A crisis within a crisis: urban humanitarian response to Syrian refugees in Beirut : Meeting the challenges to respond to urban crises.

Abstract: 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.