The HDP Nexus Coalition: Closing a Chapter, Carrying…

The HDP Nexus Coalition has now formally finalised its operational period (2021-2025). This moment marks the end of an important chapter and a good opportunity to reflect on what was built, what was learned, and what must continue. In that spirit, the Coalition’s Learning Brief was developed to distil lessons from the Coalition and provide practical recommendations for future multi-stakeholder partnerships working on complex challenges such as conflict, hunger, and fragility.

The Coalition emerged from the momentum of the 2021 UN Food Systems Summit, with a clear ambition: to challenge “business as usual” by placing the links between conflict, hunger, and food systems transformation at the centre of global discourse. Over its operational period (2021–2025), the Coalition succeeded in elevating the food security–conflict nexus in major global dialogues, including the UN Food Systems Summit +4 Stocktake (UNFSS+4), the UNFSS Hub workplan (2024–2025), the Committee on World Food Security (CFS), and contributions to the Global Report on Food Crises. In doing so, it helped ensure that fragile and conflict-affected contexts were more systematically recognised within global food systems debates.

For NFP, this is also a moment to reflect on the workstream we led: Transformation and Knowledge Management. Among the Coalition’s most enduring contributions was the Community of Practice (CoP), a peer-learning space connecting national food systems convenors (high-level officials who lead the transformation of their respective national food systems) from fragile and conflict-affected contexts.

Launched in late 2024, the CoP created a trusted environment for convenors to exchange experiences, compare approaches, and learn directly from one another. In contexts where food insecurity is deeply shaped by conflict and instability, that kind of practical, country-led learning matters a great deal. As Knowledge Management Lead, NFP supported these exchanges, helping turn dialogue into connection and shared insight. The experience reinforced a key lesson: knowledge management is not just about producing outputs, but about continuous peer learning among those leading food systems work on the ground.

The Learning Brief also reminds us that inclusion requires dependable investment. Translation, compensated participation, and small grants for local engagement were recurring needs, yet often unmet. If peer learning and co-design of local solutions are to be more than symbolic, they must be given space in the budget.

The chapter may be closed for the Coalition in this form, but the value created through connection and peer learning will continue, as the CoP is now continuing with the Global Network against Food Crisis. Looking forward, conflict remains a major driver of food insecurity, and the need for nationally-led pathways in fragile contexts is only growing. However, the Coalition’s learnings make clear that these pathways will only substantively address their country’s food systems challenges when partnerships are built around multi-stakeholder collaboration from the outset, and intentionally include space and resources for it.