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149 results
Woman pumping water using from a well in Zambia.
Drought unmasks structural failures and systemic inequalities in Mazyopa informal settlement
… Cholera spread rapidly, leading to one of the country’s worst health crises in recent history. The informal settlement of Mazyopa in Lusaka … Urban …
Insight, 25 August 2026
Street scene with multistorey flats and market stalls.
An inclusive Nairobi? Refugee accounts of life in the city
… in 1991. Despite this, around 16% of all refugees in Kenya live in urban areas. Nairobi is home to most of them and is widely recognised as … Refugee Act in Kenya increased public debate on the integration of urban refugees. The new legislation has the potential to improve the situation of urban refugees and their contributions to Kenya’s future. Particularly, …
Project, 16 May 2024
David Dodman, director of IIED's Human Settlements research group, addresses the conference on urban crises (Photo: Matt Wright/IIED)
Urban crises conference: time to put learning into practice
… more than 100 participants from government, humanitarian agencies, urban researchers and practitioners. Participants also included local … Rescue Committee (IRC) , and was titled ' From cities in crisis to crises in cities: towards a collaborative urban humanitarian response '. It was the culmination of a three-year …
News, 23 November 2017
Group of community members recording via interviews via their phones.
Community-led innovations leading to transformative change
… on the front line of environmental, social, political and economic crises. Increasingly frequent phenomena such as flooding, extreme … dwellers, not against them. According to World Bank data , 64% of the urban population in low-income countries live in slums. UN-Habitat … Dwellers International (SDI) and IIED, ‘ Learning from informality: urban innovations for just and sustainable cities’. The case studies …
Insight, 27 February 2025
A table covered in cards with pictures on them.
Data justice for refugees: refugees in Jordan set out priorities for a better future
… data for their own goals and aspirations. Examples are groups of urban poor living in informal settlements in India and Kenya, affordable … priorities identified by and with Jordan’s refugee communities.  The (urban refugees’) scream A series of of illustrations were also created … Urban … Urban crises and forced displacement …
Project, 19 March 2024
An image of a crowd of members of the USaid Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) team rescue a teen in the Gongabu, Kathmandu District, five days after the Nepal earthquake in April 2015 (Photo: USaid, Creative Commons, via Flickr)
Collaborations in urban humanitarian response – introducing the Global Alliance for Urban Crises
… and NGOs, to consider how the humanitarian system can best respond to crises arising from natural disasters, conflict and protracted … displacement. The summit saw the launch of the Global Alliance for Urban Crises , which prioritises a more collaborative approach that will … a Nepali NGO with a long history of working to support organised urban communities, in partnership with Oxfam Nepal. Supporting and …
Insight, 31 May 2016
The influx of migrants and refugees onto the island of Lesbos was met with an influx of responders from various sectors who often did not effectively collaborate early on in the response (Tyler Jump/International Rescue Committee)
Finding space for dialogue when urban crises hit
… II I, the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development held every 20 years, explored how to strengthen crises response in urban areas. Participants heard how humanitarian agencies fail to engage … Urban … Finding space for dialogue when urban crises hit …
News, 26 October 2016
Clearing up after the 2015 Nepal earthquake. Women and children, the elderly and people living in informal settlements may be especially vulnerable in an urban crisis (Photo: anjetika, Creative Commons via Flickr)
New research funded on protecting the vulnerable in urban humanitarian crises
… improve our understanding of how best to protect vulnerable people in urban crisis situations. Funding for the research projects is provided by the Urban Crises Learning Fund , a three-year project that aims to build an … Urban … New research funded on protecting the vulnerable in urban humanitarian crises …
News, 23 June 2016
A local market in Kampala, Uganda. One of the winning proposals will study refugees and markets in urban Uganda (Photo: Hendrik Terbeck, Creative Commons via Flickr)
New research funded to study local markets in the context of urban crises
… funding for work to improve our understanding of the effects of urban humanitarian crises on the functioning of local markets.  The funding for the research has been provided by the  Urban Crises Learning Fund , a three-year project that aims to build an … Urban … New research funded to study local markets in the context of urban crises …
News, 28 September 2016
Temporary settlements in Kirtipur, Nepal, which was devastated by earthquakes in 2015 (Photo: Zahrah Nesbitt-Ahmed)
Cash transfers in urban crises: do they work for women?
… − more strenuous and hazardous (PDF) .  Incorporating gender into crises response Evidence shows how efforts to incorporate gender … increase their influence in the wider community? Why focus on cash in urban contexts? Cash-based urban economies have a very distinctive gendered dimension, with poor … Urban …
Insight, 08 March 2017