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CITIES IN CRISIS
By 2050 over 70% of the global population will live in urban areas. This accelerating urbanization trend is accompanied by an increasing vulnerability of cities to both natural and man-made disasters. More and more, humanitarian actors are responding to urban crises, but are poorly equipped to understand and effectively engage with cities’ complex socio-economic dynamics and governance structures. In particular, humanitarian planning and coordination platforms have struggled to propose multi-sectoral action and to engage in partnerships with subnational actors, two pre-conditions for effective work in city environments.
Through its Cities in Crisis programme, AGORA supports humanitarian actors to develop more localised, multi-sectoral humanitarian responses in cities, facilitating linkages between relief, recovery and development actions and between local and international actors.
Cities in Crisis is implemented in partnership with UCLG Task Force on Territorial Prevention and Management of Crises and Cités Unies France, thanks to the ongoing support of EU humanitarian aid.
Multi-stakeholder coordination in urban responses: challenges and opportunities
As part of the Humanitarian Networks and Partnerships Week held in Geneva in February 2018, IMPACT Initiatives and the Global Alliance for Urban Crises hosted - in partnership with OCHA, the Joint IDP Profiling Service (JIPS), the Global Shelter Cluster and CANADEM, a session titled: Cities in Crises: Multi-stakeholder Coordination in Urban response. Panellists shared experiences, insights, challenges and lessons of engaging with diverse actors in urban contexts – including international and national and humanitarian and development actors, stressing the need for international actors to engage with and support city and municipal authorities.
Find the note with a synthesis of key themes discussed here.
Two Crisis in Cities pilots have been completed between September 2016 and August 2017. The first pilot undertaken in Jeremie, Haiti, was in response to the destruction caused by cyclone Matthew. The second pilot in Bangui, Central African Republic, was launched to support the high level of displaced populations returning to Bangui.
Here are the lessons learned.
Access findings at this link.
By 2050, over 70% of the global population will live in urban areas. This urbanisation trend is accompanied by an increasing prevalence and intensity of natural and man-made disasters in urban centres. Despite this increase, the humanitarian system has struggled to understand and effectively engage with the complex socio-economic dynamics and governance structures existing within cities. Humanitarian response planning and coordination primarily occur at the sectoral or cluster level, missing an important holistic understanding of a complex urban environment. Sub-national actors, including municipal authorities, service providers and civil society, often remain excluded from humanitarian planning and coordination processes.
Access findings at this link.
Perspectives from Cities in Crisis Report
City-specific reports: Bangui, Bogo, Gaziantep, Mafraq, Port au Prince, Tacloban.
IMPACT Initiatives and UCLG’s Task Force On Local and Regional Government Disaster Response facilitated a series of consultations in six cities affected by natural or man-made disasters. In collaboration with local authorities and aid actors, each city identified key lessons and guidance to inform future responses, outlined in city-specific reports and compiled into a comprehensive report which was presented in May 2016 at the World Humanitarian Summit, in partnership with the Urban Expert Group.
Urban Assessment Pilot: the City of Jérémie, Haiti
The city of Jérémie, capital of the southern department of Grand Anse in Haiti, suffered extensive damage after being hit by Hurricane Matthew in October 2016. To support an efficient and integrated humanitarian response in the city of Jérémie, AGORA conducted an urban assessment in the most severely affected neighbourhoods between 1st November and 15 December 2016.
Assessment findings are being used by operational actors responding in the city of Jérémie, including local and international stakeholders, as a basis for the development of settlement-based and multi-sectorial neighbourhood recovery plans.
Access findings at this link.
Humanitarian Response Plan for the City of Bangui, Central African Republic
Since 2013, a major crisis has shaken the Central African Republic. With progressive increase in stability in Bangui, many IDPs are starting to return to their areas of origin within the city. The Municipality of Bangui has consequently started facing challenges in terms of resources and means to address and fully meet the needs of the population.
To better understand the needs of affected communities and facilitate the return of IDPs to their areas of origin, AGORA facilitated an area-based assessment and coordination in the city of Bangui, as well as round tables with local and international stakeholders to develop neighbourhood-level response plans and a city-level coordination body.
Access findings at this link.