Abstract

Rapid urbanisation is a key characteristic of the modern world, interacting with and reinforcing other global mega trends, including armed conflict, climate change, crime, environmental degradation, financial and economic instability, food shortages, underemployment, volatile commodity prices, and weak governance. Displaced people also are affected by and engaged in the process of urbanisation. Increasingly, refugees, returnees, and internally displaced persons (IDPs) are to be found not in camps or among host communities in rural areas, but in the towns and cities of developing and middle-income countries. The arrival and long-term settlement of displaced populations in urban areas needs to be better anticipated, understood, and planned for, with a particular emphasis on the establishment of new partnerships. Humanitarian actors can no longer liaise only with national governments; they must also develop urgently closer working relationships with mayors and municipal authorities, service providers, urban police forces, and, most importantly, the representatives of both displaced and resident communities. This requires linking up with those development actors that have established such partnerships already.

Links

Publisher Full Text

Authors

Crisp J, Morris T, Refstie H

Institution

Policy Development and Evaluation Service, Office of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Genève, Switzerland. crisp@unhcr.org

Source

Disasters 36 Suppl 1: 2012 Jul pg S23-42

MeSH

Disasters
Emigration and Immigration
Ethnic Groups
Female
Health Services Needs and Demand
Health Status Disparities
Humans
Male
Nutritional Status
Refugees
Relief Work
Residence Characteristics
Risk Factors
Sex Factors
United Nations
Urban Health Services
Urban Population
World Health

Pub Type(s)

Journal Article
Review

Language

eng

PubMed ID

22687155