Strengthening EU coordination across the HDP Nexus

Drawing on evidence from more than 300 evaluations and studies, ICF identified recurring patterns, best practices, and barriers to effective coordination across the HDP Nexus. The synthesis gave the Directorate-General for International Partnerships (DG INTPA) an evidence-based view of how the EU and Team Europe can strengthen coordination in fragile and conflict-affected contexts.

Challenge

As crises become more protracted and interconnected, humanitarian, development, and peace actors need to respond to immediate needs while addressing the underlying drivers of vulnerability and conflict. Yet coordination across those efforts often relies on informal arrangements and context-specific practices that have rarely been examined systematically.

DG INTPA sought to better understand how the EU and Team Europe have contributed to the coordination dimension of the HDP Nexus and what studies exist on effective approaches. They tasked ICF with synthesizing a large and diverse body of evidence spanning multiple regions, institutions, time periods, and sectors, identifying lessons that could inform future engagement across the Nexus.

Solution

Our team designed and produced a theory-based evaluation synthesis focused on the coordination dimension of the HDP Nexus. The study combined systematic evidence review and stakeholder engagement to generate robust and actionable findings.

We used a structured methodology to identify and screen over 3,200 potentially relevant sources, resulting in an in-depth review of 381 evaluations, studies, and lessons learned documents. We leveraged our proprietary AI-powered research and analysis platform to manage this large evidence base while ensuring rigorous human oversight throughout the entire screening and analytical process.

The synthesis also incorporated stakeholder consultations, including 31 key informant interviews and three data collection workshops involving EU institutions, Member States, UN agencies, NGOs, and experts on the HDP Nexus. We triangulated evidence from multiple sources to identify recurring patterns, good practices, and factors enabling or hindering effective coordination.

Our team also facilitated a co-creation workshop with a study Reference Group composed of representatives from relevant European Commission services. The workshop was used to jointly developed recommendations to strengthen coordination across the HDP Nexus.

Results

DG INTPA now has a robust evidence base on the coordination dimension of the HDP Nexus across EU and Team Europe actions.

The synthesis found that coordination approaches across the HDP Nexus are necessarily context-specific, with no one-size-fits-all model. Coordination practices have become more structured over time: task forces, working groups, Nexus platforms, and collaboration frameworks have started to emerge in several fragile contexts. Country-level common objectives and priorities among HDP Nexus actors have been defined in several contexts, providing a practical basis for coordination. While joint analyses among HDP Nexus actors are increasingly used, it is unclear to what extent they are leveraged to inform planning and programming.

We also identified persistent challenges affecting coordination, including institutional silos, inconsistent engagement of national and local actors, uneven integration of the peace dimension, and insufficient incentives for coordination.

Building on these findings, ICF developed a set of strategic and operational recommendations to help the EU and Team Europe strengthen coordination across the Nexus:

• Enhancing coordination practices through incentives
• Better integrating the peace dimension
• Promoting more flexible financing approaches
• Increasing national and local ownership and engagement
• Institutionalising learning and knowledge-sharing processes