Towards Dignified Climate Relocation: Community Perspectives from around the Globe

“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.

Published on November 3, 2026

Sarah Koeltzow (ed.) and Erica Bower (ed.) | idrp, IDPs, Disaster, Climate, Solutions, International

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KEYWORDS: Planned relocation, climate change, human rights, displacement, solutions

Articles in the miniseries

Essay: Sarah Koeltzow and Erica Bower. 2026. Climate Relocations Around the Globe: Community Perspectives on Common Challenges and Solutions.

El Bosque, Mexico: Cantú Bautista, Silvia, María Maldonado Antillón, Daniela Chapuz Osorio, and Juan Manuel Orozco Moreno. 2026. More than Just Housing: Human-rights-based Planned Relocation Lessons from El Bosque, Mexico.

Wayanad, India: Kunnummal, Rahmath Beevi, and Mohammed Firoz C. 2026. More Than a Roof: Promises, Practices, and the Realities of Project HARSHAM in Wayanad, India.

Gardi Sugdub, Panama: Brown Rivera, Elliot. 2026. From Our Home in Gardi Sugdub and Isberyala: A Community Perspective on Planned Relocation in Panama. Translated by Sarah Koeltzow.

Odisha, India: Panda, Ranjan, and Sankalpa Satapathy. 2026. Age and Justice Considerations: Insights from Planned Relocation in Odisha, India.

Lower Shire Valley, Malawi: Maloya, Gift Richard, Gertrude Masangwi, Beatrice Tholyna Mtika, Simeon Bondera Nyirenda, and Jocelyn Perry. 2026. Cash Assistance and Social Protection: Considerations for More Dignified Planned Relocation in Malawi.

The Coalition on Dignified Climate Relocation is a global community of practice founded in 2025 that brings together relocating community leaders, civil society advocates, researchers and members of international organisations committed to protecting the rights, autonomy and dignity of communities undergoing planned relocations after decades of exposure to sea level rise and other climate-related disasters.

CDCR works towards two goals: fostering knowledge and experience exchange across contexts, and advocating for countries to develop and implement rights-respecting policy frameworks on planned relocation that put communities at the center.

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Climate Relocations Around the Globe: Community Perspectives on Common Challenges and Solutions

By Sarah Koeltzow and Erica Bower | Nov 2, 2026

This final article in the miniseries, Towards Dignified Climate Relocation: Community Perspectives from around the Globe, distils the experiences and lessons from planned relocations in Mexico, Panama, India and Malawi, as recounted in earlier articles of this series, co-produced by RID and the Coalition on Dignified Planned Relocation. The articles were authored by members of the Coalition, who accompanied or witnessed these relocations. This essay, by the series guest editors, highlights the importance of community leadership, the need for “all of community” consultation and engagement, the importance of cultural sensitivity and responding to experiences of loss and grief, and the need to monitor outcomes over time. Critically, planned relocation isn’t just an infrastructure project; it is a multidimensional process of economic, social and cultural rebuilding. Planned relocation is a unique form of climate mobility, and supporting the exchange of key insights from communities around the world is essential. That work is at the heart of the Coalition on Dignified Climate Relocation's mission.

Cash Assistance and Social Protection: Considerations for More Dignified Planned Relocation in Malawi

By Gift Richard Maloya, Gertrude Masangwi, Beatrice Tholyna Mtika, Simeon Bondera Nyirenda and Jocelyn Perry, with research support from Clara Store Chitani | Oct 29, 2026

This fifth article in RID's miniseries, Towards Dignified Climate Relocation: Community Perspectives from around the Globe, examines the challenges of planned relocation in Malawi’s Lower Shire Valley after Cyclone Freddy (2023). Authored by researchers from the Malawi-based Initiative for Climate Action and Development (ICAD) and Refugees International, the article recounts the planned relocation experiences of three affected communities in that region, spotlighting the importance of social protection and the role of cash assistance in ensuring a dignified and sustainable relocation. The authors identify challenges for climate-related planned relocations, including the absence of appropriate infrastructure in new locations, relationship dynamics with host communities, and access to sustainable economic opportunities for communities dependent on place-based livelihoods. They also offer recommendations on how to support communities in Malawi and elsewhere as they rebuild lives and livelihoods in places out of harm’s way. The series is published in collaboration with the Coalition on Dignified Climate Relocation.

Age and Justice Considerations: Insights from Planned Relocation in Odisha, India

By Ranjan Panda and Dr. Sankalpa Satapathy | Oct 22, 2026

This fourth article in RID's miniseries, Towards Dignified Climate Relocation: Community Perspectives from around the Globe, shines a light on the hardships faced by older people following planned relocation in the Indian coastal state of Odisha. The authors, researchers who have worked with these erosion-affected communities through the India-based network “Water Initiatives”, describe how older adults experience challenges to their cultural identity and traditional knowledge systems following planned relocation, including the fracturing of their relationship with nature, loss of sacred spaces, and ‘solastalgia’ – the acute distress and melancholia caused by the environmental degradation of one's home environment. The paper also highlights the lessons learned from the lived realities of older persons undergoing planned relocation, including the need to pay more attention to the social, cultural, psychological, and care-related dimensions of climate vulnerability and, vitally, why approaches to planned relocations must be inclusive and age-sensitive. The series is published in collaboration with the Coalition on Dignified Climate Relocation.