Za'atari Refugee camp, Jordan, March, 2015. (Photo: NRC / Christopher Herwig) — Za'atari refugee camp in Jordan (Photo: NRC / Christopher Herwig)

Camp coordination and camp management

Tonje Hisdal Johannessen|Published 12. Jun 2016

People who flee disasters and conflict have an urgent need for safe shelter. Our experts organise and coordinate efforts to make sure displaced people have a roof over their heads and that their immediate physical and social needs are addressed.

Displaced people are often forced to seek shelter in established camps or collective centres, but the majority take refuge with host communities or in informal settlements in both urban and rural areas. Our experts help to plan and set up camps, build shelters and social structures, improve service delivery and protection, and identify housing for displaced people in urban areas.

In close cooperation with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), we lead global capacity building and the continuous development of tools to improve the management of mass displacement.

Together with our partners, we continue to design and adapt approaches to providing dignified living arrangements in transit and settlement situations, such as training of European authorities on dignified reception for refugees and migrants in Europe.

Jamil Ahmed Awan is deployed from NORCAP to the International Organisation for Migration in Nepal. IOM has been working to improve IDP sites in and around Kathmandu after the earthquake last year. Here in Bhaktapur, just outside Kathmandu, Jamil meets IDPs who tell him about their need for safe, clean water, protection from the cold weather and a chance to rebuild their homes which were damaged in the earthquakes. "These people are living in appalling conditions. They are afraid to move back to their damaged houses, they are not allowed to build new ones on the IDP site and there is nowhere else for them to go. We are doing our best to help them, but they cannot stay in tents forever", he says. (Photo: Kishor Sharma/NORCAP) — Camp coordination and camp management expert, Jamil Awan, talking to internally displaced people in Bhaktapur outside Kathmandu in Nepal. They were living in the town square while waiting to have their houses demolished or reconstructed. NORCAP helped identify safe spaces to stay, distributed shelter kits and constructed roads and washrooms. (Photo: Kishor Sharma/NORCAP)

Field example

In Nepal, CCCM was the main area of expertise provided by NORCAP in response to the devastating earthquake in 2015. CCCM experts were instrumental in the reconstruction of damaged areas and buildings.

They also contributed to setting up temporary camps for the displaced populations, conducted assessments to identify ‘safe’ areas which are less prone to new earthquakes and landslides, and assisted in the demolition of damaged buildings.