Designing appropriate interventions in urban settings: Health, education, livelihoods, and registration for urban refugees and returnees

Cities are legitimate places for refugees and returnees to reside and to exercise the rights to which they are entitled. At the same time, refugees (and, possibly to a lesser extent, returnees) who live in urban areas are often confronted with a wide range of legal, administrative, financial, cultural and social barriers in the exercise of such rights and in their efforts to live a dignified and productive life despite the shocks and losses they have gone through. The support UNHCR and other humanitarian organizations provide, either directly or indirectly, to those refugees and returnees must be calibrated to complex urban environments, which present both specific opportunities and specific challenges. The purpose of this summary brochure, based on lessons learned in current operations , is to outline some of these challenges and opportunities, and to suggest appropriate UNHCR interventions in a few critical sectors of assistance and protection for urban refugees and returnees. The Division of Programme Support and Management is pleased to submit it within the context of the High Commissioner’s Dialogue of December 2009, in the hope that it will stimulate interest in, and debate on, the practical implementation of UNHCR’s policy on refugee protection and solutions in urban areas.