Do humanitarians understand the complexity of urban areas?
Humanitarians are increasingly responding to crises in urban contexts, and grappling with the complexity found in urban areas. While there is an increased awareness that humanitarians need to work with and build upon what already exists in urban areas, there is no clear understanding of how to do so.
ALNAP’s urban research attempts to address this challenge. In 2016, ‘Stepping Back: Understanding Cities and their System’ explored how humanitarians could think differently about the urban context in order to improve response. In 2018, ALNAP published a study and accompanying bitesize and video material which explore the potential of using tools to better understand the urban context. ALNAP is now working a series of case studies to understand how humanitarians can work differently in complex urban contexts.
