Supporting longer term development in crises at the nexus: Lessons from Cameroon

This Cameroon country report contributes to a multi-country study1 focusing on the role of development actors in addressing people’s longer term needs, risks and vulnerabilities, and supporting operationalisation of the humanitarian–development–peace (HDP) nexus.

This is pertinent to the Covid-19 response, involving both immediate lifesaving assistance and longer term support for health systems, socioeconomic impacts and peacebuilding. Experience in Cameroon can inform global policy and practice for several reasons.

Cameroon moved from a position of stability to three concurrent crises in the last five years, providing a learning opportunity for development actors adapting to deepening crises. It featured in an Inter-Agency Standing Committee’s (IASC) study on financing the nexus,3 presenting opportunities to build on these findings. Cameroon is a priority country for the UN Joint Steering Committee to Advance Humanitarian and Development Collaboration and also for the Humanitarian Development Peace Initiative (HDPI), a joint initiative of the UN and World Bank emerging from a commitment made at the World Humanitarian Summit in 2016.