IDRP
INTERNAL DISPLACEMENT RESEARCH PROGRAMME
Ukraine. Newly displaced people arrive on an evacuation train to Lviv 2023 © UNHCR/Andrew McConnell
The Internal Displacement Research Programme (IDRP) is hosted at the Refugee Law Initiative (RLI), School of Advanced Study, University of London.
The IDRP is a specialised programme that promotes research on internal displacement, including but not limited to policy-relevant research. The IDRP, as an independent research programme, has the following objectives:
- Raise the profile of research on internal displacement in academic and practitioner circles
- Support, disseminate and share current and ongoing work by researchers in this field
- Connect research in this field with that in cognate areas, including refugee studies
- Bring new researchers to the field and develop new cross- and inter-disciplinary work
- Promote and support research capacity in countries affected by internal displacement
LATEST IDRP RESOURCES
By Sarah Koeltzow (ed.) and Erica Bower (ed.) | Nov 3, 2026
“Towards Dignified Climate Relocation: Community Perspectives from around the Globe” is a thematic miniseries guest-edited by Sarah Koeltzow and Erica Bower, co-facilitators of the Coalition on Dignified Climate Relocation (CDCR). It brings together relocating community leaders, researchers, advocates and practitioners from across the CDCR to examine diverse experiences of planned relocation and identify lessons about what rights-respecting, community-led relocation looks like in practice and how national policy should enable it.
The series includes five ‘community perspective’ articles from the Americas, Asia and Africa, featuring the experiences and insights of coalition members from relocating communities and the organisations and researchers supporting them. An Introductory essay by the guest editors distils the experiences and lessons from the planned relocations spotlighted in the series. The essay and the other articles in the series demonstrate that planned relocation is much more than an infrastructure project; it is a multidimensional process of economic, social and cultural rebuilding.
By Kadidjatou Sawadogo | Jun 30, 2026
The working paper examines the impact of humanitarian funding contractions on the realisation of economic and social rights of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Haiti and South Sudan. Drawing on a human rights-based framework, documentary analysis, and key informant interviews, it analyses how reductions in humanitarian assistance affected access to adequate food and healthcare in contexts of protracted displacement, institutional fragility, and humanitarian dependence. The findings show that funding cuts reduced food assistance, disrupted health services, suspended mobile clinics, and weakened nutrition coverage for displaced populations. Humanitarian actors adopted hyper-prioritisation approaches that focused on life‑saving interventions but left significant protection and socio‑economic needs unaddressed.
The IDRP is led by the RLI Director, Professor David Cantor. Its early career Research Affiliate and established Senior Research Associate networks bring together research specialists in this field.
The IDRP hosts the INDCaP project that created Researching Internal Displacement and works to support the regional networks GENIDA, LANID and MERNID.
THE IDRP PROGRAMME, NETWORKS AND ACTIVITIES
See the IDRP website for further details of the programme and its networks and activities.
LATEST IDRP NEWS
For our readership, we invite original contributions on internal displacement.
IDRP EVENTS
This online conference on 14-15 March 2024 marks the culmination of five years of increasing international engagement with the pressing challenge of ‘solutions’ to internal displacement. Registration now open!
By HIDN | Apr 19, 2021
This expert workshop gathered insight and evidence to advise on the gaps in policy and research relating specifically to the health needs of IDPs, involving over 30 leading researchers in health research from fifteen countries