How to address protection in urban humanitarian response (Urban webinar #20)

In humanitarian response, protection is understood as efforts taken to protect the rights of individuals. Protection is arguably both an underlying goal across a humanitarian response and also used to describe a particular set of activities which aim to protect the rights of and mitigate threats for particular vulnerable people.

Protection in urban areas can be particularly challenging due to the pre-existing vulnerabilities often found in cities which can be exacerbated in crises. Where crises involve displacement, displaced people can face new challenges including social tensions and discrimination as well as difficulty accessing legal protections and their basic rights. Addressing these challenges may blur the lines between emergency and development, between rights-based and needs-based approaches. Protection in urban areas is likely to require a multi-faceted approach.

In August, ALNAP and HPN launched a ‘Good Practice Review’ of urban humanitarian response which includes a chapter on protection that proved the most difficult to compile. There were few documented examples of good practice when it comes to protection in urban areas. This webinar aimed to address this problem, by sharing learning from two organisations on protection work undertaken.

The first speaker (Angela Cotroneo, ICRC), presented key findings from a recent learning exercise by the ICRC about protection in urban displacement and focused in particular on ICRC’s protection response to persons displaced by urban violence in Honduras.

The second speaker (Haidi Sadik, formerly from Medair) presented an example of urban protection programming from Amman – a combination of multipurpose cash and multi-sectoral case management for both Syrian refugee and vulnerable Jordanian households.

This webinar explored what is different about protection response in urban areas and offer field-based examples of what these two organisations have tried to do to address these challenges. Following presentations from each speaker, the floor was left open for questions.

Chair:

Leah Campbell, Senior Research Officer, ALNAP

Leah Campbell is a Senior Research Officer at ALNAP, focusing on ALNAP’s research on urban response, leadership and coordination. She joined ALNAP in 2012 and is currently leading research about responding effectively to the complexity of urban environments, and working alongside Paul Knox Clarke on new research about humanitarian decision-making. Leah facilitates ALNAP’s Urban Community of Practice and urban webinar series and also contributes to ALNAP’s Lessons Papers and State of the Humanitarian System work. Leah holds an M.A. from the Centre for Development and Emergency Practice (CENDEP).

Speakers:

Angela Cotroneo, Global Adviser on Internal Displacement, ICRC

Angela is the Global Adviser on Internal Displacement for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). She has worked for the ICRC for more than 15 years in different capacities in Serbia, Colombia, Kenya, Sudan and Geneva, focusing on the protection of civilians and others affected by armed conflict and violence. In her current position, she leads the ICRC’s reflection on strengthening protection for internally displaced people through operational and policy engagement, and co-authored the ICRC’s Displaced in Cities report (2018). She has published on topics related to urban internal displacement and implementing community-based protection approaches in displacement settings. She is trained in political science (University of Florence) and holds a doctorate in international law (Sapienza University of Rome).

Haidi Sadik, Head of Media, Sea-Watch

Haidi is Head of Media at Sea-Watch, a rescue NGO responding to the humanitarian emergency in the Mediterranean. Here, she acts as a spokesperson and representative, whilst also looking after the coordination of protection activities in this context. Previously, Haidi was a Project Manager with Medair, where she oversaw the design, quality and implementation of an Amman-based pilot project on urban protection, which delivered a combination of multipurpose cash and multi-sectoral case management for both Syrian refugees and vulnerable Jordanian households. Haidi has also worked for Save the Children, Restless Development and set up a small UK-based NGO. Haidi has a BSc in Human Geography and International Relations, an MSc in International Development Studies from the University of Amsterdam and an MA in The Politics of Conflict, Rights and Justice from SOAS, London.