Technical report on statistics of internally displaced persons: Current practice and recommendations for improvement

Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) account for the greatest share of displaced populations globally. In order to aptly inform related responses, accurate and practical data and statistics on IDPs are necessary. Yet to date, and despite the particular conceptual and measurement challenges IDP statistics encounter, guidance on how to best produce IDP statistics remains scarce. There is therefore a need to develop standards for comparable and quality official IDP data and statistics. As a first step, the Expert Group on Refugee and IDP Statistics (EGRIS), has worked on this Technical Report on IDP Statistics to take stock of current practice and make recommendations for a way forward.

This introductory chapter aims to provide context for this Technical Report on Statistics of IDPs and to introduce the rationale and scope of the report itself. It will briefly present background information, identify key linkages between this Report and other efforts, including the International Recommendations on Refugee Statistics (IRRS), and provide a summary of the Report’s structure and the process through which it was developed.