Distribution by Region

Distribution by Organisation Type, Document Type, Region and Year

Settlement occurs mostly in documents published in Europe, followed by Africa, MENA, North America and Asia with comparatively smaller contributions. Overall, the top five contributors in terms of occurrences are NGO, IGO, NGO_Fed, RC and Net organisations.

NGO, IGO, NGO_Fed, RC and Net documents provide the greatest number of occurrences, primarily from Occurrences from activity reports published in Europe.

Settlements (areas) ...

• are

  • areas of land occupied by humans

• have legal statuses

  • informal

  • illegal

  • squatter

  • which can be regularised

• have types of inhabitants

  • Israeli

  • refugee

  • IDP

• have various locations

  • urban

  • rural

  • remote

  • including exposed areas

    • flood zones

    • landslide areas

    • landfills

• are referred to by name

  • Rwamwanja

  • Nakivale

  • Kyangwali

• have timescales

  • temporary

  • permanent

  • new

• have development types

  • spontaneous, unplanned

  • sustainable

• have specific purposes

  • transitional

• have construction & shelter types

  • tent

  • makeshift

• have varying sizes

  • large (including over a million residents)

  • small

• are labelled by economic condition

  • slum

  • low-income

• have other descriptors

  • communal

  • human

• have potential synonyms

  • slum

  • informal area

  • biddonville

  • favela

  • squatter camp

  • shanty town

• have unclear definitions

  • with regards to similar terms

  • in legal contexts

  • in humanitarian contexts

  • depending on permanence

• are generally more permanent than camps

• can be caused by / cause

  • sprawl

  • rapid urban development

  • poor economic conditions

  • disaster

  • conflict

  • displacement

• have environmental concerns

  • restoration of natural areas

  • environmental degradation

  • climate adaptation

• have inhabitants at risk of

  • eviction

  • forced encampment

  • child labor

  • displacement

  • fire

  • violence

  • overcrowding

  • malnutrition

• have infrastructure issues

  • building standards & construction quality

  • land availability

  • demolition

• require better services

  • education

  • primary health care

  • psychosocial assistance

  • amenities

  • transit

• have poor living conditions

  • scarcity of goods

  • access to food

  • malnutrition

  • WASH issues

  • movement restriction

• are treated with broad goals

  • resilience

  • communication & partnership

  • community engagement

• are treated with approaches

  • Sphere Handbook minimum standards

  • UNHCR global strategy

  • UN-Habitat human settlement

• need specific actions

  • community action plans

  • quick-impact interventions

  • regularisation

  • securing tenure

  • upgrading areas

  • skills training

Settlement (process) ...

• is a

  • process of occupying an area of land

• has activities

  • activity (development)

  • expansion

  • demolition

  • relocation

Settlement (relocation) ...

• is the

  • relocation of a party to a third country (more commonly resettlement)

• has challenges

  • defining what integration means for resettled groups

  • post-migration stressors

  • IDPs having their preferences and needs voiced, addressed

  • how to manage temporary migrant worker programmes

Settlements (agreements) ...

• are

  • agreements in a conflict, dispute

• have objectives

  • peace

• have means, qualities

  • political

  • peaceful

  • fiscal

• have stages, timescales

  • temporary

  • new

  • final

• have challenges

  • armed groups' lack of compliance

  • piecemeal implementation of agreements that affect IDPs

The existing illegal individual settlements consist of large tracts of land which have been given to Jewish citizens of the state for their private use over the years by the ILA and regional councils, without bids.

Settlement is a key concern, not only because it reduces the space available for Palestinian use and movement, but also because the Israeli authorities have systematically failed to protect Palestinians from settler violence.

Surveys of policies and rates of migration in developed countries show that most foreign nationals naturalize in traditional settlement countries, such as Australia and Canada, that emphasize the public's interest in encouraging shared national citizenship.

The annual pay negotiations with the Trade Union resulted in an agreed wage settlement of 0.8% for employees in lower grades, down to 0.2% for those in the highest grades, which is in line with our values of supporting the lowest paid employees where we can.

Some Members felt that such recognition should not be subject to the outcome of negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis, while others felt that the twoState solution through a negotiated settlement was the only option for a long-term sustainable peace.

area of land / process of settling land

• legal status

  • informal settlement

  • illegal settlement

  • squatter settlement

• inhabitants

  • Israeli settlement

  • refugee settlement

  • IDP settlement

  • Jewish settlement

  • Roma settlement

• location

  • urban settlement

  • rural settlement

  • remote settlement

  • coastal settlement

  • Transdniestrian settlement

  • Nairobi settlement

  • Rwamwanja settlement

  • Nakivale settlement

  • Kyangwali settlement

• timescale

  • temporary settlement

  • permanent settlement

  • new settlement

  • old settlement

  • existing settlement

• development type

  • spontaneous settlement

  • unplanned settlement

  • sustainable settlement

• purpose

  • transitional settlement

• construction / housing

  • tent settlement

  • makeshift settlement

• size

  • large settlement

  • small settlement

• economic condition

  • slum settlement

  • low-income settlement

• other descriptor

  • communal settlement

  • human settlement

agreement

• objective / result

  • peace settlement

• means / quality

  • political settlement

  • peaceful settlement

  • fiscal settlement

  • friendly settlement

  • comprehensive settlement

  • dispute settlement

• stage / timescale

  • temporary settlement

  • new settlement

  • final settlement

  • lasting settlement

Today, over 25 per cent of the world's urban population live in informal settlements or slums. A slum household is defined by UN-Habitat as lacking one or more of the following: durable housing; sufficient living area; access to water and sanitation; and secure tenure.

