These guidelines are intended as a multi-sectorial tool for assistance to people affected by conflict and natural disaster, both as displaced individuals and as host communities. Particular attention is given to shelter assistance options. Their purpose is to contribute to improve the understanding of and the capacity to respond to host families and host communities' needs - a neglected area which only recently has gained interest among humanitarian stakeholders.
This publication provides generic guidance to assist both hosted and host families and ˜menus of options' for specific support. Its goal is not to be exhaustive on this complex and multi-faceted topic, but rather to contribute to a ˜gap area' and to complement existing guidance on community-based humanitarian action. This guide has been informed by several country-level learnings and more specifically by the Haiti Shelter Cluster working group on host families.