Raimond Duijsens works as senior policy officer with the Netherlands Red Cross. In the past he has also, in various positions, worked on strategic and policy issues with the International Federation in Geneva and New York. He is currently a PhD candidate, focusing on vulnerability in informal settlements in the global south and the opportunities for and limitations of National Red Cross Societies to address these. The PhD research is sponsored by the Netherlands Red Cross and carried out with

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... saster Studies, Wageningen University. Abstract More than one billion people nowadays live as slum-dwellers in informal settlements characterized by vulnerability and poverty. The 'normal' situation in slums can, in several ways, be classified as a 'crisis', and violence levels often contribute to situations akin to 'armed conflict'. The plight of these people should be the concern of humanitarian organizations, which should consequently widen their spectrum and address vulnerability to disasters and to violence as mutually reinforcing. Applying the 'human security' framework and 'livelihoods' approach can enable them to take a proactive role. However, particularly for the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, a greater involvement also poses several challenges. An urban world About three years ago, sometime during 2007, the world passed a largely unnoticed yet significant tipping point: since that time, and for the first time in history, more than half of the world's population has been living in urban areas. 1 Rural-to-urban migration, together with the natural population growth of cities, constitutes an