Envisioning the humanitarian-development-peace nexus in the Rohingya response in Bangladesh: Implementation challenges and suggestions for the future

Motivation

Since 2017, more than a million forcibly displaced Rohingya refugees from Myanmar have been heavily reliant on humanitarian assistance in Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh. The donors and humanitarian stakeholders involved, often drawing on OECD recommendations, are calling for a triple nexus design linking humanitarian, development, and peace pillars to increase effectiveness.

Purpose

To further understanding of the issues involved and to provide recommendations for the implementation of a triple-nexus programme, the article explores the main challenges relating to triple-nexus implementation in Bangladesh.

Approach and Methods

Thematic analysis is conducted on 25 qualitative key informant interviews with selected government officials and international and national NGOs involved in the Rohingya humanitarian response in Cox's Bazar.

Findings

The study identifies five main challenges to triple-nexus implementation, foregrounding the OECD guiding principles: (1) the “peace” component remains unaddressed and undefined; (2) the capacity of local organizations is undermined in the Rohingya response due to the dominance of international organizations; (3) the shrinkage of overall funding leads to ambiguities in multi-year funding commitments and modalities; (4) there is a co-ordination gap between the three nexus pillars; and (5) the Government of Bangladesh (GoB) is reluctant to design long-term refugee policies for Rohingyas.

Policy Implications

The study suggests that adopting the triple nexus in the Rohingya response requires stronger political commitment on the part of the GoB and goal-oriented national policy in accordance with OECD principles. The inclusion of a “peace” element is indispensable to enable the balance between humanitarian and development components, but requires a clearly defined conflict context to be entwined with the nexus programming. The findings also contribute to reappraising the impediments to operationalizing the nexus programme and refurbishing policy discussions in other major cases in forced migration, IDP, or refugee crises globally.