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Events
November 2020
Data and Knowledge Working Group (DKWG), Platform on Disaster Displacement
Assessing the state of data and research on human mobility in the context of disasters, climate change and environmental degradation: Where are we and what comes next?
Virtual marketplace event
Tuesday 24 November 2020
Register here
Data collection on human mobility in the context of disasters, climate change and environmental degradation remains a priority for the international community as the scale of disaster displacement continues to increase. The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre’s (IDMC) 2020 Global Report on Internal Displacement (GRID) found that new displacements as a result of disasters in 2019 were three times the number of new displacements caused by conflict. With nearly 1,900 disasters that triggered 24.9 million new displacements across 140 countries and territories in 2019; these are the highest figures that have been recorded since 2012.
While academia, governments and international organisations continue to make positive strides towards improving data on disaster displacement, data and knowledge gaps persist. In light of this, the Platform on Disaster Displacement (PDD), the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and IDMC continue to prioritise addressing these gaps and challenges. This long-standing commitment is embodied in the Data and Knowledge Working Group (DKWG), established in 2017 within the Advisory Committee of the PDD and co-chaired by IOM and IDMC. To date the working group has hosted an expert meeting and met three times with the aim to strengthen coordination and the capacity of data collection and information systems at the global, regional and national levels to collect, monitor and analyse data on disaster displacement and other types of human mobility in such contexts.
The DKWG will host a virtual marketplace event on 24 November 2020 to take stock of progress and achievements, facilitate knowledge exchange, and continue promoting the work around data and knowledge on disaster displacement, to discuss continuing gaps and challenges.
The event will take the form of three different virtual sessions. Attendance and participation to the marketplace is open to everyone but registration in advance is required. The meeting will take place in a virtual environment and access instructions will be provided to participants along with their registration.
Programme
09:00-10:00 (CET) - Session 1
- Daniel Salmon, DTM/IOM Vanuatu - "Pacific Response to Disaster Displacement: Supporting Data Drive Humanitarian Responses in Vanuatu Following TC Harold"
- Susanne Melde, GMDAC/IOM - "Regional Dialogue to Address Human Mobility and Climate Change Adaptation in the Eastern Carribean"
- Julia Blocher and Kira Vinke, PIK - "Home Lands: Island and Archipelagic States' Policymaking for Human Mobility in the Context of Climate Change"
- John Marazita, University of Geneva - "Compounding Displacement: the Tropical Storm-King Tide Nexus"
Group Discussion moderated by Bina Desai, Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC)
14:00-15:30 (CET) - Session 2
- Caroline Zickgraf, Hugo Observatory - "The Habitable Project: Linking Climate Change, Habitability and Social Tipping Points"
- Susana Adamo, CIESIN - "Migration, the COVID-19 Pandemic and Climate in Central America's Northern Triangle"
- Ezekiel Simperingham, IFRC - "Forecast-Based Financing and Disaster Displacement: Acting Early to Minimize the Risks of Displacement"
- Damien Jusselme, DTM/IOM RO Dakar - "The IOM's Transhumance Tracking Tool"
- Sylvain Ponserre, IDMC - "Estimating the Disaster Displacement Stock"
Group Discussion moderated by Muhammad Rizki, DTM/IOM
16:00-17:30 (CET) - Session 3
- Andrew Harper and Eric Bonet, UNHCR - "Sahel Predictive Analytics"
- Kanta Kumari Rigaud, World Bank - "The Groundswell Model Version 2: Enhancements for Recent Work in Africa"
- Alex de Sherbinin, CIESIN - "Novel and Big Data Approaches to Identifying Disaster Displacement"
- Robin Bronen, AIJ - "Decolonizing Data Collection and Research"
- Sanjula Weerasinghe, Georgetown University, and Erica Bower, Stanford University - "Improving the Evidence Base on Planned Relocation"
Group Discussion moderated by Atle Solberg, PDD Secretariat
Virtual event
Publications
November 2020
This strategy is the roadmap for the work of the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) over the next 10 years.
It covers:
- IDMC today: Our vision, mission, and team.
- The changing landscape: The progress we've made, challenges we face, and opportunities ahead.
- Setting the course: Our theory of change and the three foundational pillars of our work.
- The road to 2030: Principles, positioning, and timeline.
IDMC Strategy 2021-304.34 MB
Events
December 2020
The Second Urban Resilience Asia Pacific Conference
Friday 4 December 2020 | 13.00 - 13.50 AEDT (Sydney time)
Climate induced displacement, emerging patterns of human mobility and rapid urbanisation are increasingly interlinked across the Pacific region, which is transforming relations to land and settlement and redefining notions of island identity. Emerging research in the region is highlighting regional processes of urbanisation that are providing a better understanding of the links between regional mobility, habitation patterns, and perceptions of a changing climate. This session will present research and discuss the challenges and opportunities these issues present for the region.
