Camp Transformation in Corail Cesselesse, Haiti: Participatory Urban Planning after the 2010 Earthquake: Summary Report

The Urban Crises Learning Partnership (UCLP) was a two-year (2015–17) learning initiative aimed at improving humanitarian preparedness and response in urban areas. It is a partnership between Habitat for Humanity GB, Oxfam GB, the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), and University College London (UCL). The project has carried out primary research in Haiti and Bangladesh through the National Offices of Habitat for Humanity in both countries, and Oxfam in Bangladesh.

The UCLP has two primary objectives: to improve the way stakeholders in urban crises engage with each other to form new partnerships and make better decisions; and to improve disaster preparedness and response in urban areas by developing, testing, and disseminating new approaches to the formation of these relationships and systems. The project has addressed these objectives by exploring four related themes: the role of actors who are not part of the formal national or international humanitarian system; accountability to affected populations (AAP); urban systems; and coordinating urban disaster preparedness.

This case study by Rachel Senat and Alex Belvert makes a valuable contribution to the second of these themes – AAP. By examining in detail a case in which the participation of the community was very low, the paper demonstrates how poor outcomes can result from weak engagement with affected people.