EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
CCAPS research provides a critical overview of the literature on ‘complex emergencies,’ including the broad range of data and definitions available, before suggesting a revised definition and typology of this commonly used, yet poorly understood, concept. The components, causes, and consequences of complex emergencies, as well as the variation of possible responses, are explored. Co-occurring instabilities including environmental disasters, conflicts, poverty, epidemics, and migration assemble to create acute, chronic, urban, and protracted complex emergency types. Through a deductive method, this brief proposes a framework to distinguish a complex emergency from ongoing conflicts within developing regions, based on aggregation of multiple political, social, economic, and physical instabilities.
