Localization Through Coordination? Implementing the Humanitarian‐Development‐Peace Nexus in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

ABSTRACT

As a global concept and initiative, the Humanitarian‐Development‐Peace Nexus (HDPN) aims to improve integration across the traditionally siloed humanitarian, development, and security sectors, while foregrounding the involvement of local actors. Using original empirical data on the implementation of the HDPN in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), we show how and why the approach has not delivered substantive localization in the Congolese context. In the DRC, nexus implementation has replicated gaps and inequalities between the national and provincial levels. This manifests in two ways: a persistent functional disconnect between work at the national and the provincial levels, and a substantive disconnect in the form of an inability of national‐level actors to leverage an organic nexus already found at the provincial level. Our analysis raises important questions about the compatibility of coordination and substantive localization.