Reducing protracted internal displacement

This paper aims to contribute to the reflection on effective practices to address protracted displacement, in support of the GP20 Plan of Action roll-out. It expands on the research conducted by Walter Kälin and Hannah Entwisle Chapuisat for the 2017 OCHA-commissioned study Breaking the Impasse: Reducing Protracted Internal Displacement as a Collective Outcome. That study provided a comprehensive picture of the impact of protracted internal displacement, as well as five country case studies in contexts of conflict and disasters. It also offered a road map for addressing such displacement through seven steps, including conducting joint analysis and defining collective outcomes. The conclusions and recommendations in Breaking the Impasse were widely disseminated. A request from operational actors was to provide additional information on projects that effectively helped address protracted internal displacement and support solutions.

This paper aims to respond to this request, by presenting examples of projects that enhanced humanitarian-development cooperation in order to reduce the vulnerabilities of IDPs and host communities and work towards durable solutions. Projects presented in this research have been either the object of internal evaluations or used by research organisations as case studies. Only projects that presented identified good practices are described in this report. Projects were selected to cover a variety of internal displacement situations – in Colombia, Haiti, Somalia, Sudan and Ukraine – with a primary focus on the improvement of the lives of IDPs, taking into account the needs of host communities, and covering issues such as education, training, livelihood support, housing and protection. Through a detailed review, this paper identifies several elements as having contributed to the success and sustainability of projects in the context of protracted internal displacement.