This short blog by a Barbudan community advocate examines how the Government of Antigua and Barbuda cynically forced the evacuation of Barbuda during Hurricane Irma in 2017 to make way for a luxury real estate development project catering to the exclusive private lifestyles of millionaires. Declaring the island ‘uninhabitable’, the government used threats and dubious legal procedures to confiscate all Barbudan land and prevent Barbudans from asserting their right to live on their land and island. Eight years on, Barbudans, led by community representatives and activists, continue their struggle. As the author notes, their challenges have strengthened the resolve of the people of Barbuda and helped forge alliances with other communities facing similar injustices.

This policy brief examines the forced and mostly failed relocation of members of coastal Sri Lankan communities following the 2004 tsunami that devastated parts of the country. In the aftermath of the tsunami, the Sri Lankan government decided to enforce a coastal buffer zone law that banned housing within proximity to the coastline, requiring residents in the buffer zone to vacate and move to poorly planned and constructed housing in ill-conceived relocation sites. As government and civil society organisations involved in the relocation gradually disengaged from the project, community members were left to fend for themselves amidst growing economic and social challenges associated with the relocation. As such, many families eventually returned to the buffer zone, exposing themselves to both legal and coastal hazard risks. This blog highlights how failure to involve communities in the planning and development of the relocation project has led to a second disaster for tsunami-affected communities – that of a poorly implemented planned relocation.

This short article spotlights what the authors introduce as “the feminization of recovery” of internally displaced communities in Lebanon's southern border with Israel, where women’s unpaid and unrecognized efforts sustain reconstruction in the absence of formal systems following the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah one year ago. The October 2023 conflict along Lebanon’s southern border displaced thousands, with female-headed households (FHHs) among the most affected. Returning after the ‘ceasefire,’ many women faced destroyed homes, scarce livelihoods, and gender norms privileging male breadwinners, all compounded by Lebanon’s refusal to recognize internally displaced persons (IDPs). Without legal acknowledgement or state support, women relied on informal networks, care work, and community solidarity to rebuild. Drawing on qualitative research (2023-2025), this commentary examines how FHHs transform survival into agency, turning daily labor and mutual support into the backbone of recovery. Recognizing their roles demands a policy shift from short-term aid to gender-sensitive livelihoods, housing repair, psychosocial support, and municipal funding that affirms women not as victims of war, but as architects of post-conflict renewal.

This article calls attention to the escalating displacement crisis in South Sudan, where the overlapping impacts of conflict and climate change are deepening insecurity for IDPs and others in displacement affected communities. Highlighting the links between climate events, localized violence and displacement, the article calls on government and civil society stakeholders to acknowledge the worsening 'dual crisis' and do more to embed climate risk management strategies, including disaster risk reduction and climate adaption programming, into civilian protection and conflict resolution policies. Such measures should also support community-based adaptation practices that address IDP needs, empower community leaders and contribute to long-term stability in communities where IDPs reside.

For many of those displaced by Hurricane Melissa, the real disaster is only just beginning. While close to a million people have been evacuated, undoubtedly saving lives, this will likely be the start of a much longer period of displacement for some individuals and communities. Viewed within the broader existing hazard-scape of violence, conflict, resource scarcity and funding challenges in the region, the dangers compound and grow. This short piece, which discusses the long-term risks to people displaced by Melissa, also spotlights the chronic and worsening underinvestment in people and communities required to reduce the risk of disaster displacement and the devastating long-term effects on those affected. The blog underscores why parties negotiating the text of the forthcoming global treaty on the Protection of Persons in the Event of Disasters must ensure that displacement, evacuation and planned relocations are reflected in the provisions and that commitments to international cooperation are backed by the financial resources necessary to make them real.

This article looks back at the development and continued relevance of the 2015 Guidance on Protecting People from Disasters and Environmental Change through Planned Relocations, which established an essential set of principles intended to clarify and uphold the rights of people undertaking or considering planned relocations. The article traces how the Guidelines and subsequent Toolkit have helped broaden the conversation to include not only the rights of relocating persons but also those of host communities, those who remain behind in sites of origin, and all those whose lives are affected by planned relocation. It further discusses how the core principles have remained relevant, even as the Guidelines have been adopted across diverse regional, national and community-level contexts. Finally, the author team, which includes the expert who led the development of the Guidance and Toolkit, suggests a brief research agenda, including areas where further direction is needed regarding issues that have become more salient since the 2015 Guidance was published.

This brief article highlights the protracted and often overshadowed forced displacement of Serbs from Kosovo, triggered by the conflict in 1999 and the subsequent NATO intervention. More than two decades later, Serbian IDPs continue to face numerous challenges, from complex administrative procedures of obtaining and renewing their residency status to being stigmatised within local communities. The situation of IDPs remains one of the key Serbian arguments in rejection of the unilateral declaration of independence of Kosovo in 2008. The authors explore not only everyday issues faced by Serbian IDPs but also their perspectives on ending the displacement, situated within the broader political contradictions between Belgrade and Pristina.