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 Charlotte DuBois and Christopher Belden | Feb 18, 2026
This short article spotlights the dire healthcare access challenges faced by internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Colombia, home to the world's second-largest population of IDPs. Widespread violence among armed groups has forced people in many parts of the country to flee their homes, either preemptively or in the midst of ongoing conflicts. The injustices faced by IDPs, however, don't end there. Due to continuing violence, controls on communities instigated by armed groups, and discrimination against IDPs in urban and other locations of resettlement, IDPs face severe challenges accessing healthcare. While humanitarian organizations can provide limited health services in some regions of the country, many IDPs in Colombia remain without access to healthcare. The article argues that the government must do much more to intervene in the conflicts to provide access to health and other services and end widespread discrimination against IDPs.
By Steve Miron, Dyuti Tasnuva Rifat, Tanjib Islam | Feb 25, 2026
Researching Internal Displacement is pleased to make this case study available as a stand-alone publication. Excerpted from a recent research and advocacy report by the Refugee Law Initiative, this case study of an urban informal settlement in Tongi, Bangladesh, examines the lived experience of loss and damage among people displaced in the context of climate change and left behind in climate action. Encouragingly, the case study also highlights a promising 'good practice' development intervention by the SAJIDA Foundation. In the case study, programme participants describe how Sajida’s multifaceted approach, which empowers women and girls, encourages positive behaviour change and prioritises psychosocial wellbeing across multiple programme workstreams, has helped restore agency, self-sufficiency and hope. SAJIDA’s programme shows how protracted displacement and associated losses and damages can be addressed and are not inevitable.
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