With global humanitarian needs skyrocketing and the humanitarian funding gap increasing year after year as more crises become protracted, and in some cases multifaceted, donors have made clear policy commitments, under the OECD DAC recommendation on the Nexus, to increasingly invest in development and prevention in fragile and conflict-affected contexts. The aim is to reduce humanitarian needs by addressing the root causes creating vulnerabilities. However, such fragile and conflict-affected contexts are often politically unstable and can at times experience unconstitutional changes in government (UCG). While most donors continue to fund humanitarian action in contexts affected by a UCG, development donors and international financial institutions (IFIs) often suspend, freeze or withdraw development funding in these situations.
These suspensions can have dramatic consequences for the population, leads to decrease in terms of access to basic services (such as health, education, water and sanitation), weakening of livelihoods, and potentially fuel instability. Suspension of development funding often requires already overstretched humanitarian actors to fill the gaps in basic services, putting an additional burden on the underfunded global humanitarian system.
In this advocacy note, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) presents clear recommendations on how development donors, IFIS, donor governments and institutions can stay engaged.