Using the case study of three countries, including South Sudan, this paper explores the extent to which a bottom-up approach has been integrated in the Humanitarian-Development-Peace (HDP) nexus process, particularly from the perspective of humanitarian actors. Specifically, the paper finds that this integration has been challenging mainly due to power imbalance intrinsic to the political positioning of international humanitarian actors. Finally, the paper provides some suggestion how to effectively implement HDP using a bottom-up approach.