IOM’s shelter and settlements operations focus on delivering context-specific and conflict-sensitive support to contribute operationalization of the humanitarian-development-peace nexus. This approach addresses humanitarian needs while simultaneously supporting recovery, resilience, peacebuilding and long-term sustainable development. IOM is committed to ensuring accountability to affected populations, reducing protection risks – including gender-based violence and sexual exploitation and abuse – and to ensuring its work is responsive to gender-, age- and diversity-related considerations.
IOM supports people affected by disasters, conflicts and complex crises and is a key partner in coordination mechanisms at national, regional, and global levels, including those related to internal displacement and cross-border movement.
In 2023, IOM reached 11.5 million crisis-affected individuals across 84 countries including in response to major emergencies in Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Pakistan, Somalia, the Syrian Arab Republic, Ukraine and neighbouring countries, and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.
IOM shelter and settlements interventions fall broadly within three interrelated categories:
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Equitable access: Interventions that remove barriers to fair, equitable and appropriate shelter and settlements (e.g. supporting people access rental accommodation, advocating their inclusion in housing programmes).
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Safe and dignified living conditions: Interventions that enable safe and dignified living conditions in the immediate, medium, and long term. This includes:
(a) Ensuring protection from the elements, safety, privacy and a healthy environment, including interventions address habitability and improve conditions;
(b) Supporting daily domestic activities in and around the home through access to energy, fuel and household and personal items. -
Sustainable settlements: Interventions that support secure, inclusive, climate-resilient and sustainable settlements, whether temporary or permanent, that provide appropriate access to services, infrastructure and livelihood opportunities, and support health, well-being and life as a community (e.g., urban/settlement planning, strengthening security of tenure, development of social and physical infrastructure, safety and accessibility improvements and reduction of risks).
- Housing, land and property
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A key enabler of IOM’s shelter and settlement programming is strengthening housing, land and property rights. IOM focuses on conducting due diligence and strengthening security of tenure. Secure tenure empowers displaced individuals to rebuild their lives and invest in their homes. During displacement, securing tenure is vital for temporary settlements within host communities, providing sustainable, rights-based shelter solutions that contribute to recovery efforts.
With specialists in several countries, including Burundi, Cameroon, Iraq, Nigeria and Yemen, and a support team at Headquarters, IOM strives to mainstream housing, land and property concerns into its programming, from emergency response to durable solutions, thereby promoting peace, stability and economic self-reliance.
- Temporary and permanent settlements
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To ensure that temporary and permanent settlements consider the protection needs of the most vulnerable, IOM’s activities focus on building the capacity of relevant actors and promoting inter-agency learning and exchange, for example through the humanitarian settlement planning community of practice and a toolkit for the operationalization of the settlements approach.
- Technical assistance, policy and coordination
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IOM contributes to more effective humanitarian coordination by taking leadership roles at national and regional levels, providing housing, land and property expertise to the Global Shelter Cluster, including through membership of its Strategic Advisory Group, and contributing to sector-wide learning by leading the development of a series of publications and a repository of shelter projects.
- Relief item distribution operations
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To enable timely and efficient response at scale, IOM leads efforts to improve relief item distribution operations. IOM manages common pipeline mechanisms in several countries (including Bangladesh, Haiti and Mozambique) in coordination with the national clusters, providing high-quality and cost-effective relief items to sector partners. IOM also actively participates as a permanent member of the Global Shelter Cluster quality, social and environmental inter-agency working group, which strives to improve relief item specifications globally.
