To better gauge Afghans’ hopes and fears regarding the future of the country, IRC researchers consulted 136 of the 650 Afghans who serve on our staff across the country. This report highlights their observations and outlines recommendations for international engagement in Afghanistan beyond 2014.

One year ago, a massive explosion in the port of Beirut killed more than 200 people, displaced hundreds of thousands and worsened an economy already in freefall. Elias El Beam describes how Lebanon has struggled to recover.

School was their safe place…until a bomb destroyed it

As a contribution to the ongoing policy discussions on adapting humanitarian response to urban contexts, the US and UK governments hosted a side event at the Red Cross Red Crescent International Conference in Geneva, in December 2015.

The months-long siege of eastern Aleppo ended in mid-December as Syrian government forces wrested control of areas that had been held by rebels. The intensifying bombing of these neighborhoods in the weeks before the ceasefire forced many residents to shelter underground, and tens of thousands to flee.