2009 Dialogue: Related Themes

This web page has been divided thematically to enable participants to understand and navigate through the complex topic of challenges to people of concern in cities and urban settings. Under each heading, you will find links to relevant articles, evaluations and tools:

Identification and Outreach
- Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre: IDP Profiling (external link)
- Surviving in the city: A review of UNHCR's operation for Iraqi refugees in urban areas of Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, PDES Evaluation report, July 2009
- A tale of three cities: internal displacement, urbanization and humanitarian action in Abidjan, Khartoum and Mogadishu, Eveliina Lyytinen, PDES Research Paper, March 2009
- Ignored Displaced Persons: the plight of IDPs in urban areas, Alexandra Fielden, PDES Research Paper, July 2008
Protection
- Protecting the Displaced in Colombia: The Role of Municipal Authorities. Summary Report, Bogota, Colombia, 14 November 2008 (report of seminar convened by the Brookings-Bern Project on Internal Displacement, Universidad de los Andes, UNHCR and Acción Social)
- On this site: Protection: A Safety Net
Solutions
Women and Children
- Making Mainstreaming a Reality: Gender and the UNHCR Policy on Refugee Protection and Solutions in Urban Areas. A Refugee Perspective, by Eileen Pittaway, Centre for Refugee Research
- On this site: Women and Children
Education
Health
- Urban Refugee Health: Discussion Paper for the High Commissioner's Dialogue
- On this site: Public Health: Health Care and the Displaced
Livelihoods
- Livelihoods in Urban Settings: A Discussion Paper for the High Commissioner's Dialogue on Protection Challenges
- Building Livelihoods: A Field Manual for Practioners in Humanitarian Settings, May 2009, published by the Women's Refugee Commission (external link)
- On this site: Livelihoods & Self-Reliance
Shelter
- Urban Response: Summary of breakout groups on urban response at the humanitarian shelter and reconstruction forum Shelter Meeting
- On this site: Shelter: A Roof Over their Heads

Colombia: Life in the Barrios

12 May 2006

After more than forty years of internal armed conflict, Colombia has one of the largest populations of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the world. Well over two million people have been forced to flee their homes; many of them have left remote rural areas to take refuge in the relative safety of the cities.

Displaced families often end up living in slum areas on the outskirts of the big cities, where they lack even the most basic services. Just outside Bogota, tens of thousands of displaced people live in the shantytowns of Altos de Cazuca and Altos de Florida, with little access to health, education or decent housing. Security is a problem too, with irregular armed groups and gangs controlling the shantytowns, often targeting young people.

UNHCR is working with the authorities in ten locations across Colombia to ensure that the rights of internally displaced people are fully respected &; including the rights to basic services, health and education, as well as security.

A bus stop in one of Bogota's suburbs, where many displaced people end up living.

A bus station on the outskirts of Bogota. Colombians fleeing violence in the countryside tend to seek the relative safety of the cities.

Internally displaced people usually arrive in the city with little money and nowhere to go. Many head straight to the slum areas or "barrios" located in the hills outside Bogota.

A Catholic organization, Marcelino Pan y Vino, meets newly arrived displaced families at the bus stations and provides them with shelter and assistance to help them get on their feet.

An IDP family living in dire conditions in the barrio of Los Altos de la Florida, just outside Bogota.

Services in the barrios are usually sub-standard at best. Here, in Los Altos de la Florida, tubes running from a big tank secured at the top of the hill bring water to hundreds of houses, but only for a few hours each day.

An internally displaced Colombian family talk to a UNHCR protection officer in Los Altos de la Florida, near Bogota.

The women of the barrio, Los Altos de la Florida, just outside Bogota.

An indigenous family's shelter in Los Altos de Cazucá. Displacement deals a double blow to indigenous people - not only do they endure the trauma of being forced out of their ancestral lands, but their flight to safety also means losing contact with their tribe, language, and customs.

UNHCR and Colombia's National Ombudsman's Office run the Casa de los Derechos - or 'House of Rights' - for thousands of displaced people in Altos de Cazucá, a troubled neighbourhood on the outskirts of the capital Bogota.

The barrios outside of Bogota appear peaceful enough during daylight hours but after dark gangs and armed groups take over the streets.

An internally displaced family living in Los Altos de la Florida, outside of Bogota.

A transit centre run by the women's organization 'Yo Mujer' provides much-needed shelter to some of the newly-arrived IDPs in Los Altos de Cazucá, outside Bogota.

Inside the IDP centre in Los Altos de Cazucá. More than 50 per cent of internally displaced persons do not have access to the health system and only a fraction manage to be economically secure even after years of displacement.