The lines between development lending and long-term humanitarian assistance have become increasingly blurred, as the bank is drawn into areas beset by fragility, conflict and violence, said Matt McGuire, the U.S. representative to the bank’s board.

“Working in silos is not proving useful.” -- Michael Talhami, International Committee of the Red Cross

Organizations engaged in each area are overlapping more over lengthening periods of time, said Jeff Helsing, an associate vice president at USIP. The challenge now is for these organizations to collaborate to increase their effectiveness, said Helsing, who moderated the event.

“It’s on the mind of the World Bank in Washington and relief workers in the field,” he said.

More than 130 million people worldwide require humanitarian assistance to survive because of crises or disasters, including violent conflict, according to the United Nations. The World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul in May brought together 9,000 government, civil society, private-sector and aid workers from 173 countries to discuss how development and humanitarian institutions can cooperate more for sustainable solutions to aid the world's most vulnerable people.

The USIP event this week, part of the monthly Conflict Prevention and Resolution Forum, was part of the institute’s work to explore ways of increasing coordination between humanitarian and development aid. USIP President Nancy Lindborg has noted that 80 percent of global humanitarian aid is directed to victims of violent conflict and 20 percent to recovery from natural disasters, the reverse ratio of a decade ago.

Conflict Shifts World Bank’s Mission

This shift means the World Bank needs to consider its mission of promoting economic development with an eye to the dynamics and effects of conflict, McGuire said. Peacebuilding is not what the bank does — for that it looks to partners who specialize in conflict mitigation, he said.

Yet the bank’s own research shows that development reduces conflict and bolsters stability, he said. In countries affected by strife or refugees, the bank needs to work with relief organizations that, from their position on the ground, understand best where stabilizing investments are most critical, McGuire said.

To accomplish this, the bank created its “global crisis response platform,” a proposed $2 billion fund designed to strengthen its ability to address refugee crises. It is yet to be financed to the necessary levels by the bank’s member governments, McGuire said. In the meantime, Jordan, which hosts more than 650,000 Syrian refugees and Lebanon, where more than 1 million have landed, have won loans payable over decades at very low rates, McGuire said. To take from the countries’ normal allocation for building roads and schools to cope with refugee burdens would be counterproductive from every angle, especially considering the global public benefit the two countries are serving by handling the challenge, he said.

The International Committee of the Red Cross likewise finds itself in new terrain, said Michael Talhami, a senior advisor on water and shelter who is based in Jordan. The ICRC historically has provided relief in areas of armed conflict, not development work on over-burdened water and electric systems in host communities, he said.

“But here we are, operating in a country like Jordan, and that’s primarily a function of gap filling,” he said. “It’s also because we’ve developed competence in urban services in conflict areas.”

Looking Differently at Refugee Crisis

Humanitarian organizations tend to work within their comfort zones, which includes refugee camps. Yet 80 percent of Syrian refugees in Jordan are living outside camps in urban areas, he said.

“We need to replace the paradigm of the relief-rehabilitation-development continuum,” Talhami said. “Working in silos is not proving useful.”

McGuire cited the issue of repatriating refugees. While humanitarian groups may stabilize the situation of people who’ve fled violence, the organizations need to coordinate with development institutions that can help support the creation of small businesses and press host countries to issue work permits. The host countries, in turn, should plan with organizations like the World Bank to support large-scale infrastructure projects that serve refugee populations and improve general economic conditions. The end result would help refugees accumulate the financial resources they need to return to their countries of origin, he said.

“We will need fundamentally better coordination and structures to build that connective tissue,” said Carla Koppell, a former chief strategy officer for the U.S. Agency for International Development who now serves as vice president of USIP’s Center for Applied Conflict Transformation. For relief groups, development organizations and peacebuilders, the integrated approach is the clearest path to tackling the world’s refugee crisis, she said.