Working across the humanitarian, peace and development nexus through resilience

13 May 2019, Ottawa, ON – FAO North America in partnership with CARE Canada co-organized a roundtable discussion entitled New Ways of Working: Linking Policy and Practice at the CARE Canada Headquarters in Ottawa. The event highlighted Canadian perspectives around addressing the “triple nexus” across humanitarian-sustainable development-peace imperatives. The discussion examined how experts and practitioners from the UN, academia, government and civil society can more effectively respond to humanitarian and development needs in protracted crises in a coordinated manner that uses the comparative advantages of each actor and approach. The roundtable consisted primarily of representatives from the Government of Canada, civil society, and academia and research institutions.

Tom Pesek, Senior Liaison Officer at FAO North America, welcomed the ongoing collaboration between FAO and CARE Canada, and emphasized the importance and timeliness of the discussion following the release of the 2019 Global Report on Food Crises, which shows that acute hunger levels has affected more than 100 million people for the past three consecutive years. 

Dominique Burgeon, Director of the Emergency and Resilience Division at FAO, delivered keynote remarks from Rome. He emphasized that for FAO, resilience is the ideal entry point for aligning humanitarian, development and peace actions, and that it represents a powerful vehicle through which to tackle increasing global hunger. "It is clear that no one agency can do this on its own, and therefore partnership is key to ending hunger, especially in protracted crises," Burgeon said. He noted that there has been growing interest in operationalizing the Global Network Against Food Crises, which was launched by FAO, WFP and the EU in 2016, but has really begun to intensify and accelerate its efforts over the past year.

Burgeon highlighted that Canada has been a pioneer in implementing the New Way of Working through the ongoing The Resilience Initiative, a pilot program in the DRC, Niger and Somalia, which brings together the three Rome-based agencies (FAO, WFP and IFAD). The Initiative is not only having an impact on the ground but has encouraged other donors to adopt a similar approach and fund joint programming among the three Rome-Based Agencies.

The event served as a useful forum to discuss the challenges and opportunities associated with policymaking and programming linked to the “triple nexus.” It also provided a timely opportunity to share best practices, build on common understanding of related imperatives and gaps, and to determine next steps towards coherent nexus policy planning and operational implementation.

Learn more about FAO's work on Resilience.