Targeting in Urban Displacement Context

The nature and scale of humanitarian crises are changing. The world is becoming increasingly urbanised – currently, 54 per cent of the world’s population lives in urban environments, which will rise to 66 per cent by 2050 due to continued trends of migration and displacement and high rates of population growth (UN DESA, 2014). Urban environments open up opportunities, but also present specific challenges and risks for inhabitants. Whilst urban areas tend to have better provision of services and livelihood opportunities, the cost of living is higher and inhabitants depend on income for almost all their basic needs. Furthermore, the rapid growth of informal residential settlements in urban areas, in outlying and often hazardous areas and without commensurate growth in services, contributes to overcrowding, health risks, disaster risk, crime and insecurity. There is often a high cost of transport due to the need to travel to other areas of the city for work. These factors contribute to the vulnerability of populations in urban areas – particularly the displaced and the poor (Sanderson and Knox Clarke, 2012; Dodman et al., 2013; Smith and Mohiddin, 2015).