New York, 22 September - The King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center (KSrelief) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) called for an integrated approach that brings together humanitarian, development, and peacebuilding actors to address increasing humanitarian emergencies and development crisis, in pursuit of long-lasting peace and stability, i.e., making the Humanitarian-Development-Peace (HDP) triple nexus work effectively on the ground.
Their call came at the high-level roundtable discussion entitled "The Humanitarian, Development, and Peace Nexus: From Theory to Practice with the Compass Towards 2030", that both organizations hosted on the sidelines of the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly.
The roundtable discussion noted that amid the complex and protracted conflicts in recent years, development progress has stalled or reversed, whilst the number of people in need of humanitarian assistance due to conflict has increased globally. Millions of people have been displaced by ongoing conflicts and crises, both internally and across borders, further exposing them to precarious conditions during movements and weakening social cohesion and societal resilience in receiving host communities. To face this growing global challenge UNDP and KSrelief called for concerted efforts towards area-based and context-specific durable and development solutions.
Dr. Abdallah Al Dardari, Assistant Secretary General and UNDP Regional Director for Arab States moderated the discussion, which features, Supervisor General of KSrelief, H.E. Dr. Abdullah AlRabeeah and UNDP Administrator, Mr. Achim Steiner, and President of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Ms. Mirjana Spoljaric Egger.
"Collective outcomes of humanitarian, development, and peacebuilding support to countries in protracted crises are central to keeping them on track to achieve the promise of prosperity for people and planet, as embodied by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development," said Achim Steiner. "Durable, development-based solutions to displacement, strategically integrate humanitarian and development efforts in pursuit of sustainable peace, which in turn is critical to safeguard gains, advance development and avoid dependency on humanitarian assistance."
H.E. Dr. Abdullah Al Rabeeah, Supervisor General, stated that KSrelief, on behalf of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, is committed to providing humanitarian assistance that alleviates suffering; the center plans its humanitarian responses to any crisis to look beyond the urgent aid phase toward recovery and development linked to sustainable peace. Only if we can integrate all of these elements can we hope to save lives at the start of a crisis and also improve the lives of current and future generations. KSrelief will continue to expand its partnership and cooperation with UNDP on sustainable development through projects in Yemen and Somalia.
The roundtable discussion reaffirmed commitment to strengthening the HDP Nexus, to achieve the SDGs through locally owned sustainable solutions, particularly in fragile contexts where hard-earned progress can be quickly undone by violent conflicts.
