This project ran from April 2002 to 2004 as part of a large-scale project called PRUD (Programme de Recherche Urbaine pour le Développement). The study was supported by ISTED (Institut des Sciences et Techniques de l’Equipement et de l’Environnement pour le Développement), and the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and set up in collaboration with the NGO, Architecture et Développement.

Humanitarian actors are conscious that a city has certain characteristics before a conflict and they take this into account when they choose an operational strategy. However, a major dilemma remains: is their role to revive the city as it was in the past or to participate in redeveloping the city for the future. If it is clear that they must contribute to the future of the city, what should be done to maintain a sense of continuity and links with the past.This question is intrinsically tied to that of sustainable development and of resilience, the ability to survive after a crisis while accepting the transformation that this brings.

There were two objectives:
- To understand the impact of crises in urban contexts;
- To contribute to the improvement of humanitarian practices in urban contexts through analysis, evaluation and the pooling of knowledge.

The end result should be:
- To improve knowledge about the course taken by humanitarian actors and the interaction between the numerous local organisations when an urban area or rural area is struck by a crisis;
- To analyse the impact of humanitarian projects in crisis zones;
- To analyse the dynamics involved when the victims of war return to urban areas and what practices international organisations adopt with regard to this;
- To develop solutions to increase long-term settlement of refugees and to favour the passage from emergency relief to development.

Field case studies were carried out in cities in several countries: Mali (Timbuktoo and Gao), Guinea (Guéckédou and Kissidougou), Pakistan (Peshawar), Angola (Huambo), Colombia (Bogota) and Afghanistan (Kabul).
The project results and a book based on these were presented at several international conferences, notably:
- The international conference to mark the end of the PRUD programme, UNESCO, Paris, May 2004;
- The UN-Habitat conference in Geneva, October 2004.