Strengthening Linkages Across the Triple Nexus
Today’s reality is that communities do not move neatly on a continuum from crisis to resilience. Shifts back and forth caused by political instability, climate disasters and conflicts can take a stable environment like Ukraine into crisis overnight.
Global Communities believes meaningful solutions lie at the intersections that link humanitarian, development and peace-building programs – also known as the triple nexus. Our unique expertise allows us to leverage learnings for integrated programs and respond to rapidly changing circumstances.
In 2022, we responded to the outbreak of war in Ukraine by adjusting existing programs built on strong relationships with local governments and civil society to deliver immediate, lifesaving assistance. We also continued to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic in countries around the world, including the United States.
In Ethiopia, we partnered with pastoralists to build resilience and regenerate grasslands to improve food and water security, pivoting along the way to overcome obstacles of all kinds. We responded to climate-driven environmental disasters in Guatemala with an eye toward building resilience and a strong local economy. In the Middle East, we partnered with youth to build a future full of hope and opportunity and worked with communities who have faced a decade of war to meet their daily needs.
Learn More About Our Work Across the Triple Nexus
Ukraine
Triple Nexus | Ukraine
Pivoting in the Wake of Conflict
Since the onset of the war in Ukraine in February 2022, Global Communities has worked directly with local governments and civil society organizations to support urgent needs, building on the long-term relationships we have established over six years of development work. Our unique ability to shift from sustainable development to humanitarian assistance and back again allowed Global Communities to procure goods from Ukrainian producers and vendors, support the local economy in the midst of a crisis, and deliver more than $1 million worth of essential items for internally displaced people in eight communities across three oblasts in western Ukraine.
In addition to direct procurements, Global Communities leveraged our relationships with 100 local governments across Ukraine to connect them to each other, local NGOs and other international organizations. This led to western Ukrainian communities connecting with and sending supplies to eastern communities in need, and the provision of direct food assistance or cash from local and international NGOs.
Global Communities continues to monitor the needs of communities on an ongoing basis, facilitating these connections and planning for future assistance.
Fast Facts:
- In the first year of the war, an estimated 8.1 million refugees fled to neighboring countries, with more than 5.9 million people displaced inside Ukraine.
- Global Communities procured and arranged for delivery of $1 million worth of items such as generators, washing machines, beds, blankets, baby diapers, soap and toilet paper for internally displaced people in 8 communities across 3 oblasts in western Ukraine.
- In 2022, we reached more than 14,000 internally displaced people with emergency support and completed 13 service delivery projects.
- Ten local partner organizations implemented 1,840 activities.
- We directly supported — and continue to support — 8 communities across 3 oblasts in western Ukraine and are leveraging relationships with 100 local governments to provide emergency support across 10 oblasts with potentially hundreds of thousands of beneficiaries in the coming year.
Guatemala
Triple Nexus | Guatemala
Resilience through Recovery and Food Security
In Guatemala, Global Communities continued working in isolated, rural communities in the mountains of Huehuetenango that are part of the Dry Corridor, an area where years of unpredictable rainfall have decimated crop production and led to sharp spikes in hunger and food insecurity. For the families in this region that have lived off the land for generations, recent price inflation is just the latest in a series of crises, as Hurricanes Eta and Iota brought widespread flooding to the region in 2020 right before the harvest season, wiping out harvest and food reserves.
With support from the United States Agency for International Development’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance, Global Communities has taken a multi-pronged approach to supporting rural subsistence farming communities throughout the expansive Department of Huehuetenango, including providing resources, training and technical support to overcome the setbacks that have drastically impacted their quality of life. In 2022, we distributed 3,858 agricultural kits to families across the region and surpassed our goal of establishing 3,300 home gardens, which helped families diversify their diets and learn resilient, drought-resistant farming techniques.
Since 2019, a core component of our approach to building resilience and promoting economic recovery in the region has been the distribution of direct cash transfers to families affected by environmental shocks and food insecurity. In 2022, a total of 12,837 families received direct cash transfers. By providing cash directly instead of in-kind goods, Global Communities is able to contribute to the local economy, ensuring our support has a multiplier effect, fueling local businesses and markets. Furthermore, distributing cash gives families the agency to decide how to use the support based on their most pressing needs, often choosing to leverage the funds to invest in income-generating activities.
Fast Facts:
- Over a quarter of the Guatemalan population (26%) was predicted to experience acute food insecurity between June and September 2022.
