Empowering Local Actors in an Urban Crisis

This Reflect & Act looks back on IIED's work as part of the Urban Crises Learning Fund. Engaging researchers and practitioners around the world, the Urban Crises Learning Fund supported over 30 research projects on key issues shaping humanitarian responses in urban areas. Two learning partnerships, led by the International Rescue Committee and Habitat for Humanity, developed tools for urban settings and documented past urban responses. Local and international workshops gathered stakeholders, disseminated good practice and advocacy messages and analysed earlier learning to build capacity for future crisis response. The initiative highlighted the need to integrate the responses of local actors and humanitarian agencies in the face of an urban crisis, as well as knowledge gaps for further research.