The Role of Transition Funds in Bridging Relief and Development

Project context

Humanitarian and development actors face two important and interlinked challenges: First, a “transition gap” has emerged as actors on the ground have difficulties financing activities that are neither immediately life-saving and therefore covered by humanitarian funding lines, nor are they sustainable and can be planned in the long-term and are therefore covered through classic development budgets. Second, different aid modalities, such as humanitarian, transitional or development aid, are often not sufficiently linked on the ground.

In reacting to these challenges, the German Ministry for Development Cooperation (BMZ) created a new budget line for “development-oriented emergency and transitional aid” in 2005 in order to provide more flexible funding for different elements of crisis prevention and response. Projects funded through this facility are now being implemented in more than 40 countries.

Five years into the implementation of this funding line, the BMZ reviewed its development-oriented emergency and transitional aid with the aim of sharpening its strategic focus on transition gaps and strengthening links between different aid modalities.

Project objectives

On behalf of the BMZ, the former German Association for Technical Cooperation (GTZ) commissioned GPPi to conduct an analysis aimed at understanding the nature of the transition gap and the conditions and success factors for linking relief, rehabilitation and development. GPPi conducted this analysis through a literature and document review, interviews with donors and implementing partners, an analysis of financial data and country visits. Through this study, GPPi supported the BMZ's development objectives and contributed to the international debate by:

• Providing an up-to-date summary of the conceptual debate surrounding the different intervention phases, as well as the “transition gap” and linkage problematic
• Analyzing the nature of the transition gap and testing it against the financial realities of the humanitarian and development context
• Analyzing the conditions and success factors for effectively linking relief, rehabilitation and development
• And drawing out the implications of these analyses for German policy by creating a matrix of priority transition activities by sector and emergency type
• Identifying key interventions for strengthening linkages and synergies between different aid modalities.

The project concluded with an internal participatory workshop and a report to draw out strategic implications from the study’s findings.

For more information on this project, please contact Julia Steets.