- Global Communities distributed more than $3.3 million in direct cash transfers to families throughout Huehuetenango.
- We also distributed over $1.8 million in cash assistance to 6,832 families to regenerate small businesses and livelihoods.
- We conducted 6,731 home health visits to provide food and nutrition information as well as guidance on preparing a family budget.
United States
Triple Nexus | United States
Building Healthy Communities in Southern California
In 2022, Global Communities closed a year-long COVID-19 vaccination education and outreach program in San Diego County, California, where we partnered with local government and community organizations to increase vaccine equity among hard-to-reach and hard-to-vaccinate populations. This program included in-person events with local community partners, online webinars and education sessions, vaccine incentives through a local business partnership, and an extensive Instagram presence to reach youth and parents of young children with accurate and timely information about COVID-19 vaccines and local events in multiple languages.
The diversity of our staff reflected the communities most impacted by COVID-19 and included people with technology, epidemiology and customer service skills, thus setting our staffing approach apart from the traditional community health work model. We also created state-of-the-art technology systems for targeted program activities and reach, including an automated system in CommCare that ensured clients completed the full regimen of vaccines and boosters, if needed, for full protection.
Fast Facts:
- We organized more than 175 outreach and 32 vaccine events to reach more than 4,000 people across 2 regions of San Diego by June 2022.
- Our team of COVID-19 Outreach Specialists spoke 14 languages besides English, so staff could deliver public health information in culturally responsive ways.
- Community members received $25 vouchers to local coffee shops and restaurants when they received a vaccine through one of our partner events or services.
Jordan
Triple Nexus | Jordan
Launching a Youth-Led Future
In 2022, a powerful five-year program to support young people in Jordan came to a successful close. From March 2017-March 2022, with funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Global Communities worked with a total of 16,415 young people (ages 10 to 29) from 60 communities across Jordan to improve opportunity, well-being and civic engagement of youth. The program – USAID YouthPower Jordan – partnered with youth and strategic counterparts at the national and grassroots levels to create sustainable, community-based resources and avenues for positive youth development.
Participants were equipped to act as engaged citizens and productive members of society with the agency to advocate for themselves and shape services designed to better prepare them to enter higher education, vocational training and the workforce. Of those involved with the program, 75% reported increased preparedness to enter these spaces. By the end of implementation, USAID YouthPower established 244 avenues for positive youth engagement in Jordan and learned that 78% of participants reported positive value and/or recognition by adults.
Under its $3.7 million Innovation Fund, USAID YouthPower also supported youth to design and lead innovative community development and social entrepreneurship initiatives while receiving technical training, networking and mentorship from industry experts. The program actively ensured the equitable inclusion of female youth, youth with disabilities and refugee youth as funding recipients. While many of the initiatives put youth directly on a business start-up path — including the first food walking tour in Jordan — others provided youth with marketable skills and real-world experience, such as certifying youth as psychosocial coaches or specialists in installing and maintaining household renewable energy systems.
As Global Communities continues to seek ways to elevate the voices of youth through our programming, we have and will continue to use the lessons from USAID YouthPower Jordan’s established strategies to support young people in charting a future deserving of their immense potential.
Fast Facts:
Over the life of the program (March 2017-March 2022), USAID YouthPower Jordan:
- Engaged 16,415 youth aged 10 to 29 years old, 88% of whom participated in civic engagement activities;
- Trained 10,525 youth in soft and life skills;
- Equipped 1,625 youth to assume leadership roles in new program activities; and
- Supported 584 initiatives designed and led by youth.
Ethiopia
Triple Nexus | Ethiopia
Adapting to Climate Realities with Urgent Solutions
Ethiopia is facing a greater frequency and intensity of disasters due to long-term environmental degradation and shifting global weather patterns, which are continually aggravated by the effects of climate change. Crises are layered on top of one another, and contexts are increasingly fragile. There are immediate and potentially life-threatening needs to meet, but lasting solutions are also necessary to address the root causes giving rise to those needs.
Since 2005, Global Communities has developed a strong reputation in Ethiopia for community-based, integrated programming to build resilience in the face of these challenges. With funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), in January 2020, we embarked on a five-year initiative to improve resilience to mitigate, adapt to and recover from climate and conflict-related shocks in some of Ethiopia’s most vulnerable pastoral regions. Through the Resilience in Pastoral Areas South (RIPA South) project, Global Communities, in collaboration with implementing partners GOAL and iDE, is addressing many of the root causes of vulnerability for pastoral families with immediate support and layered programming to advance long-term development and conflict resolution.
