Urgent action needed to address immigrants’ issues: NNDP

KABUL (Pajhwok): The number of people forced to flee from their homes due to conflict, violence or disasters crossed 100 million, according to the UN Development Programme (UNDP) on Wednesday.

Yet, internally displaced persons (IDPs) are rarely in the headlines. This invisible crisis is due to gaps in development support, says the UNDP, in a statement.

A new UNDP report, Turning the tide on internal displacement: A development approach to solutions, argues that longer-term development action is needed to reverse record levels of internal displacement, with millions more people predicted to be uprooted by climate change.

By 2050, climate change could force more than an estimated 216 million people to evacuate their homes, leaving their present lives and livelihoods behind, and move to safer areas.

At the end of 2021, there were 59.1 million people forcibly displaced within their own countries. They are struggling to cover their basic needs, find decent work, have a stable source of income, be healthy or send their children to school.

Women, children and other marginalized groups are suffering the most. As the 2022 Secretary-General’s Action Agenda on Internal Displacement says, the current situation is untenable.

“More efforts are needed to end the marginalization of IDPs who must be able to exercise their full rights as citizens including through access to vital services such as healthcare, education, social protection and job opportunities,” says UNDP Administrator, Achim Steiner. “In tandem with critical humanitarian assistance, this stronger development-focused approach will be vital to set the conditions for pathways to lasting peace, stability and recovery.”

Analysis of sample data provided by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) from Colombia, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Nepal, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, Somalia and Vanuatu shows that a third of those people surveyed who were internally displaced fell into unemployment. 68 percent say they don’t have enough money to meet their households’ needs and a third say their health has worsened since they fled from home.

Ensuring the rights and needs of IDPs are met by their governments is a perquisite to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, agreed by world leaders in 2015 with a fast-approaching deadline.

The report highlights that overcoming internal displacement depends on governments implementing key development solutions, including ensuring equal access to rights and basic services, promoting socio-economic integration, restoring security and building social cohesion.

It is imperative to bring this invisible crisis onto the international agenda. The report calls for better data and research. UNDP is committed to bridging this gap with a Solutions to Internal Displacement Index to monitor progress and to help governments shift from humanitarian to development responses.

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