Humanitarian action through community-based capacity development for displaced populations AND host communities in urban areas

This Handbook provides guidance to humanitarian agencies on how to support humanitarian action through community based capacity development. The Handbook was commissioned by the “IASC Task Force on Meeting Humanitarian Challenges in Urban Areas” when it – based on evidence from a series of case studies – noted the lack of guidance in community based support. The IFRS and UNICEF were then tasked to analyse “good practices, gaps and develop guidance for community-based humanitarian support and capacity-building in urban areas - including for host families”. The Handbook, is intended for any humanitarian worker in urban areas and particularly those of the IASC members as to ensure coheviness and compatability in community based humanitarian programming in urban areas. The urgency of efficient humanitarian action in urban areas is amplified by the fact that by 2030 the urban population is predicted to exceed five billion people. Eighty percent (80%) of these urban dwellers will reside in towns and cities of the developing world and many of them will live in extreme urban poverty making them particularly vulnerable in humanitarian situations.