Research update: Urban

20 Oct 2017

ALNAP's most recent research project into responding to urban crisis asks the question: Do humanitarians understand enough about urban areas to provide an appropriate and efficient response?

Humanitarians are increasingly recognising that they should be aware of the different systems - markets, political structures - and stakeholders which exist in urban areas, but there is no clear, common understanding of what ‘urban systems’ are, or what humanitarians really need to know.

In 2015, ALNAP started a research project to explore how humanitarians could understand and work effectively in complex urban contexts. Stepping Back: Understanding Cities and their Systems, the first research paper released on under this project, explores the idea that humanitarians should take a step back to understand cities and urban areas as a complex system if they are to improve their humanitarian response. In 2018, ALNAP will publish a new piece of research exploring potential tools for humanitarians to use to better understand the urban context and case studies on how to work differently in complex urban contexts.

25 March 2016 | ALNAP signs the Charter for Urban Crisis

ALNAP signs the Global Alliance for Urban Crises' Urban Crisis Charter at the 2016 World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul.

The charter outlines guiding principles for members of the Global Alliance for Urban Crises which will be used as a basis for both policy and operational level engagement, in order to be more effective in preventing, preparing for, and responding to humanitarian crises in urban environments.