Discussion Informed by Recurrent Lessons from a Systematic Review on Targeting Practices in Urban Humanitarian Crises

Conclusions and Recommendations The current evidence and recurrent lessons above do not point to one single best approach for targeting vulnerable populations in urban crises. As humanitarian programs have a wide variety of goals and urban contexts and crises vary, the complex nature of vulnerability makes it impossible to have one best approach for each situation. Any approach will have strengths and limitations and none will be perfect as needs may often exceed available resources. In addition to these technical limitations, the security situation and political context can also impact the selection of a targeting approach. While evidence to guide humanitarian practice accumulates further debates on the humanitarian system and financing will have to progress in ways that incentivize evidence based practice. Selection of targeting vulnerable populations in urban crises will have to weight the costs, benefits and feasibility of each approach and funding tied to evidence on how these three variables are assessed will be the best path moving forward. Vulnerability in urban areas is complex and interconnected such that assessing sector-specific vulnerability seems inappropriate or at least less useful. A person’s health and nutrition for instance is related to their shelter, access to sanitation, livelihood and surrounding security. We believe the most vulnerable in urban humanitarian crises are best targeted using a collection of socioeconomic indicators along with in depth ...
Source: PLOS Currents Disasters - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Source Type: research