In partnership with UNHCR who funded the project, UN-Habitat has prepared the Settlement Profiling Tool to guide field personnel in creating cross-sectoral Settlement profiles intended to help inform future urban development plans and policies in displacement affected contexts.
The user-friendly Tool guides local authorities and humanitarian-development actors through an iterative process of investigation with the aim of developing a common baseline of information to support coordination and planning, particularly in situations where protracted displacement has occurred. The Tool enables officials, UN Agencies, Donors, NGOs, local authorities and other stakeholders to more effectively prioritize investment opportunities where humanitarian actions are ongoing and provide entry points for more sustainable development trajectories. The profiling process will facilitate informed decision making as part of long-term climate and socially responsive urban and regional infrastructure planning.
The Settlement profiles produced as a result of this tool will use a spatial lens to provide a comprehensive overview of the relevant physical, social-economic and policy dynamics that affect a particular settlement, concluding with a selection of development scenarios and broad recommendations of potential ways forward. In particular, the Tool aims to understand a settlement’s development potential and the unique characteristics that can be capitalized upon to benefit both refugees and the host communities.
The Tool was prepared to respond to contexts where a Humanitarian-Development Nexus approach is appropriate. The Humanitarian-Development Nexus endeavours to the meet immediate needs of displaced persons while also ensuring longer-term investment which addresses the more systemic causes of conflict and vulnerability.
Two pilot profiles have been prepared using the tool, one for Nakivale Settlement in Uganda and one for Kebribeyah Settlement in Somali Region, Ethiopia, with further profiles underway in other locations globally.
Related programme:
Planning for Humanitarian-Development Practice: Connecting Normative to Operations
Share