All are vulnerable, but tens of millions of internally displaced people – often in crowded conditions and without access to water and sanitation, healthcare and government support – are especially so.

The world’s interconnectedness and its vulnerability are front and centre of our lives right now, in the face of the global spread of Coronavirus, Covid-19. Despite the physical distance that separates us, we are in fact coming together. 
 
And yet the most vulnerable people in the world – not least many of its 40+ million internally displaced people (IDPs) – simply cannot ‘self-isolate’, enjoy the levels of water and sanitation, and respond to illness in the way that so many in their own homes today can. 
 
Whether IDPs have been forced to flee their homes by conflict or violence or disaster, they are all the more vulnerable because so many of them struggle daily to access proper health and sanitation.
 
So our thoughts at IDMC, as always, are with the internally displaced.  

We collate and then triangulate our data from many sources, and often that data takes weeks or months to be generated. Thus far, we are picking up sporadic news of some reported incidents of internal displacement caused by Coronavirus, as households and educational establishments may be evacuated. More obviously, we are picking up reported incidents of sickness amongst IDPs themselves, for instance in Iraq. We are also trying to follow especially vulnerable IDP situations, for instance in Burkina Faso, Syria, Venezuela and Palestine, and also instances of Government action to prevent the spread of Coronavirus amongst IDPs, as in Iraq.  
 
We stand with and support our partners. The Norwegian Refugee Council reminds us of 10 things we need to know about displaced people and the Coronavirus. The UN system has mobilised. UNHCR alongside OHCHR stress the imperative of helping vulnerable people, and UNHCR is launching an appeal for its work to support Coronavirus preparedness, prevention, and response - for both refugees and IDPs. It can already show powerful examples of successful work in places like Kenya, Iraq, and Bangladesh. Our friends in OCHA and IOM and many agencies around the world are doing the same.
 
We will provide updates where we can.  Please – partners, donors, press, and all who care for IDPs the world over in all their challenges – feel free to be in touch at info@idmc.ch.

Geneva, 5 March 2020 – New estimates published for the first time today reveal that at least 21 million women and girls were uprooted within their countries by conflict and violence by the end of 2018. Two-thirds of these internally displaced women and girls were in Africa and the Middle East. Nine countries worldwide hosted over one million women and girls each: Syria, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia, Afghanistan, Yemen, Nigeria, Ethiopia and Sudan.

“Twenty-five years after the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, one of the most comprehensive global policy frameworks for gender equality, women and girls are still suffering disproportionately from displacement,” said Alexandra Bilak, Director of the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC), the organisation who led the research.

While the global estimate of 21 million displaced women and girls accounts for just over half of the 41 million internally displaced people (IDPs) worldwide, in many cases the proportion of women and girls in displaced populations is higher than that of men and boys, and also higher than in the national population. In Burkina Faso, for instance, where violence led to a ten-fold increase in displacements in 2019, 65 per cent of adult IDPs are women. This is likely because many men are forcibly recruited to fight by armed groups, so are unable to flee with the women.  

The new report, published jointly by IDMC, Plan International and IMPACT Initiatives, shows that displacement reinforces pre-existing discrimination and social and economic disadvantages. Displaced women and girls tend to face greater challenges than men and boys in staying safe, securing work, accessing education and healthcare. Their sex and age often prevent them for making their voices heard and participating in decisions that affect them. 

These first global, regional and national estimates are reached by applying UN national age distribution data to IDMC’s figures for people internally displaced by conflict or violence. They do not include women and girls displaced by causes such as disasters and climate change, and only cover around 50 countries for which data is available, so they should be considered underestimates.   

Only 15 per cent of the countries IDMC collects data on provided information disaggregated by sex and age in 2018. Four of the ten countries with the largest internally displaced populations worldwide (Syria, Sudan, South Sudan and Somalia) are completely missing from the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Gender Index due to the unavailability of data.  

“The Sustainable Development Goals will not be achieved by 2030 unless internal displacement, and the plight of displaced women and girls in particular, receive greater attention; starting with better data and analysis, and followed by concrete action,” said Alexandra Bilak.     

“Knowing how many women and girls are displaced, how old they are and the conditions they live in is essential if we are to provide them with the right resources to meet their specific needs.”

NOTES TO EDITORS:
The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) is the world's authoritative source of data and analysis on internal displacement. Since its establishment in 1998, as part of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), IDMC has offered a rigorous, independent and trusted service to the international community. Our work informs policy and operational decisions that improve the lives of the millions of people living in internal displacement, or at risk of becoming displaced in the future.

Download the report here: Women and girls in internal displacement

For interviews please contact:
Frankie Parrish, IDMC
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