Lessons from Baghdad

This document builds on existing research and guidance on response and recovery in urban crises and aims to contribute to moving the urban conversation forward. Through drawing out lessons from the Norwegian Refugee Council’s (NRC’s) urban programmes in Baghdad this document demonstrates how a different approach was taken in the context of Baghdad and outlines how elements of this can be transferred to response and recovery in other urban settings. This document challenges the role and current approaches of humanitarian agencies working in urban settings to increase consideration of how humanitarian agencies can best address the complexity of urban crises. The Baghdad case is an example of how a humanitarian agency has taken a step outside of the more traditional role of service provider to support sheltering processes in both the immediate and longer-term. It pushes the boundaries of how humanitarian agencies define and conceive shelter interventions in urban areas, and challenges shelter actors to look at not simply adapting shelter methodologies to urban settings, but to question how humanitarian agencies can more fundamentally adapt their approach to maximise their added value in the recovery process.

NRC have also prepared an animation video outlining the main findings of this research.