Investigating grey areas : access to basic urban services in the adjacent areas of Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon

In july 2009, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Lebanon commissioned the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT) to carry out a research on access to basic urban services (BUS) in the Adjacent Areas (AAs) of Palestinian Refugee Camps in Lebanon. The research work program started in August 2009 and ended in April 2010. This report is the result of a joint effort by UNDP and UN-HABITAT to gain a better understanding of the various dynamics governing access to basic urban services in the Adjacent Areas of Palestinian Refugee Camps in Lebanon. In this sense, it is the first attempt to approach the Adjacent Areas of Palestinian Refugee Camps in Lebanon as a distinct category of Palestinian gatherings, in order to better understand the various factors shaping access to basic urban services. While Adjacent Areas have been discussed in the context of studies covering Palestinian gatherings in Lebanon, their adjacent geographic location to the camps have allowed for the development of alternative mechanisms for accessing basic urban services which are unique to them. This report thus aims at developing an understanding of access to basic urban services, which goes beyond the physical description of the state of services, and examines the governance mechanisms involved in the access and maintenance of these services.[authors abstract]