Towards Resilience: Advancing Collective Impact in Protracted Crises

As global crises increase in number, duration, and complexity, COVID-19 promises to further decimate local economies, erode public trust, and upend social networks in conflict-affected settings. To secure better outcomes for populations already facing protracted humanitarian need, this new paper calls for a fresh approach. It urges foreign assistance — humanitarian, peace, and development — to align behind a resilience agenda, and pursue collective action in three areas:

• Rapid, real-time analysis of risk factors that drive and perpetuate fragility.
• Support to local market and social systems to strengthen sources of resilience.
• Short-term violence prevention paired with efforts to transform the structural drivers of conflict.

To guide the adoption and application of a resilience agenda, the publication recommends the following:

• Ensure greater coherence of international responses by adopting and holding aid actors accountable to shared metrics of success.
• Shift the assistance bias away from direct delivery and toward working through and in support of local market and social systems.
• Ensure peace-building expertise and funds are part and parcel of the design and delivery of humanitarian and development investments in conflict-driven crises.
• Allow for greater flexibility in mandates and approaches across funding streams.