The widespread image of refugee camps only represents less than half of the world's refugee population, as the great majority of them are in urban settlements. This is caused by the phenomenon of global urbanisation, which has ultimately affected forced displacement. One of the most representative examples is the refugee crisis in Syria, referred to as 'urban' as most refugees live among host communities in Lebanon or Jordan, rather than in camps. Therefore, this thesis will explore through the case study of Beirut and Syrian refugees, the challenges of urban crises and how humanitarian practitioners have tried to adapt and develop new ways of responding to them.  The underlying context of urban poverty, the time frame, the great number of stakeholders and the coexistence with host communities, were identified as some of the most challenging features of cities in this research. In this context, refugees will have to navigate between dynamics of opportunity and vulnerability, and humanitarian actors will face crises that are already within others. Thus, to understand this reality means to redirect the focus towards new ways of humanitarian action, to urbanize the approach. Through a review of leading organisations, authors and research centres, we will identify the main challenges in responding to urban crises of mass forced displacement. This will be done under the theoretical framework offered by context analysis tools, as they allow for a better understanding of the political, economic, geographical and socio-cultural factors that give rise to a crisis. They will focus on the contextual understanding of the urban humanitarian response.

Around 2015, the humanitarian aid sector set out the localization agenda in motion. Embedded within The Grand Bargain, the localization agenda elevated the propensity for systems change within the humanitarian sector and calls for a greater inclusion of local actors have featured for some time in debates on how to make humanitarian action more efficient and address unequal power relations within the humanitarian system.  Though the localization agenda is at the core of current reform efforts in the humanitarian sector, there is paucity of scholarship on the discourse of localization in a protracted refugee humanitarian context. A qualitative case study design Was undertaken, and data was collected by conducting interviews on zoom and employing semi-structured interview guide. Six respondents (2 from local NGOs, 2 from international NGOs, 1 from UN agency and 1 from Ugandan government) were interviewed. The data collected were transcribed with the aid of “otranscribe” and analyzed through thematic analysis. The paper observes that the current discourse of localization in the protracted refugee humanitarian response in Uganda is characterized by two divergent and opposing conceptualization of localization; one based on decentralization approach, and another based on transformative approach and as such the paper argues the need for patience and acceptance of these various conceptualization to allow time for epistemological maturity of the concept.  Furthermore, five practices related to localization (funding, partnership, Capacity strengthening, Coordination and Visibility) were explored and while there was reported improvement, the study observes that, in practice, the engagement level of the local actors is still relatively low and contends that effective localization is only possible if trust among actors in the aid chain is built over time. Moreover, the study also identified factors such as Uganda’s progressive refugee policy, the availability of well-educated and experienced pool of local human resource and Uganda’s geographical positioning in a region ragged with conflict as major opportunities that could be harnessed to foster localization. In contrast however, the study identified that lack of trust of local actors, stringent and restrictive donor funding conditions, lack of collective risk sharing, lack of clarity on what constitute localization, and weak capacity strengthening modalities as being some of the key challenges hindering localization in the Ugandan refugee operation. To this end, the paper observes that in a protracted refugee situation especially that liken to the Ugandan situation, localization would have a high chance of succeeding especially given the stable context of the operation. The paper argues that the practice of localization could be enhanced if local and national actors put pressure on international actors and demand leadership, that financial and programmatic risk and accountability are shared responsibility and when long term engagement is made with local and national actors thus allowing for meaningful capacity strengthening thereby leading to building of trust between the local and international actors.

Changing the approach to communication and engagement with the local people in Liberia during the Ebola response turned out to be a key strategy in the Red Cross’ work. The Liberian Red Cross’ communication with the crisis-affected people changed significantly during the fight against the Ebola virus, from top-down information to a more dialogical communication approach. The Ebola epidemic in West Africa has caused more than 11 000 deaths since the outbreak in March 2014. The task of defeating the virus seemed overwhelming at times, but the outbreak finally stopped and all the three worst hit countries: Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia were declared Ebola-free by the World Health Organization. Communication with and participation of the people the aid organizations target have been a central issue for discussion within the international community and development agencies for a long time. During the Ebola response it was clearly stated that communicating and engaging with the people living in the affected area was a core approach during and after the response. This thesis explores how one of the responding humanitarian organizations, The Red Cross, used communication with the crisis affected people in Liberia as a tool in their response to help stop and prevent the virus from spreading. The study is done as a case study. Main components of the case, and focus for the analysis, are semi-structured interviews with staff and volunteers from the Liberian Red Cross that worked with communication and operational activities during the Ebola response. Red Cross documents from the Ebola response, policy, planning, evaluation and training-documents, are also important part of the case.

Practitioners of Forecast-based Action (FbA) argue that a humanitarian response able to utilize forecasts to accurately predict disaster, secure funding, and take action before the onset of a crisis will benefit donors and beneficiaries alike. In search of effective and efficient early-action regimes, a number of major humanitarian actors are developing FbA projects of various designs, predominantly in response to natural disaster and famine. While numerous organizations and institutions have expressed interest in developing FbA mechanisms, the tool has only been applied in a limited capacity to the humanitarian needs generated by armed conflict. This research seeks to understand whether a scalable FbA approach can be developed to stage principled, anticipatory humanitarian action in response to situations in which rigorous evaluations predict the likelihood of imminent armed conflict. The hypothesis is that the application of FbA to armed conflict is possible, but due to the complex political nature of conflict, implementing organizations should try to focus on creating mechanisms managed by humanitarian actors and, in so far as possible, be insulated from outside influence. This research is the first academic work to specifically investigate the application of FbA to armed conflict. Following an extensive review of current FbA mechanisms and conflict early warning practices, this research concludes that a conflict-centered FbA system akin to the automated FbA systems in use today to respond to natural disaster and famine is possible, but that the endeavor presents many practical and conceptual barriers to implementation. In particular, diffuse models such as the Start Fund offer a hopeful glimpse at a type of horizontal, member-driven FbA mechanism that is both highly context-sensitive and relatively insulated from outside influence. Such a design, however, features notable and inherent limitations in its ability to reliably and accurately predict the outbreak of conflict and respond in a manner that minimizes regretful actions.