The Syrian refugee crisis is the largest refugee crisis of our time. The Syrian war, now entering its eighth year, has displaced more than 11 million Syrians—5.6 million of which have fled in search of a safer and more stable life outside of Syria’s borders. Today, Jordan is home 1.3 million Syrians, including more than 655,000 registered refugees, who are trying to recover and rebuild their lives.

There are 62 million children out of school across the world—children without access to the education and training they need to improve their lives. That number is only increasing as millions of refugees are being forced to return to Afghanistan from Pakistan. These displaced families now must rebuild in a country they haven’t seen in decades—for many children, a country they’ve never known at all.

Along with her five siblings, Aya fled to the Nargazilia camp northwest of the city, where they live with 15,000 displaced people. Twice a week, she escapes her daily routine and spends time with other girls at the International Rescue Committee’s women’s and girls’ centre, a safe, women-only space in the crowded camp.

In Afghanistan, state failure and economic collapse are now the primary drivers of a humanitarian catastrophe unfolding at breakneck speed. Unemployment and poverty are now the greatest drivers of internal displacement. The International Rescue Committee (IRC) has been providing assistance in Afghanistan for three decades, working today in 11 provinces. We see firsthand that while humanitarian aid saves lives, it cannot replace a functioning economy and state.

On February 18, 2016, Emergency Humanitarian Relief Coordinator and UN Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs, Stephen O’Brien, welcomed guests to the United Nations in New York City for a special event entitled City Haven: People on the Move • Harboring the Displaced. The event highlighted the challenges and opportunities of responding to urban emergencies, including the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, Hurricane Sandy in 2012 and the Syrian refugee crisis. It sought to change our perceptions of displaced people and propose new ways to ensure towns and cities are safe and inclusive places for all – including refugees and migrants. Referencing the urban context as it relates to both Sustainable Development Goal Number 11 and the UN Secretary-General’s five core responsibilities for the upcoming World Humanitarian Summit, O’Brien started the discussion by stating that, “we will commit to a concrete set of actions and commitments that will enable all – including member states, affected populations, civil society, and the private sector – to better prepare for and respond to crises, and to become more resilient to shocks.” In order to put these commitments in to practice, O’Brien announced that a new form of collaboration, the Global Alliance for Urban Crises, will be launched during a special session at the World Humanitarian Summit. The Alliance joins a diverse group of actors, who do not currently work together (including municipal authorities, urban professionals and humanitarian and development agencies) to deliver humanitarian responses in urban areas.

Like much of the sector, the International Rescue Committee increasingly operates not in camps, but in cities and towns. The urban environment presents a markedly different operating environment, to which the traditional humanitarian response architecture is not well suited. With estimates that more than half of the world’s displaced are in urban settings, the question of how we best respond to meet the needs of people who have fled natural disaster or conflict to urban settings has become critical