatory community engagement for social cohesion.

Learn more about each session by clicking on the titles below! 

Data for Decision-Making in HDP Coherence

July 12-14, 2022

Working towards HDP coherence requires information systems that identify the key drivers of crisis in a location, analyze information about those drivers to inform contingency planning, and identify inflection points in key indicators to quickly and clearly trigger shock-responsive programming. 

Sessions under this thematic area explored organizations’ experiences with context monitoring, resilience monitoring, crisis analytics and local early warning schemes to produce useful information for improved and more timely program decision-making in crisis-affected areas. Discussions included barriers to sharing this kind of information across humanitarian, development, and peace actors, and considered the specific data and analytical tools required for more effective contingency planning for HDP coherence.

Learn more about each session by clicking on the titles below! 

Communication and Coordination for Coherence

August 2-3, 2022

A host of international and local organizations with a range of priorities, expertise, and programming timeframes implement programs in complex environments that are fraught with the effects of climate change and conflict, among other crises. When humanitarian and development assistance is coordinated, the needs of affected communities are more effectively addressed.

Communication and coordination often happen ad hoc as crises unfold. However, experience at the country and regional level suggests that intentional facilitation through a variety of platforms and mechanisms is important and can improve outcomes for affected communities. In this thematic area, we explored cross-organizational efforts to improve coordination and, ultimately, the effectiveness and coherence of different types of assistance.

Sessions under this thematic area explored promising practices in communication and coordination to enhance knowledge sharing and planning objectives to avoid duplicating efforts and how backbone learning mechanisms have supported this work and what can be learned by the implementing community from these robust coordination structures. 

Learn more about each session by clicking on the titles below!

Sequencing, Layering, and Integrating Humanitarian, Development, and Peace Assistance

August 23-25, 2022

Sequencing, layering, and integrating (SLI) in its many forms are the nuts and bolts of advancing HDP coherence. Thoughtful design and implementation of mutually reinforcing activities in development and emergency investments can lead to programs that are more responsive and coherent, delivering better outcomes for affected people.

When humanitarian programming is given the time and horizon to plan and evolve, it can develop more productive relationships with resilience and development interventions. Similarly, when development programs are able to plan for and respond to shocks, they can be better prepared to protect development gains. By strengthening local and international capacity, as well as planning coherently across actors in the nexus, we can maximize the impact of development and emergency programming.

Sessions under this thematic area explored concrete approaches that implementing partners can take to advance SLI, mitigate gaps, and pursue complementary funding opportunities across humanitarian, development, and peace assistance. This included: how multi-year humanitarian action can preserve the essential mission of principled humanitarian action while utilizing HDP approaches to better address recurrent and protracted crises; and how development programs can work to lay the foundation for resilience to shocks and set the stage for a rapid pivot to support humanitarian action where needed. It closed by examining how implementing organizations can leverage the strengths of different donors to build portfolios of projects that are able to be responsive and creative in addressing holistic needs and opportunities in fast-moving environments.

Learn more about each session by clicking on the titles below!

Culmination Event
September 28

In this 2-hour culmination event, IDEAL invited the community, once more, to look back on the key takeaways gleaned from the sessions and identify ways to apply the learning moving forward. First, guest speakers drew out key takeaways from the four thematic areas from the KSS. Each panelist discussed a different thematic area from the series. Then, participants were invited into small groups to discuss with peers on how they might apply the learning and make a difference in HDP coherence in their own roles or capacities. Finally, participants built on the breakouts by engaging in a discussion with IDEAL and USAID to further discuss next steps in our collective learning journey to strengthen HDP coherence.

 

 


 

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