Present and Engaged – How the ICRC Responds to Armed Conflict and Violence in Cities

This paper takes stock of the ICRC’s experience in responding to the impact of war and violence in cities and recommends areas for humanitarian actors to focus on when seeking to improve their own responses. It builds on almost a decade’s worth of publications on different aspects of the ICRC’s urban response – notably in the Middle East – and on a review of the pertinent literature and over 60 interviews with ICRC staff involved in urban response in six different countries. The paper also draws on urban-good-practice initiatives elsewhere in the Movement and in the broader humanitarian sector.