Fostering collaboration for effective urban humanitarian response – the Global Alliance for Urban Crises

The session will focus on the role that the Global Alliance for Urban Crises can play, as a collaborative multi-stakeholder network of urban and humanitarian practitioners, researchers, and local authority networks, in achieving the commitments of the New Urban Agenda. There are close linkages between the goals of humanitarian actors who are seeking to achieve more collaborative and effective urban response, and the New Urban Agenda’s ‘transformative commitments’ to leave no one behind, to achieve sustainable and inclusive urban development, and to foster resilient cities. This event will demonstrate the progress that Global Alliance members are making towards more effective urban crisis response, and how this contributes towards more resilient and inclusive urban areas.   Brief panel interventions will allow Global Alliance members to reflect on how past and current humanitarian interventions and research processes contribute to the New Urban Agenda. In particular, paragraph 29 of the New Urban Agenda highlights the role for local government and other urban actors – both public and non-governmental – in supporting communities at risk of disasters and prone to ‘recurrent and protracted humanitarian crises’. It further calls attention to ensuring that durable and dignified solutions are found for crisis-affected persons, and that both they and their host communities are supported by aid flows, to prevent back-sliding in urban development. A plenary discussion will then highlight areas where more action is required in these respects, and how urban humanitarian response processes can contribute to achieving the New Urban Agenda and SDGs.