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2009 Dialogue: Related Themes

This web page has been divided thematically to enable participants to understand and navigate through the complex topic of challenges to people of concern in cities and urban settings. Under each heading, you will find links to relevant articles, evaluations and tools:

Identification and Outreach
- Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre: IDP Profiling (external link)
- Surviving in the city: A review of UNHCR's operation for Iraqi refugees in urban areas of Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, PDES Evaluation report, July 2009
- A tale of three cities: internal displacement, urbanization and humanitarian action in Abidjan, Khartoum and Mogadishu, Eveliina Lyytinen, PDES Research Paper, March 2009
- Ignored Displaced Persons: the plight of IDPs in urban areas, Alexandra Fielden, PDES Research Paper, July 2008
Protection
- Protecting the Displaced in Colombia: The Role of Municipal Authorities. Summary Report, Bogota, Colombia, 14 November 2008 (report of seminar convened by the Brookings-Bern Project on Internal Displacement, Universidad de los Andes, UNHCR and Acción Social)
- On this site: Protection: A Safety Net
Solutions
Women and Children
- Making Mainstreaming a Reality: Gender and the UNHCR Policy on Refugee Protection and Solutions in Urban Areas. A Refugee Perspective, by Eileen Pittaway, Centre for Refugee Research
- On this site: Women and Children
Education
Health
- Urban Refugee Health: Discussion Paper for the High Commissioner's Dialogue
- On this site: Public Health: Health Care and the Displaced
Livelihoods
- Livelihoods in Urban Settings: A Discussion Paper for the High Commissioner's Dialogue on Protection Challenges
- Building Livelihoods: A Field Manual for Practioners in Humanitarian Settings, May 2009, published by the Women's Refugee Commission (external link)
- On this site: Livelihoods & Self-Reliance
Shelter
- Urban Response: Summary of breakout groups on urban response at the humanitarian shelter and reconstruction forum Shelter Meeting
- On this site: Shelter: A Roof Over their Heads

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Persons of Concern in Urban Areas in the News

2009 Dialogue: Literature Review

A review of available literature on persons of concern in urban settings.

Urban Refugees

More than half the refugees UNHCR serves now live in urban areas

Colombia: Life in the Barrios

After more than forty years of internal armed conflict, Colombia has one of the largest populations of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the world. Well over two million people have been forced to flee their homes; many of them have left remote rural areas to take refuge in the relative safety of the cities.

Displaced families often end up living in slum areas on the outskirts of the big cities, where they lack even the most basic services. Just outside Bogota, tens of thousands of displaced people live in the shantytowns of Altos de Cazuca and Altos de Florida, with little access to health, education or decent housing. Security is a problem too, with irregular armed groups and gangs controlling the shantytowns, often targeting young people.

UNHCR is working with the authorities in ten locations across Colombia to ensure that the rights of internally displaced people are fully respected – including the rights to basic services, health and education, as well as security.

Colombia: Life in the Barrios

Falujah Iraq: Life In Limbo

Despite a decrease in violence in Iraq, millions of people remain displaced. This is the story of 50 displaced families living in a former hospital in the central Iraqi city of Fallujah.