Urban services during protracted armed conflict - a call for a better approach to assisting affected people
ICRC (2015)
Published in: 2015
Pages: 72
Publisher:
IRFC, Geneva, Switzerland.
Author:
ICRC
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The relief-rehabilitation-development paradigm is counterproductive in contexts of protracted armed conflict in urban areas. Experience of disaster relief and rural armed conflict has shown that it constricts planning by limiting interventions to those that are “relief” or “post-war” in nature and that may be seen as the first steps in bridging an artificial gap between conflict and development. In many current protracted armed conflict contexts, interventions in urban areas can fall far short of the mark when it comes to people’s needs.
The tendency of armed conflicts to be fought in urban areas has led to considerable interest in urban contexts among humanitarian actors and researchers but there is little that is new about war in cities (Davis 2003). It is humanitarian actors that are new to cities, and most organizations will have to overcome a “steep learning curve” in order to effectively handle the complexity and scale of urban challenges (Lucchi 2013, p. 1).
This report seeks to progress up that curve by stimulating the discussion needed to develop a better approach to assisting people in urban areas affected by disruptions to essential services during protracted armed conflict. It is not merely the increased frequency of protracted armed conflicts in urban areas that is driving the quest for a new paradigm (Figure 1, Section 1.3).
Bibliographic information
ICRC (2015). Urban services during protracted armed conflict - a call for a better approach to assisting affected people. IRFC, Geneva, Switzerland.
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