In November 2025, UNDP Saudi Arabia convened leading national and international partners for a high-level training on the Humanitarian-Development-Peace (HDP) Nexus, marking a pivotal step in the Kingdom’s growing leadership in crisis response and resilience-building. The two-day workshop, co-hosted by KSrelief and supported by the UNDP Nexus Academy, was held at the UN House in Riyadh, gathering experts and representatives from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Saudi Fund for Development, SDRPY, Prince Sultan University, and multilateral partners including Germany and the United Kingdom.

The HDP Nexus Academy, under UNDP’s Crisis Bureau at Headquarters, serves as a global platform dedicated to advancing Nexus practice across country offices. It works in collaboration with other UN agencies to deliver peer learning, applied tools, and field-focused expertise. For this training, a team of trainers from UNDP Headquarters in New York travelled to Riyadh to lead the sessions, ensuring alignment with global standards and best practices.

More than a theoretical concept, the HDP Nexus is now a living framework embedded across UNDP’s portfolio in Saudi Arabia. From drought-prone rural communities to complex urban systems, Nexus principles guide how UNDP co-develops interventions that address immediate humanitarian needs while building lasting peace and development infrastructure.

At the Riyadh training, participants explored real-world examples of how the HDP Nexus is being operationalized including case studies from Syria, Palestine, Sudan, and Yemen and engaged in hands-on exercises to design context-specific solutions rooted in coordination, joint programming, and Nexus-responsive financing. The training emphasized trilingualism in coordination (across humanitarian, development, and peace actors), rights-based approaches, and the growing role of the GCC region in global resilience financing.

The opening ceremony featured remarks from KSRelief, the Ambassador of Germany, Deputy Ambassador of the United Kingdom, the UNDP Resident Representative and the UN Resident Coordinator, setting a strong foundation for the workshop. Donor governments supporting the global HDP Nexus Academy including Germany, Spain and the Republic of Korea were acknowledged for their contributions. Dr. Hana Omar noted that “UNDP is a strategic partner, and more cooperation will help tackle many aspects of achieving the SDGs.” Ms. Nahid Hussein emphasized that “this training is about practice, anchored in sustainable, locally driven solutions.”

Crucially, the HDP Nexus in Saudi Arabia is driven by local ownership and inclusive leadership. As Ms. Nahid Hussein, UNDP Resident Representative, noted: “HDP Nexus is about how we perceive people, not just as beneficiaries, but as agents of change. Our role is to ensure they are part of the solution, and that their ownership is central to every intervention.”

In the field, this is already translating into impact:

• Local Governance & Peacebuilding: Community-driven planning is improving service delivery and trust in public institutions.
• Women & Youth Engagement: Climate-affected regions are witnessing new leadership from women and youth in entrepreneurship, green recovery, and social cohesion.
  Environmental Resilience: Nexus strategies are supporting communities to adapt to drought, regenerate land, and build diversified livelihoods.
  Policy Coherence: With the support of partners, UNDP is aligning national priorities with global frameworks such as Vision 2030 and the SDGs ensuring system-wide integration across all sectors.

This special training reinforced Saudi Arabia’s commitment to driving the HDP Nexus agenda at home and abroad including through its leadership of COP16 and active engagement in South-South and triangular cooperation platforms.

UNDP Saudi Arabia Country Office staff were fully engaged in the planning and execution of the workshop and also participated actively in the training, itself including colleagues from programme and operations. This reflects the Country Office’s commitment to encouraging and facilitating capacity building for the entire team.

As global challenges grow more complex, Saudi Arabia and its partners are showing how forward-looking, Nexus-based governance can turn fragility into opportunity building resilience not just for today, but for generations to come.