Sustainable Housing in Urban Humanitarian Crises.

In 2021, around 89 million people were forcibly displaced (UNHCR 2022). This is the highest number since WWII. Almost half of the displaced population worldwide in 2021 come from two countries: Syria and Venezuela. Generally, most refugees settle in in neighboring countries (72%) and this is the case in the Venezuelan and Syrian refugee crisis. Colombia, in addition to consistently hosting the largest population of IDPs in the world, hosted almost two million displaced Venezuelans, the second largest number of people displaced across borders globally prior to the outbreak of war in Ukraine (UNHCR 2022). Lebanon, itself facing multiple crises, is hosting the highest number of refugees per capita worldwide. In addition to around 500.000 Palestinian refugees living in Lebanon, the recent years brought around 850.000 people seeking refuge from the Syrian conflict (UNHCR 2022). Adequate housing and secure tenure are foundational to realizing dignified living conditions for communities affected and displaced by conflict or disaster (NRC 2017). The housing situation of displaced persons has far-reaching effects on physical and mental health, access to livelihoods, climate protection, and social integration (Interaction 2019). However, displaced populations are often unable to secure adequate and safe housing and suffer from overcrowding and insecure tenure, deepening gender and socio-cultural inequalities (UN-habitat,UN-women 2020), while humanitarian organizations struggle to find suitable approaches and strategies to assist persons in need of housing, especially in urban contexts (NRC 2017). Major arrival cities like Bogotá or Beirut experience intense development pressures brought about by new and protracted population displacements. Both local and international actors have been overwhelmed by the large number of people looking for temporary as well as permanent housing solutions in the capital cities (Barbierin 2020; Yassine et al. 2021). Within this context and recognizing the wider, global conditions and challenges of forced displacement, this project seeks to generate novel insights including a transversal gender and intersectional perspective about the housing situation of displaced persons in Bogotá, Colombia and Beirut, Lebanon to better inform humanitarian response and housing policy in cities worldwide.