The 32nd UK Shelter Forum 2026 will be held online on Thursday 7th May and in-person at LSE on Friday 8th May. The conference will be co-convened by the Department of Geography & Environment at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC).

The theme is ‘Shelter and Urban Systems’. This may cover a range of topics and areas of interest and concern, including issues that relate to both urban economies and their development, urban governance and planning, and markets (land, housing, rental, construction, labour). Through this focus the meeting will consider opportunities for collaboration between the humanitarian shelter sector and local economic development. There will be opportunities for presentations and discussions on technical, policy, and programmatic subjects.

Guiding Questions

• How can the areas of practice (humanitarianism and urban economic development) work more closely together?
• How can the shelter response work with local economy and market systems?
• How can humanitarian market-based programming in urban areas be more sustainable?

Submissions

We will prioritise in-person presentations for the Friday 8th May meeting at the LSE. Online presentations will take place in a Microsoft Teams meeting on Thursday 7th May (12.00 GMT TBC).

The UK Shelter Forum will be live-streamed and shared via an online meeting invite. Comments will be available to add through the chat function.

Submissions will either be accepted as short ‘updates’ (5 minutes) or as presentations (10-15 minutes to allow time for Q&A). When submitting an abstract, please indicate your preference.

If you wish to submit an abstract for consideration, email ukshelterforum2013@gmail.com with the subject line ‘UKSF 2026 Submission’.

The deadline for abstracts is Monday 2nd March. If successful, presentations will be expected for review by Monday 13th April.

Details for submission