Thesis abstract:

«p»The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported 108.4 million forcibly displaced people worldwide at the end of 2022. While it is common for displaced communities fleeing conflict to be the recipients of significant humanitarian aid, we don’t yet see similar protection granted to those who flee climate change impacts. With the climate crisis intensifying movement triggers, more complex displacement situations are anticipated wherein it is progressively difficult to attribute population movement to underlying triggers. There is a growing need to focus attention on how climate change is compounding and complicating forced migration, and subsequently how these complex displacement crises influence humanitarian responses. This research aims to explore how humanitarian organisations are responding to the increasing complexity of displacement situations in the context of climate change, focusing on the design and implementation of shelter as a humanitarian response. Drawing upon interviews with staff from selected humanitarian organisations working in the Philippines, we seek to (1) gather information on how decision-makers in the forced migration space define various forms of displacement; and (2) identify the climate-related triggers that influence whether organisations respond or do not respond to displacement crises. This will guide the selection of several case sites to examine how each of these dimensions play out in humanitarian shelter responses. In helping organisations understand how their responses might differ for displacement contexts that were labelled differently, our study seeks to advance the understanding of how the humanitarian community is adapting to current and future displacement crises in the context of climate change.«/p»