Towards Greening of Humanitarian Aid: Rethinking Environment and Sustainability in Refugees Shelters

Environment mainstreaming as a cross-cutting issue in humanitarian operations has been one of the megatrends within the new humanitarian-development nexus approach (Barrett, Mutfitt, & Venton, 2007). It has been on top of the agenda due to the vitality of mitigating the risks associated with humanitarian interventions and jeopardizing the efforts and progress to build long-term resilience through sustainable development and increase the vulnerability of forcibly displaced populations and host communities. Recognizing the devastating consequences of sidelining the environmental considerations in humanitarian action programming in a rapidly increased rate of protracted refugees’ crises, accountability to mainstream environment in all levels of humanitarian action is questioned. This study uses a mix-method methodology to explore the accountability level within different stakeholders in Bangladesh and Pakistan refugee settlements. The study used a qualitative desk policy review, case study, and a quantitative survey targeting grassroots field operations to answer the three research questions. First, how is environmental sustainability conceptualized within the humanitarian context? Next, what are the different environmental aspects of refugees’ settlement programming? Finally, how is environment mainstreaming in humanitarian refugees programming scoped within international and local policies? The finding of this study signifies the availability of policies and guidelines targeting the environment as a cross-cutting issue in humanitarian programming. The findings also suggest that lack of awareness, inflexibility regarding localization, and adaptation of the policies and guidelines in humanitarian context are the main factors contributing to minimization of the level of complying with the existing systems.