The workshop will be held online with a platform to support small breakout rooms. Breakout rooms will be moderated by the presenters under a guiding statement or question.
Speakers:
- Scott Lloyd, Urban Researcher, IDMC
- Maria Teresa Miranda Espinosa, Monitoring Expert, IDMC
- Naca Bolo, Project Manager, Pacific Response to Disaster Displacement, IDMC
- Hassan El Maaroufi, Project Manager, Pacific Response to Disaster Displacement, IOM
- Anne Pakoa, Vanuatu Human Rights Coalition (TBC)
- Alexei Trundle, Research Fellow in Sustainable Urban Development, The University of Melbourne
- Begonya Peiro, Sara Vargues, United Nations Human Settlements Programme, Pacific, UN Habitat
More information and full agenda available here.
Virtual event
Media Centre
22 October 2020
As we speak, the number of Internally Displaced People (IDPs) worldwide has reached an all-time high. Disasters triggered the majority of new displacements in 2019, almost 25 million or two-thirds of the total, and most were linked to weather-related hazards such as storms, floods and droughts. With the expected impacts of climate change, these numbers will likely increase unless we get serious about addressing the structural causes that expose people and make them vulnerable to disaster displacement.
In the past months, however, IDMC has become concerned by the narrative that surrounds climate change and displacement, largely fuelled by unverified rumours circulating on social media. Just as the World Health Organization is fighting ‘infodemics’ related to COVID-19, we feel the need to tackle misinformation about displaced populations. There are a number of myths that are being perpetuated at the peril of those affected by disaster displacement. IDMC has been monitoring and analysing disaster displacement since 2008, and we want to counter these myths with the evidence we have gathered over more than two decades.
We are well aware that 2021 presents a unique opportunity to act. If we let the myths persist, we will remain stuck in policy responses that will not bring us any nearer to the goals of the sustainable development agenda or to reducing internal displacement and the suffering of IDPs.
So what are the myths and why are they dangerous?
Myth 1: Disaster displacement is temporary
The most common myth is that people who have been uprooted from their homes by a disaster, pre-emptively or spontaneously evacuated, return quickly to reconstruct their houses and rebuild their lives. As a result, national policies and response mechanisms often do not recognise displacement in the context of disasters, severely limiting IDP’s access to support and services and resulting in a lack of accountability of local and national agencies.
Unfortunately, in many cases this is not true as people remain displaced for months or even years. In Mozambique, around 87,000 people displaced by cyclone Idai in March 2020 were still living in resettlement sites at the end of July. As of the 31st December 2019, we published the first-ever global figure of 5.1 million people living in internal displacement in the context of disasters. While still highly conservative, this figure shows that protracted disaster displacement is a reality and growing concern across the globe.
Myth 2: You can’t prevent disasters
The perception that disasters are natural and something that may be prepared for, but not prevented, remains widespread, despite extensive evidence to the contrary. Consequently, most national and international efforts still focus on preparedness and humanitarian assistance, rather than addressing the root causes of disaster displacement and building resilience to withstand its effects.
We know that differences in income, age, abilities, social status, assets and access to services and social networks can make all the difference when it comes to people’s exposure and vulnerability to disaster displacement and to the negative impacts of climate change. For instance, this year’s bushfires in Australia exposed pre-existing vulnerabilities of indigenous populations who were disproportionately affected as a result. In Yemen, recent flooding had a dramatic impact on low-income neighbourhoods in the city of Sana’a where IDPs settled in vulnerable housing, resulting in further displacement. IDMC is the first organisation to develop a global disaster displacement risk assessment, combining assessments of hazards, vulnerability and exposure to model the risk of future displacement.
Myth 3: Climate change will trigger millions of new refugees
Climate change is seen as directly and automatically translating to large-scale, cross-border movements of people and significant new migration to high-income regions. This risks restricting both human mobility and access to international protection, sometimes at the cost of more investment in risk reduction, peace building and sustainable development. In reality, climate migration is largely internal. According to the World Bank, without urgent global and national action, sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and Latin America could see more than 140 million people move within their countries by 2050.
Our original research on the complex dynamics of human mobility in the context of climate change and on the many factors influencing internal to cross-border flight among IDPs and refugees, provides a very different picture to the common narrative of billions of migrants on the borders of Europe. Instead of directing attention toward border controls and deterrence, it supports a renewed emphasis on resilience building in countries most affected by climate change and a focus on local and national leadership.
Tackling the future together
With the spread of misinformation, the discourse is in danger of getting derailed even further in the coming months and years. IDMC is fortunate to partner with leading experts and institutions that counter the narrative of climate displacement and fight against public hysteria and resulting policy inertia. We want to build on these partnerships and make new connections to tackle these persisting myths on displacement linked with climate change and disasters.
