Human Settlements Group of Friends

The Human Settlement is an integrated approach to holistically link climate action, sustainable shelter and housing, safe access to sufficient water, sanitation, and hygiene, accelerated use of renewable energy, and improved environmental management for more resilient settlements for refugees and their hosting communities that withstand climate shocks. 

With some 6,6 million refugees living in refugee camps and many urban refugees finding themselves in precarious situations, the Human Settlements Group of Friends is an effort by States, individuals, private sector actors, NGOs, and international organizations from all over the world to mobilize high quality joint pledges and contributions to promote social and environmental human settlements approaches in key technical and infrastructural areas. The newly established Group will leverage the Global Refugee Forum in December 2023 as a key reflection and advocacy moment to advance the accommodation, WASH, energy (using the "Clean Energy Challenge"), and natural resource management objectives as outlined in the Global Compact on Refugees. A strong focus will be on climate change.

For more information, please contact Vasiliki Tsioutsiou, Senior Human Settlement Officer, UNHCR.