Humanitarian, Development, and Peace Nex

While the number of people living in poverty has significantly fallen over the last decades, there remains an increasing number of severe and protracted humanitarian emergencies stemming from conflict, governance failures, and disasters. These account for most people living in extreme poverty globally, and there is growing acceptance among the international aid community that these problems can only be addressed through a combination of tools – from humanitarian, development, and peace (HDP) – that require new governance, financing, and coordination mechanisms. Most recently, this has been packaged as promoting the humanitarian-development peace (HDP) nexus; yet this “search for coherence” is not new and raises questions about ethics and fundamental principles in humanitarian action, the nature of conflict and protracted emergencies, and how different spheres of action interact. This course will give students a critical perspective, examining core concepts and definitions, historical trends, theoretical debates, and the current policy and practice landscape. The course will also provide a practitioner’s perspective on many issues through case study examples, guest speakers, and an opportunity for students to apply a nexus approach to a real-life case study.