Towards more Effective Humanitarian Operations in Urban Areas of Protracted Armed Conflicts

This report documents a process that the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is developing to achieve more effective operations in cases of protracted urban armed conflict. The duration of these conflicts challenges the sustainability of traditional short-term programming and funding cycles and calls for a more strategic and longer-term vision. The ICRC’s offices in Gaza and Geneva have risen to this challenge over the past several years by implementing projects aimed at improving the operational resilience of basic service providers. These projects have also been incorporated into the ongoing five-year Gaza Resilience Programme (GRP). Drawing on institutional learning theory and an analysis of the people and documents at the heart of this process from 2014 to 2020, the ICRC has also prepared this report, which presents the protracted conflict operations cycle as a method whose principles may benefit people in similar situations. This report also describes several steps that ICRC headquarters and country delegations can take along this path, including developing and nurturing a culture of learning across the organization.