Rural 21 (engl. Ausgabe 1/2019)

Focus 1/2019: The nexus
Recurring crises and protracted conflicts world-wide have become the new normal and are leading to fragility, insecu¬rity and migration. Since refugees flee from their insecure region to a less fragile one, the demands in the new region are twofold – the refugees need basic services such as shelter, medical service, food and sanitation, while the host coun¬tries and communities request support for a sustainable use of natural resources in what is now a region of increased popu¬lation density. On-going crises and conflicts not only demand humanitarian assistance but also call for development co-op¬eration and peace-building. If a crisis is protracted, as is the case in Bangladesh with the Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar camp, then it becomes important to provide solutions bridging the gap between humanitarian assistance and development co-operation, while supporting peace-building. This interac¬tion is called the Humanitarian-Development-Peace Nexus, or simply the triple nexus. But how do the different international institutions and organ¬isations benefit from synergies when working together? Who develops and oversees the diverse approaches of the various actors to complementing each other’s work? To align these actions at global level, the first United Nations World Humanitarian Summit was held in Istanbul, Turkey, in 2016. Since then, different methods have been set up or gained more significance, such as the UN’s New Way of Working, the Whole-of-Govern¬ment approach and Linking Relief, Rehabilitation and Development (LRRD). Global actors coming from the European Commission, the German Government, the International Com¬mittee of the Red Cross, as well as the World Food Programme present their views and approaches in this edition. Case studies and examples come from crises and conflictive regions such as Syria and neighbouring coun¬tries, the Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh, as well as the Lake Chad conflict in the Sahel. But what about natural disasters such as the earthquake in Haiti? How did the country return to agriculture with life disrupted on a destroyed island? Further case studies on adapting to climate change and to more resilience to recurrent (food) crises such as in Mali complement this edition’s selection of articles.