Rapidly expanding informal settlements – slums – are rarely planned, and very often metropolitan authorities do not know who is living in their cities. Without knowing this, they cannot provide basic public services, nor can they collect taxes effectively to pay for the services. The people living in these settlements are rarely consulted on their service needs.

Having a home in an informal settlement usually means lacking land tenure and any official documentation of 'ownership' of the land and house. It also often means living in a settlement with no infrastructure, such as piped water supplies, sewers, drains and paved roads, because local governments refuse to provide these to 'illegal' settlements. It is this lack of infrastructure that greatly increases the impact of the disaster event. Most informal settlements have little or no public provision for healthcare or emergency services, which further limits needed responses to disasters.

It is quite common in the developing world for informal settlements to be comprised of homes that possess varying degrees of tenure security, and that provide differing levels of rights to inhabitants depending upon a variety of factors. The common practice of squatters subletting portions of their homes or land plots to tenants is one of many examples where individuals living on the same land plot may each have distinct degrees of tenure security/insecurity.

More than 1 million people living in slums on informal settlements in Nairobi–about a third of the city's population–depend on private vendors as a secondary water source.

Informal settlements are often located in areas prone to flooding and landslides and, thus, particularly vulnerable.

In Manila, informal settlements at risk to coastal flooding make up 35 per cent of the population; in Bogota, 60 per cent of the population live on steep slopes subject to landslides; and in Calcutta, 66 per cent of the population live in squatter settlements at risk from flooding and cyclones.

With the urbanisation of the world population, an increasing number of poor people leave their village to live in what are technically termed "informal settlements ", but are often referred to as "squatter camps", "shanty towns", "favelas" or "slums". In these settlements, people often live for years in very precarious conditions, with very unreliable sources of income mostly from informal sectors and limited access to basic facilities such as electricity, water and sanitation. This is due to the fact that no planning has been done on where to lay cables and pipes because, by law, this is unoccupied land.

Where informal settlements have been regularized, the results are often positive. However, because of the location of many settlements on land that is expensive to service, the unit cost of upgrading may exceed the cost of new development. Regularization also leads to increased land and house prices and increased service costs, which may result in gentrification, forcing low-income residents to move to informal settlements elsewhere in the city.

In other cities, however, sprawl is fuelled by the growth of informal settlements .

With rapid urbanization, informal settlements (biddonvilles) began to develop.

In addition to the processes of informal settlement described above, in many cities there is much informality in the development of middle- and upper-income residential neighbourhoods.

Those able and willing to pay for better living conditions and private security have segregated themselves in gated communities, which have proliferated in cities throughout the region, often leading to further informal settlement close by to take advantage of the low-wage service employment that they generate.

Therefore, PCHR has persistently called upon the international community to immediately intervene to compel the Israeli government to stop all settlement activities in the oPt, especially in East Jerusalem, and dismantle Israeli settlements, which constitute a war crime under international humanitarian law.

Just before the turn of the millennium, the Habitat Agenda was adopted at the United Nations Conference on Human Settlements in Istanbul in 1996. The agenda provides a basis for international and national housing and urban development policy for the 21st century.

The shelter issue has become one of a global nature after the concept of 'human settlements' found its place in the international development agenda. Until recently, the classical response to the shelter problems of the urban poor was social housing, both in developed and developing countries. However, the massive demand for affordable housing in developing countries, coupled with the limited resources of the public sector, would have made this solution inapplicable, even in the presence of a wellorganized and transparent public-housing delivery sector.

Dadaab is the world's largest long-term refugee settlement, made up of five camps, which are home to some 345,000 refugees, mostly Somalis.

The people living in the Mayo camp, about 20 kilometres from Khartoum, are refugees from the wars that have been tearing Sudan and its neighbours apart for 20 years. Today, Mayo has around 400,000 inhabitants. It's no longer possible to call it a refugee camp, because the majority of families now living there have been doing so for years. Living conditions, however, are still extremely unstable. A lack of running water, no sewage system, and poverty put a heavy strain on the health of children, who make up 50% of the camp's inhabitants.

Following a political settlement and the creation of a coalition Government, the situation stabilised.

In September, Ambassador Tagliavini co-signed the Minsk Protocol and Minsk Memorandum with representatives of Ukraine and the Russian Federation, and representatives of armed groups from Donetsk and Luhansk, providing key elements for a peaceful settlement in eastern Ukraine.

