Advancing the Nexus in Practice: Afar and Somali Regions Exchange Lessons

With support from the European Union–funded Advancing the Nexus Approach in Ethiopia project, the workshop focused on sharing practical experience to support the shift from planning to implementation, as both regions work to address persistent vulnerability, climate shocks, and fragmented interventions.

Both Afar and Somali Regions face recurring humanitarian needs driven by structural challenges, including low economic productivity, climate variability, and limited coordination across sectors and actors. Despite significant investments, interventions often remain siloed, short-term, and insufficiently aligned. Somali Region, supported by the Team Europe Coalition, GIZ, and UN Resident Coordinator’s Office (UNRCO) has spent the past year advancing a government-led Nexus system. Afar, having recently completed its draft Nexus Operational Plan used this exchange to learn from a peer region that has begun translating the Nexus from concept into practice.

Focus of the Exchange

The workshop centered on practical questions rather than theory. Afar’s delegation identified four key areas for learning: how to make the Regional Nexus Coordination Group (R‑NCG) effective in practice; how to move from priorities to alignment of actors and investments; how to influence partner programming; and how to strengthen coordination without creating additional bureaucracy.

Somali Region’s Bureau of Planning and Economic Development (BoPED) shared its experience of operationalizing the Nexus, including the launch of the Regional Nexus Platform, the piloting of an area-based approach in Fafan Zone, and the development of coordination and planning tools. The discussion highlighted a shift toward a new way of working, one grounded in government leadership, multi-sector coordination, and focused geographic implementation.

Afar presented its emerging direction, centered on transitioning from a crisis-prone system to a more resilient and productive development pathway. This includes priorities in economic upgrading, human capital development, water and climate resilience, and peace and social cohesion, with an operational model focused on strengthening regional coordination, alignment, and investment direction. Edris Outban, Director of the Afar Bureau of Planning and Development (BoPD) noted, “we need to strengthen coordination at the regional level first before cascading it further, and ensure that decision-makers are fully engaged for this to work.”

Key Takeaways

Several practical lessons emerged from the exchange.

Political leadership is essential but not sufficient. Strong top-level commitment must be supported by clear accountability mechanisms, resources, and ownership across levels of government. As highlighted by Mohammed Hassan, an Advisor from the Somali Regional BoPED, “without strong political leadership, integration does not happen, but at the same time local ownership is what makes the system work in practice.”

Coordination must move from discussion to decision-making. Effective Nexus implementation requires tools that translate dialogue into alignment and guide investments. This shift was also highlighted by Menelik Anbesse, Advisor at GIZ and Secretariat of the Fafan Nexus Platform, who noted “coordination only works when it leads to decisions and alignment. Practical coordination tools, clear institutional ownership, private sector and CSOs engagement, and regular follow-up on agreed actions are essential to move from dialogue to measurable collective results”.

Focus implementation to demonstrate results, while adapting to context. Somali Region’s experience highlights the value of concentrating efforts in a defined area to demonstrate how the Nexus can work in practice before scaling. At the same time, the exchange underscored that approaches must be adapted to regional context. While Somali Region has opted for an area-based pilot at zonal level, Afar is pursuing a regional, systems-led model centered on a single coordination platform. The model places emphasis on a strong regional coordination platform to guide strategic alignment and investment decisions, rather than establishing multiple coordination structures at sub-regional levels. As emphasized by Oumar Warfa, Head of Somali Regional BoPED, “the key is to demonstrate results in a focused way and avoid trying to do everything at once,” a lesson that Afar can apply through prioritized, well-coordinated interventions at regional level. 

Capacity development is continuous. Building a shared understanding of the Nexus across government and partners requires sustained engagement over time. As noted by Hassan, “raising capacity on the Nexus is not a one-time event; it requires continuous effort to build real ownership and operational competence.”

Participants from Afar emphasized the importance of strengthening government leadership and accountability structures to translate the approach into practice. Hussein Abdella, UN Coordination Directorate Director at the Afar Bureau of Finance, highlighted that strong leadership from the Regional President’s Office is essential, noting that without such high-level commitment it becomes difficult to ensure alignment and accountability across institutions.

What Happens Next

For Afar, the immediate priority is to transition from design to operationalization of the Nexus approach. This begins with formally establishing the Regional Nexus Coordination Group (R‑NCG) as the central, government-led platform for coordination and strategic decision-making. In parallel, the Afar Regional Government will move to ratify its draft Nexus Operational Model and use the R‑NCG to rally government institutions and partners around the identified priority areas and agreed collective outcomes outlined in the Nexus Operational Plan.

A key focus will be to translate priorities into action by identifying concrete opportunities for alignment across ongoing programmes and future investments. This includes strengthening visibility of who is doing what, improving coherence across interventions, and guiding partners toward more coordinated, system-oriented engagement. Together, these steps are intended to move the Nexus in Afar from a strategic framework to a functioning coordination and investment platform that drives collective impact over time.

For Somali Region, the focus remains on consolidating its pilot in Fafan Zone, generating results from its twelve-month proof of concept test case, and preparing for gradual expansion to additional zones.

For partners, the exchange reinforces the need to move beyond project-based engagement toward aligning financing and technical support with government-led priorities and systems. This includes supporting coordination mechanisms that enable alignment, accountability, and long-term impact. As a participant from GIZ noted, “making the Nexus operational means working through government systems and ensuring partners are collectively accountable for lasting impact, not just individual project results.”

Moving Forward

The exchange marks an important step in advancing the Nexus from concept to practice. By grounding the discussion in real experience and focusing on actionable lessons, both regions are moving toward more coordinated, system-level approaches that strengthen resilience, reduce humanitarian dependence, build resilience, and support sustainable development.

Participants reflected a shared understanding that the real opportunity now lies not in further planning but in implementing differently, capturing the common direction emerging from the discussions.