What Are the Effects and Benefits of UNHCR’s Cooperation with Development Actors?

Описание: Traditionally, humanitarian actors provide crisis relief to people who have been displaced by violent conflict or natural disasters. Development actors, on the other hand, work with governments and civil society to improve communities’ socio-economic situations in the medium to long term.

However, because more and more people are displaced over longer periods of time, this ‘division of labor’ in international relief and economic and social assistance is being called into question – including by the world’s main organization in charge of protecting displaced and stateless people, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

UNHCR has vowed to more closely cooperate with development actors. The idea behind this approach – often called the Nexus Agenda – is that better cooperation between the two sectors will benefit displaced people by strengthening their self-reliance and inclusion into national systems, like health care or the labor market. For UNHCR, the ultimate objective is to contribute more to solutions offered to those who are displaced. However, there are also concerns: some fear that more cooperation between humanitarian and development actors could lead to lower standards in service delivery or even result in compromises on the humanitarian principles.

Over the past three years, we took stock of UNHCR’s cooperation with development actors in contexts of long-term displacement. We evaluated the effects of this cooperation and supported UNHCR in refining its strategy and operational approach in this area by assessing its activities in four country case studies: Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Jordan, and Niger.

What we found: The effects of closer cooperation between UNHCR and development actors have been overwhelmingly positive. In this video, we explain why the Nexus Agenda matters, what it has looked like in practice, and why and how UNHCR should continue to invest in cooperation with development actors.

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To learn more about the project and our recommendations for UNHCR, visit: https://www.gppi.net/unhcr-nexus-eval...


To download our final evaluation report, visit: https://www.unhcr.org/61af7be94