Responding to Urban Displacement: What needs to be done

The International Rescue Committee’s (IRC) annual
Ditchley Park Policy Conference was held on 7th and
8th October 2014 and for the second consecutive year
focused on urban displacement. Representatives from
humanitarian and development organisations, UN
agencies, the World Bank, the private sector, donor
governments, local NGOs as well as academics and
city planners attended, ensuring all key actors were
part of the conversation.

The conference consisted of expert panels, discussion
groups and plenary sessions. Lebanon was used as
a case study and point of reference for discussions,
contextualising the debate. Expert panels discussed
what we can learn and opportunities for new ways of
working that Lebanon has highlighted. Panels also
addressed where the humanitarian community still
needs to get to in terms of adapting to urban contexts while new actors and innovation were also discussed.

Discussion groups focused on three key areas,
area-based programming, an enabling environment
and scaling up interventions in urban areas.
Participants were asked to map what a programme
that delivers these three outcomes would look like,
the barriers to achieving that and possible solutions to
those barriers.

This paper summarises the key points coming out
of the discussion and recommendations for moving
forward.