Enacting the humanitarian-development-peace (HDP) Triple Nexus: civic ecosystems at the frontlines of the Russo-Ukrainian war

The article examines how bottom-up mobilization in response to the Russo-Ukrainian war has enabled the implementation of the Triple Nexus (TN). In conducting in-depth interviews (n:55) with key social actors, this research analyses the practices, collaboration, and complementary actions across the pillars of the TN within the transnational Polish-Ukrainian civic ecosystem. The research highlights the informality and agility of civic ecosystems key to making the TN approach work, as well as the possible pitfalls of this framework on the fringes of conflict zones. We argue that it is the absence of structure and clear modes of governance that have enabled the intersection of the humanitarian, development and peace/security sectors, working in the space of informality, ambiguity, and lack of long-term solutions. The research offers a view on new forms of bottom-up legitimacy and cooperation taking shape between and within these spaces, which may be instructive for future TN structures.