In recent years, there has been increasing awareness of the importance of humanitarian agencies supporting and collaborating with local governments in order to restore city functions following humanitarian crisis. This research aimed to identify, document and disseminate learning from UN–Habitat’s experience providing urban planning support to three Local Government Units (LGUs) in Guiuan, Ormoc and Tacloban after super typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines. UN–Habitat staff worked under considerable pressure and were successful in providing support to the LGUs to deliver useful Recovery and Rehabilitation Plans (RRPs). However UN–Habitat were not able to secure adequate, long-term funding and as such were not able to provide the level of support and continuity that was required in order to secure longer-term positive impacts for the cities’ poorest residents.