The settlement approach: integrating programming at community level

RSC Public Seminar Series, Michaelmas term

Emergency Shelter and Forced Migration

Series convened by Tom Scott-Smith and Mark E. Breeze

This interdisciplinary seminar series examines the nature and challenges of emergency shelter in the context of forced migration. What are the key issues in the design and provision of shelters? What does better shelter mean and how can we get there? How can political dynamics be managed in the organization of camps and urban areas? What lessons emerge from over forty years practical work in the shelter sector? The speakers in this series include academics and practitioners from the fields of architecture, planning, anthropology, humanitarianism, and design.

The seminar series complements the forthcoming issue of Forced Migration Review on Emergency Shelter, to be published in 2017.

About the speaker

Dr Tom Corsellis is the Executive Director of Shelter Centre, an NGO dedicated to supporting the global shelter and settlement community in developing and maintaining consensus resources, guidance and tools. Hosted initially by the University of Cambridge from its foundation in 2004, Shelter Centre developed from an earlier initiative, ShelterProject.org, which undertook research and development on sector standards, equipment and technical guidance, including Transitional Settlement: Displaced Populations.

Tom Corsellis was a founding member of both initiatives. He has been developing and delivering training and blended learning in the humanitarian sector for over 20 years, mainly on shelter and settlements, and Camp Coordination & Camp Management (CCCM), for agencies including RedR, DFID, ECHO, IFRC and UNHCR, as well as IASC clusters. Tom has worked operationally for many agencies, including CARE, DFID, IOM, MSF, Oxfam, UNHCR and the World Bank, in Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe and the Middle East.