Urban Environment

Urban Environment

Humanitarian assistance in Urban Environments faces specific challenges directly influenced by environmental factors

Urban Environment

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Today, half of the world’s population lives in cities which is projected rise up to 60 percent by 2030. At the same time, a growing number of conflicts and disasters affect urban settings, with cities becoming increasingly vulnerable towards effects of extreme weather events, earthquakes and epidemics.

When taking a closer look at the current process of urbanization, it becomes apparent that over the past forty years, the urban population in lower income and fragile countries has increased by 326 percent1.

In such a context, it is not surprising that coming crises have a high probability of taking place in urban settings. This means that humanitarian actors will be increasingly working in urban contexts which could be prone to violence and disasters. In such contexts, public authorities often have difficulty delivering basic services, security and welfare.

When operating in an urban setting, humanitarian programming must take the environmental dimension into account:

This page is under development, more guidance will be added soon. In the meanwhile, please refer to the guidance under the preparedness and crisis response and recovery sections.

Resources

Guideline

UN Environment: Quick guides on how humanitarian action can minimize environmental impacts

The 'Quick guides' contain key guidance on environmental issues relevant to six sectors of Food Security and Agriculture Sector, Basic Needs Sector, Health Sector, Education Sector, Protection Sector and Livelihood Sector of humanitarian response to population displacement. They underscore the opportunities to minimize negative environmental impacts during humanitarian action.

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Mission Report

Cox’s Bazaar, Bangladesh: experts assess environmental impacts of Rohingya influx

Mission report by the Ministry of Environment and Forest of Bangladesh on the environmental impacts of the refugee influx in Bangladesh.

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Guideline

Environment Marker Sector Guidance

This guidance accompanies the Environment Marker, and aims at giving specific guidance on mitigation measures for activities in “B”-coded projects (medium environmental impact). It provides additional sector-specific guidance, using the example of Sudan.

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Guideline

ACAPS – Rapid Humanitarian Assessment in Urban Settings; Technical Brief

A technical brief by ACAPS on improving coordinated needs assessments to improve the quality and accountability of humanitarian response in urban areas.

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