The IRC is working to incorporate the preferences, aspirations, and expectations of those we serve into humanitarian programming. This document examines an IRC health program in Syria.

The International Rescue Committee produced this labor market assessment in East Mosul, Iraq, to provide insights into the market context for the purposes of humanitarian and early recovery response.

Over a decade of conflict has made Syria one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. A recent 7.8 earthquake has devastated communities even further.

The IRC’s enterprise development and employment (EDE) programs prepare crisis-affected populations for employment and self-employment opportunities, support the growth and creation of businesses, improve people’s skills, and increase people’s access to financial services.

The war in Ukraine has affected the lives of millions of people, driving 10 million out of their homes, and creating unprecedented humanitarian needs inside the country. To date, 14.6 million people need urgent humanitarian assistance. The IRC has been present in Ukraine since February 2022, working hand in hand with local partners to provide vital support to conflict-affected people to help them survive, recover and regain control of their future.

Today, more than half of the world’s displaced people live in urban areas and the average length of displacement is 25 years. The humanitarian sector must adapt to meet the challenges of an urbanizing world and the increasing role of cities as places of refuge and economic opportunity, as well as sites of heightened risk of crisis, marginalization and inequality.

This paper provides guidance on how to apply the urban context analysis toolkit. The toolkit is a set of practical tools (such as questionnaires, analysis tables, and report templates) tailored for humanitarian organizations to conduct an analysis in urban responses by understanding the political, social, economic, service delivery and spatial dynamics. The toolkit was developed based on a series of pilots by the International Rescue Committee (IRC) in five urban crises contexts with a focus on displacement crises.

This report underlines the importance of a coordinated and collaborative approach to emergency response in urban areas. The recommendations, addressed primarily to humanitarian actors, reflect lessons learned from the International Rescue Committee’s (IRC) initial emergency response programming on the island of Lesbos, Greece, between September 2015 and March 2016.