Global Report on Internal Displacement 2025

The Way Forward

Policy Integration is More Relevant Than Ever
The Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement reaffirmed states’ primary responsibility to assist and protect IDPs. More recently, the UN Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel on Internal Displacement recognised that addressing the phenomenon in a sustainable way requires a government-led development approach. This starts with enshrining the issue in laws, policies or strategies to provide the necessary clarity and predictability.

States essentially have two main ways to regulate their action: the adoption of standalone frameworks specifically focused on displacement; or its inclusion in other existing frameworks. In either case, institutional, financial and other arrangements are necessarily context-specific, and a whole-of-government approach is essential to join the dots and avoid fragmentation and the duplication of efforts. 

In countries with high levels of internal displacement, governments may prioritise the issue through specific instruments. As of late 2024, 51 countries had adopted at least one such law, policy or strategy. Bangladesh, one of the country’s most prone to disaster displacement globally, adopted a national strategy on internal displacement in 2021 and a subsequent national action plan for 2022 to 2042. In Africa, the continent with most conflict displacement in the world, 34 countries had ratified the African Union Convention for the Protection and Assistance of IDPs, widely known as the Kampala Convention, and 21 countries had adopted specific instruments. Varying degrees of political commitment, limited institutional capacity and resources as well as competing priorities can make implementation a challenge, however, as evidenced by a three-fold increase in the number of IDPs in Africa since the Convention’s adoption in 2009.

States and their development partners favour more efficient and sustainable needs-based approaches beyond the immediate humanitarian response. Accordingly, another approach has been to include displacement in other frame- works where the issue is highly relevant but not necessarily the primary focus, such as those on disaster risk reduction, climate action, peacebuilding and sustain- able development. This is particularly useful in efforts to prevent displacement and resolve protracted situations. 

Because the impacts of displacement differ from one population group to another, and at the same time affect all facets of IDPs’ lives, sectors of societies and economies, there are also many thematic areas in which governments and their partners can integrate the phenomenon. Given, for example, that displaced children and youth often find their education disrupted, with potential repercussions for their future income and economic contribution to society, integrating specific measures for IDPs in education strategies is a sound investment.

A number of practical tools are available to guide states in integrating displacement in relevant frameworks. Successful examples of such integration also exist. The Philippines introduced legislation in 2016 that includes specific provisions to ensure children displaced by disasters have continued access to education, shelter, child-friendly spaces and family reunification. Impacts on the education of non-displaced children are also considered, with guidance to minimise disruption when schools are used for temporary shelters.

Long overlooked, internal displacement has benefitted from heightened international policy visibility and political attention in recent years, with a strong focus on government ownership and leadership and development approaches. At a time of a severe downturn in international assistance, particularly humanitarian funding, its integration into a wide range of national priorities will help to sustain momentum in efforts to address the phenomenon. 

Global Report on Internal Displacement 2025. Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre. Norwegian Refugee Council. Geneva, Switzerland.