Israeli settlement activities in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, clearly violate international humanitarian law and international resolutions.

In Palestine, Israeli settlement expansion in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and military operations in Gaza continued to cause displacement.

The chart below represents the distribution of settlement between 2005 and 2019 in terms of the number of occurrences and relative frequency of occurrences. It also allows you to view the distribution across Regions, Organisations and Document types.

• definitions

  • comparison with tent village & similar terms

  • legal definition & consequences

  • permanence as a factor

  • city, urban, rural

  • terms used for inhabitants (e.g., slum dweller vs working poor)

• environmental concerns

  • restoration of natural area

  • environmental degradation

  • erosion

  • climate adaptation

  • weather resistance

• legality, disempowerment

  • lack of tenure

  • risk of eviction

  • forced encampment

  • child labor

  • lack of decision-making power

  • risk of relocation, displacement

  • permanence

  • IHL violations

  • labelling of product origin (Israeli settlements)

• safety

  • fires

  • riots

  • overcrowding

  • insecurity

  • layout (unsafe areas)

  • violence, GBV

• infrastructure

  • building standards & construction quality

  • land availability

  • demolition

  • distant, inadequate & poorly planned alternatives

  • weak urban planning, governance

  • location, accessibility

  • cost of upgrading

• services

  • education

  • primary health care

  • psychosocial assistance

  • amenities

  • transit

  • bureaucratic processes

• living conditions

  • scarcity of goods

  • access to food

  • malnutrition

  • WASH

  • movement restriction

(agreement)

• armed groups' lack of compliance

• piecemeal implementation of agreements that affect IDPs

(relocation)

• defining what integration means for resettled groups

• post-migration stressors

• IDPs having their preferences and needs voiced, addressed

• how to manage temporary migrant worker programmes

There is no internationally agreed definition of a "city" or any consensus on how to identify when a settlement is 'urban' or to determine its boundary.

Malnutrition was already a rampant issue amongst Rohingya settlements prior to the most recent displacements, yet such a large-scale increase in refugee population has put further pressure on already limited resources.

Other challenges experienced in poor urban settlements include low transition rate from primary to secondary school, poor teaching strategies, poor infrastructure, indiscipline (associated with 'overage' primary school pupils) and child labor.

Preventing forced 'encampment' and exploring concrete options for the 'decongestion' of refugee settlements and IDP camps in situations of safety and security is a priority.

They are there without permission and have no access to electricity, water, sanitation or education. Without tenure security, they are at risk of forced eviction and have no alternative housing options available to them. Most IDPs in Libya also live in informal settlements around cities such as Tripoli, Benghazi and Sirte, where they face similar difficulties.

• broad goals

  • resilience

  • communication & partnership

  • data availability, completeness

  • community engagement

• approaches

  • Sphere Handbook minimum standards

  • UNHCR global strategy

  • UN-Habitat human settlement perspective

• specific actions

  • community action plans

  • quick-impact interventions

  • regularization

  • securing tenure

  • upgrading areas

  • skills training

  • shelter-driven economic activity

  • protection against eviction

  • improving arrangements

  • relocation

  • improving drainage

  • improving infrastructure

  • preventing new settlements

Shelter and settlement UNHCR's global strategy for settlement and shelter (2014-2018) provides a framework to ensure refugees and others of concern can access dignified, secure settlements and shelter, whether they live in urban or rural settings.

Given that the majority of displaced people lived in formal settlements, we set up a number of mobile site management teams with a range of quick-impact interventions: risk reduction activities, basic repairs and refurbishment, and fire prevention and site safety measures.

This programme has been instrumental in improving livelihoods of refugees at the settlement through provision of vocational skills training in tailoring, carpentry and joinery, bricklaying and concrete practice.

For instance, legal provisions against evictions, regularization and upgrading of informal settlements and land-sharing arrangements are some of the approaches that have been used to avoid the harmful effects of forced eviction of both informal settlement/slum dwellers and informal economic entrepreneurs.

[see the chapter "Shelter and Settlement" in GD-313]

Resettlement is defined as the selection and transfer of refugees from a State in which they have initially sought protection to a third State which has agreed to admit them on a permanent basis.

We played a lead role in the negotiation of a third country resettlement arrangement with the United States for refugees currently in regional processing centres (RPCs) on Nauru and Manus Island.

Besides that we facilitate the (re) settlement process for IDP's and we reduce the number and severity of conflicts between IDP and residents.

In several countries with long-term or intermittent conflict, including DRC, the Philippines and Yemen, people have been repeatedly displaced over the years. Thus new displacement may be partly explained by earlier settlement options proving unsustainable.

The government announced in February 2018 that it plans to turn some displacement camps in Darfur into permanent settlements, giving IDPs the option of a residential plot or returning to their homes.

In Palestine, Israeli settlement expansion in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and military operations in Gaza continued to cause displacement.