Internal Displacement as a Development Challenge

This paper synthesises existing analyses of how to address internal displacement as a development challenge

Published on August 21, 2020

Hana Asfour, Sabria Al-Thawr and Chantal Chastonay | idrp, Development, Humanitarian, Solutions

This paper synthesises existing analyses of how to address internal displacement as a development challenge. It begins by describing how internal displacement can be appropriately considered as a development challenge (part 1). It then asks how the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) can be leveraged to promote greater emphasis on addressing internal displacement in the context of sustainable development (part 2). It then examines how development approaches might be integrated within humanitarian work with internally displaced persons (IDPs) from the outset to achieve this objective (part 3). Finally, it summarises the main recommendations resulting from the foregoing analysis for consideration by the High-Level Panel (part 4).

This paper was presented to the UNSG High Level Panel on Internal Displacement in Work-stream 3 (International System and Solutions).

Dr Hana Asfour is the Head of Research, Q Perspective, Jordan, Dr Sabria Al-Thawr is at the Gender and Development Research and Studies Center, Sana’a University, and Chantal Chastonay is at the Danish Refugee Council.

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