Responding to Urban Disasters: Learning from Previous Relief and Recovery Operations

This paper outlines key lessons related to the design and implementation of urban disaster-response programmes. It focuses particularly on the response and early recovery phases of an urban emergency, and on natural disasters such as earthquakes and flooding. It is written for people planning and implementing relief and early recovery operations in urban areas: those who have to decide if, when and how to intervene. More specifically, it is targeted at people working for international agencies. However, the majority of lessons in the paper should also be applicable to programmes implemented by local and national civil society organisations and by municipal and national government agencies.