Improving humanitarian action in urban crisis: a perspective from cities in crisis

20.05.2016

In preparation of the World Humanitarian Summit (WHS), UCLG’s Task Force on Local and Regional Government Disaster Response (UCLG), trough its secretariat held by Cités Unies France (CUF), and IMPACT realized a series of broad-based consultations to identify lessons learnt and recommendations stemming from the humanitarian response in seven cities recently affected by crisis. The exercise has been developed and implemented in conjunction with the Global Alliance for Urban Crises, contributing to the Policy Commitments outlined in its Urban Crises Charter.

Seven city-specific summary reports have been prepared, outlining challenges and recommendations identified by cities’ stakeholders during the consultations. The seven consulted cities are : Tacloban, Guiuan and Bogo (Philippines), Bangui (Central African Republic), Gaziantep (Turkey), Mafraq (Jordan), and Port au Prince (Haiti).

Findings have been compiled into an overall report. Overall, the report points to the need of localising humanitarian coordination and planning mechanisms, of promoting the resilience of communities and city systems as well as enhancing partnerships with municipal stakeholders. This report is accompanied by six city-specific reports, providing a more in-depth overview of challenges and recommendations emerging from each city consultation.

The report will be broadly circulated and presented by the UCLG Task Force and Impact, together with mayors of cities involved in the study during a dedicated side event as part of the WHS organized on Monday 23, 2016 in Istanbul.

In the coming months, the Global Alliance for Urban Crises and its members, UCLG Task Force and IMPACT will continue their cooperation to pilot new humanitarian coordination and planning mechanisms for settlement-based and holistic responses in urban crisis settings. We hope that this work will provide some additional lessons learnt and best practices and ultimately lead to better humanitarian action in cities.