Annual Report 2023

The numbers are staggering, the impacts heartbreaking. And yet, internally displaced people (IDPs) often go unseen and their needs unanswered. To create solutions that work, leaders need to see the issue, recognise its importance and understand its complexities.

We continued to do our part to those ends throughout 2023, monitoring and reporting on displacement situations so those who have lost their homes do not lose their place on agendas in halls of power. Our Global Report on Internal Displacement 2023 captured the immense scale of displacement in 2022, as the onset of war in Ukraine and severe flooding in Pakistan drove record global displacement. It also explored how conflict, disasters and displacement overlap with - and aggravate - global food insecurity.

Displacement can affect internally displaced people and the communities that host them in myriad ways. We produced two different sets of data and analysis and a new report to bring a magnifying glass to the conditions in which IDPs live. Our updated displacement severity assessments compare living conditions of IDPs with non-displaced households, and the results and analysis of our socioeconomic survey begin to quantify the effects of displacement on IDPs’ livelihoods, health, education, security and housing conditions. We also explored how a person’s gender inevitably shapes how they experience internal displacement in our Gender dynamics in internal displacement report.

All our work is to inform policy and action, and in 2023 we stepped up our engagement in policy conversations at the national and international levels. In addition to our work with governments and our ongoing support of the UN Special Adviser on Solutions to Internal Displacement, we focused on climate policy. We worked with a range of partners to ensure the establishment of, and the inclusion of displacement in, the much-anticipated Loss and Damage Fund, both of which came to be at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP28).

While the number of internally displaced people keeps growing, there has been progress toward addressing the issue. As part of our 25th anniversary, we took stock of that progress in our report, 25 Years of Progress on Internal Displacement. The report included an updated Internal Displacement Index and a look at major achievements since the adoption of the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement and the founding of IDMC in 1998. At our annual conference, leaders in the field who have played, and are still playing, significant roles in addressing the issue shared their perspectives on how lessons from this past work can help overcome remaining barriers to solutions to internal displacement.

Over the years, we’ve seen many examples of how countries, organisations and IDPs themselves have been able to reduce the risks, scale and negative impacts of internal displacement. As you read this in 2024, we are well into our 26th year, still striving to inform and shine a light on those policies and actions. All our work is only possible with the generous support of our donors and constructive collaboration with our many partners. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your support and dedication to IDMC's work, and we look forward to continuing our work together for the years to come.

Sincerely,

Alexandra Bilak
IDMC Director