Empowerment and Urban Humanitarian Responses: The case of Freetown

The Urban Humanitarian Response and Empowerment is a research project carried out by the Sierra Leone Urban Research Centre (SLURC) in partnership with the International Institute of Environment and Development (IIED). Current debates on the relationship between community engagement and urban humanitarian responses have been focusing on the ‘instrumental’ role of participation, exploring its use to improve responses by making them more accountable and responsive. This research project aims to contribute to these discussions by focusing on the ‘intrinsic’ role of participation in humanitarian responses. Therefore, instead of asking what participation can do to urban humanitarian responses, this project explores what opportunities urban humanitarian response generate to enhance the capacity of community groups to participate meaningfully in urban decision-making processes. This research draws on the case study of Freetown (Sierra Leone) to investigate the role that urban humanitarian responses play in empowering urban marginalised groups to affect urban change" Guest speakers: Dr Joseph M. Macarthy (Co-director of SLURC) is an urban planner with speciality in urban development planning and climate change adaptation. He is lecturer at the Institute of Geography and Development Studies. His research interest centres on urban planning and climate change. Joseph has a PhD in Urban Planning and Management from Newcastle University and MSc. in Urban Development Planning from University College London. Milimer Morgado (DPU) is a graduate teaching assistant to the masters programme in Social Development Practice. Her main research interests include exploring how engineering knowledge can be utilised in public decision-making for urban development and social wellbeing and how humanitarian responses operate in urban settings. She has a MSc in Environment and Sustainable Development from University College London. Discussant: Dr Cassidy Johnson (DPU)