One Map, One Plan
How a shared geographic approach is changing site management in Gaza
The Basic Needs Consortium brings together Mercy Corps, the Danish Refugee Council and Catholic Relief Services, working with a network of Palestinian partner organizations. With funding from the European Union, it supports families affected by the conflict in Gaza and the West Bank.
Gaza has 1,596 active displacement sites. Around 1.7 million people live in them. More than eight in ten of those sites are makeshift, put together from whatever materials are available. Only around a third have an organization formally responsible for managing them. For the rest, when something goes wrong, there is no one accountable for following up. The scale of displacement makes a site-by-site approach impossible. Sites open and close faster than planning can follow. Water, shelter and protection needs rarely stop at site boundaries. A family in one site draws water from a point shared with three others. A fire in one corner spreads. A protection concern in one household becomes a site-level emergency overnight.
A defined area, not a list of sites
A catchment is an area where DRC and its partners organize site management across nearby sites and the displaced people living around them, using one shared picture of needs. It does not mean DRC delivers every service, or that the boundaries never move. It means that one organization is responsible for one part of the map, accountable for what happens across a defined group of sites.
Across the Consortium, site management is also the entry point to other support, including shelter, cash and protection.
Between May and June 2026, DRC carried out a rapid needs assessment covering 88 sites in five governorates: Gaza, Deir al-Balah, Khan Younis, Rafah and North Gaza. Field teams interviewed 524 households across 35 sites. The site records covered 16,674 households and 77,678 people. Conditions are recorded site by site. The catchment is how the response is organized.
The findings of the rapid needs assessments give us a picture of people’s living conditions. Ninety-two percent of assessed sites reported people cooking indoors, inside shelters made of fabric and plastic sheeting. One site in four had already had a fire. Eighty-three percent had no public lighting at all.
These are not separate problems. They compound. A site with no lighting, damaged shelter and indoor cooking has three problems, creating one major risk: conditions where a single incident becomes a wider emergency.
The catchment approach helped make our response more organized and practical on the ground. It allowed us to reach larger population groups, improve inclusion, and bring together different DRC and partner interventions in a more coordinated way across the same area.
Ahmad Mansour, Site Management Team Leader, DRC
Rafah: what the map looks like in practice
The Rafah catchment area covers 13 sites, with 13 site management committees and 161 committee members, all of whom have been trained. The area is operated jointly by DRC and other site management actors. Five of those sites are classified as hard to reach.
The site management process runs in five steps. A concern is raised: a blocked access route, a service gap, a protection risk. Committees and monitoring teams assess the concern. DRC brings together committees, technical teams and service providers to agree on a response. Whoever is able to deliver takes the lead. The gap stays on the list until it is resolved, taken on by another organization, or escalated.
Through that process, DRC was able to mobilize various actors to bring 365 tents and 1,130 dignity kits, which contain basic hygiene items for women and girls, to families in Rafah. Coordination is what made sure they arrived where the needs were.
The impact of this coordinated approach is visible at site level, where community structures have become stronger and residents have gained better access to information and support.
Site organization and support have become much more structured. Here in Rafah, the sites are supporting each other like one family, and this has helped us face challenges together and improve communication with organizations and displaced families.
Mohammad Ashour, Mukhtar Site Focal Point, Rafah
The support received at the site went beyond individual services. Through training and continuous engagement, community representatives became better equipped to identify residents' needs, communicate them to humanitarian organizations, and follow up on solutions. This has strengthened the community's role in improving conditions for families living at the site.
Mohammad, Member of a Site Management Committee, North Gaza
Why this matters on World Habitat Day
World Habitat Day is about the right to adequate shelter. In Gaza, adequate shelter is not a building standard. It is a daily calculation: whether the tent holds through the rain, whether the path is lit after dark, whether there is someone to call when something changes.
The catchment approach creates the conditions under which the right people know what is needed, who is responsible for it, and who closes the loop.
With EU funding, partners like Mercy Corps, DRC and CRS are helping people meet their basic needs and live with dignity.
One map, one plan, and a clear answer to who does what.
Funded by the European Union
Learn more about how EU support is reaching families across Gaza and the West Bank.