| dc.description.abstract | Humanitarian intervention is often seen as critical emergency relief, whereas development aid refers to sustaining improvements to wellbeing over time. Humanitarian and development actions, which have different core objectives and different temporal framing, have been historically programmed by different organizational and funding structures. However, there is an obvious bilateral interaction between acute relief and development. Lack of skilled capacity and infrastructure (as example development activities) can significantly impact the quality and speed of humanitarian interventions when disaster strikes. Conversely, neglecting the local context during humanitarian response can disempower local people and not leverage opportunities to build better local development. How the aid system links humanitarian relief with recovery and development to propel aid efficiency and effectiveness is a complex yet urgent agenda. The goal of humanitarian-development nexus (HDN) analysis is to promote humanitarian action that can contribute towards development goals, or at least not hinder them. This research explores HDN constraints by describing how humanitarian action is informed by longer-term food security considerations. Firstly, the literature review defines the concepts of food security (where people have stable access, availability and utilisation of food) and food sovereignty (where the local people define and control food and agriculture systems), as well as food security humanitarian interventions. It then explains the concept of HDN and describes constraints that limit convergence between food security humanitarian action and development programs. Development perspectives can often be excluded from disaster response due to: declining agricultural expenditure; delayed release of post-disaster development financing; lack of responders with appropriate development skills; lack of integrated needs analysis that is informed by local context; and insufficient local participation that can limit local empowerment. Secondly, a case study analyses the food security HDN in response to Cyclones Idai and Kenneth that hit Mozambique in March 2019. Various aid providers were asked their perceptions of the humanitarian interventions through semi-structured interviews. The case study suggests that the HDN could be described as a wall rather than a nexus. A lack of commitment to localisation of humanitarian response is a key driver behind this suggestion. To improve the development outcomes of humanitarian response, a structural shift that allows for shared decision making and action amongst local people, local NGOs, INGOs, UN agencies, government and development agencies is recommended. This would promote effective decision-making related to funding, policy and needs assessment, which would better integrate the needs of the local people. The research also questions whether food security HDN considers how humanitarian interventions can impact local food sovereignty | en |