Over the next six months, IDMC will convene a series of expert forums to tackle these myths. The groups will be by invitation only and will bring together data and risk experts, policy makers and operational actors. The aim is to refocus the debate, built on a solid evidence-base; to exchange on the many existing metrics, tools and platforms available for policy makers; and to generate an environment for risk-informed humanitarian and development planning.
We will kick off the process by hosting two high-level events; one before the end of the year and one in early 2021. The online events will explore the relationship between climate change, disaster risk and internal displacement and share and assess good practices. These discussions will directly contribute to our 2021 Global Report on Internal Displacement and help us and our partners to shape the policy discourse, research agenda and programme priorities on climate change and disaster displacement for years to come. Therefore, I sincerely hope that you will join us to enrich the debate with your experience, knowledge and visions. Let’s start preparing for 2030 now.
If you are interested in participating in the kick-off events, please contact Caressa.Kok@idmc.ch
Events
December 2020
8 December 2020 | 14:30 - 16:00 CET
This was the first of two events that we at IDMC are organising, in addition to our expert forums, as lead-in to our 2021 Global Report on Internal Displacement, with a thematic focus on climate change and disaster displacement.
The webinar featured a prominent panel of experts who help to provide evidence that debunks common and dangerous myths surrounding climate change and displacement. From the idea that displacement linked with disasters is temporary, to the claim that disasters are natural and therefore displacement unavoidable, all the way to the belief that climate change will result in “mass displacement”, this online webinar touched on a broad range of topics.
Moderator and opening remarks:
Alexandra Bilak, Director of IDMC
Speakers:
- António Vitorino
António Vitorino has been IOM's Director General since October 2018. He served as Minister for National Defence and Deputy Prime Minister in Portugal within the government of António Guterres, now the United Nations’ Secretary General. He is a former European Commissioner for Justice and Home Affairs.
- François Gemenne
François Gemenne is the director of the HUGO Observatory at University of Liège (Belgium), a research center committed to the study of interactions between environmental changes, human migration, and politics. He lectures on environmental and migration policies in various universities, including Sciences Po Paris. He is a lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
- Sonia Shah
Sonia Shah is an investigative journalist and author of critically acclaimed and prize-winning books. The Next Great Migration: The Beauty and Terror of Life on the Move (2020) was praised by Publisher's weekly as "a masterful survey of migration [...] countering some long-held misconceptions". She has written for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and many others.
- Prof. Rajib Shaw
Rajib Shaw is professor at the Graduate School of Media and Governance in Keio University’s Shonan Fujisawa Campus (Japan). He was the chair of the United Nations Science Technology Advisory Group (STAG) for disaster risk reduction and is the coordinating lead author for the IPCC. He is the co-founder of Delhi based start-up Resilience Innovation Knowledge Academy (RIKA) India, and former executive director of the Integrated Research on Disaster Risk (IRDR).
For more information on this high-level dialogue, please contact, contact caressa.kok@idmc.ch
Virtual event
Events
November 2020
Side event to the African Youth SDGs Summit 2020
Key figures, challenges and opportunities for internally displaced youth
Thursday 5 November | 11:00 - 12:30 GMT | 12:00 - 13:30 CET
Register here
This online session will present the first estimates of the number of internally displaced people (IDPs) between the ages of 15 and 24 at the global, regional and national levels for about 100 countries. Conflicts, violence and disasters resulted in nearly ten million young people living in displacement around the world at the end of 2019, 4.2 million in sub-Saharan Africa alone. This is the highest figure ever recorded, although it is likely an underestimate. This session will present an overview of some of the most recurring challenges young people face in internal displacement. Their age, gender, disability status and socioeconomic background, as well as other factors, play a significant role. In order to illustrate this complexity, the panellists will highlight the experiences of internally displaced girls and street-connected youth, showing the specific risks they can encounter. Promising data collection methods will also be discussed. Internally displaced young women and men, like all IDPs, are impacted by displacement in multiple ways. As they are at a crucial time in their lives for their personal, social and professional development, they may have particular ways of facing the experience. They encounter specific risks and sometimes lack the resources to avoid them. They can also, however, find opportunity in the midst of adversity, if the right conditions are in place.
Moderator:
Christelle Cazabat, IDMC
Speakers:
- Rachel Snow, Population and Development Branch, UNFPA
- Enzo Mauro Tabet Cruz, Plan International
- Nayana Das, IMPACT Initiatives
- Naomi Nyamweya, Malala Fund
- Shona Macleod, Consortium for Street Children
- Louisa Yasukawa, IDMC
Read more about internally displaced youth in our newly released report.
Virtual event