Cities in Iraq, Libya, Syria and Yemen have undergone significant damage to housing, livelihoods urban infrastructure, and cultural heritage sites, coupled with a lack of sufficient efforts directed at mid and long-term recovery and reconstruction. In Iraq, 8.7 million people are in rapid need for assistance while in Libya around 1.6 million are directly affected by the mass destruction of which 1.1 million are in need for humanitarian assistance. The prolonged crisis in Syria has left 13.1 million in November 2017- of which more than half are females- requiring humanitarian assistance. As of December 2017, conflict in Yemen has left 22.2 million people in need- representing more than 75% of the population- where almost half of them is in acute need scattered around the cities of Yemen.

UN-Habitat’s Urban Crisis Recovery and Reconstruction programme aims to support those countries in the process of sustainable and resilient urban recovery focusing on long-term development and building back better rather than only humanitarian assistance.