Historically, development and humanitarian programs have been funded differently, and thus, implemented separately. During program development, USAID suggested a different approach for RIPA South. An approach that, by design, created synergies between sustainable development and humanitarian assistance and allowed funds to be allocated in the event that a crisis impacted progress. Crisis modifier funds can be activated when certain thresholds and indicators have been triggered, allowing Global Communities to respond quickly while helping to prevent and reduce loss of livelihoods, or in severe situations, loss of lives.
In 2022, unceasing drought, repercussions from the COVID-19 pandemic and other stressors were enough to prompt RIPA South to initiate three interventions by the crisis modifier to address short-term needs for pastoralists: the livestock window, which provides concentrate feed and fodder to individuals in order to prevent livestock deaths; the multi-purpose cash window, which distributes cash to address immediate recovery needs; and the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) window, which improves access to water for livestock and humans. Collectively, communities and local stakeholders participate in the selection process that determines who can receive support from the crisis modifier.
Implementing a triple nexus approach has allowed the RIPA South project to bridge the gaps that typically exist across addressing immediate humanitarian needs, protecting sustainable development gains and promoting conflict-sensitive interventions.
Fast Facts:
- As many as 25 million people are at risk of hunger and disease in the Horn of Africa due to drought and resulting food crises.
- Pastoralists make up an estimated 14% to 18% of Ethiopia’s population.
- RIPA South currently operates in five regions that are home to over 5 million people, 95% of whom live in rural communities.
- In the lowland areas where RIPA South operates, wasting — low weight-for-height caused by severe undernutrition — occurs at a rate of triple the national average.
- In 2022, 22,330 core breed livestock from 4,466 different households received 450 kilograms of multi-nutrient livestock feed for three months.
- More than 16,480 heads of livestock received access to clean, safe drinking water.
- A total of 4,000 households benefited from 10,000 Ethiopian birr in the first round of cash transfers, directly impacting 30,815 family members.
- A total of 13,590 animals across 1,359 households received veterinary services through a voucher-based system.
Syria
Triple Nexus | Syria
Emergency Response with a Long-Term Lens
Global Communities began providing humanitarian assistance in Syria in 2014, following the start of an armed conflict that has lasted more than a decade and uprooted more than half of the country’s population. At least 6.7 million Syrians are living as internally displaced people, with 1.9 million in camps or informal settlements, while another 5 million have sought shelter abroad as refugees.
To help meet the needs of the most vulnerable in this crisis, Global Communities focused heavily on food security, shelter, livelihoods, protection, and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) activities throughout 2022. Global Communities’ approach goes beyond handing out goods. We engaged with communities and Syrian organizations in the region to help Syrians fleeing their homes cope with the enormous demographic shifts that have taken place, adapt to their new lives and livelihoods, and build resilience.
With funding from the United States Agency for International Development’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (USAID/BHA), Global Communities completed a program in 2022 to increase food security for 119,000 Syrians through food and agricultural assistance as well as market strengthening. In addition, the program worked to improve living conditions for 240,000 people through critical protection, WASH and shelter interventions, and through integrated humanitarian coordination and information management support for 50 local Syrian and international organizations.
Also in 2022, Global Communities responded to a major cholera outbreak that spread across Syria, ramping up WASH services for more than 157,000 internally displaced people in northwest Syria.
Fast Facts:
- Global Communities provided 50,000 emergency shelter non-food items kits to conflict-affected households, improving living conditions for more than 300,000 Syrians.
- A total of 1,000 chlorinated water trucks delivered 25 liters of water per person a day for 200,000 Syrian refugees.
- We distributed $5.5 million in electronic vouchers to support 40,000 families in purchasing hygiene items.
- We distributed 62,502 dignity kits to 51,640 women and girls in Atmeh camp.
- We distributed 229,000 food baskets every month to improve food security for more than 160,000 Syrians.
Read About Our Work in Other Areas
Localization
Global Communities is committed to advancing the localization of our work through a wide range of models, always centering local voices and prioritizing support and technical assistance for sustainable, community-driven solutions.
Innovation & Technology
Global Communities embeds innovation at every level of our programming, creating space for digital solutions and agile approaches that can blaze a trail to new thinking and a more just and equitable world.