Internal Displacement and Solutions
Internal Displacement and Solutions Conference
14-15 March 2024 (online)
This online conference marks the culmination of five years of increasing international engagement with the pressing challenge of ‘solutions’ to internal displacement.
In 2024, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on Solutions to Internal Displacement will wrap up the work on this issue begun by his High-Level Panel in 2020 and continued under his Action Agenda. These processes reflect a longstanding preoccupation that, despite decades of efforts including the 1998 UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement and the humanitarian reform, the acute needs of many internally displaced persons (IDPs) remain unmet and, globally, long-term solutions to their situation appear elusive.
This conference provides a forum for researchers, practitioners, policy-makers and students from all disciplines to come together to present, debate and reflect on ‘solutions’ to internal displacement and their future. It offers the chance to develop new research agendas and collaborations. Alongside keynote presentations, it will host ‘thematic’ and ‘open’ panel sessions to share research and analysis from academia and from policy/practice.
See the details below, or download the PDF version here.
1. Solutions theme and panel sessions
In 2024, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on Solutions to Internal Displacement will wrap up the work on this issue begun by his High-Level Panel in 2020 and continued under his Action Agenda. These processes reflect a longstanding preoccupation that, despite decades of efforts including the 1998 UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement and the humanitarian reform, the acute needs of many internally displaced persons (IDPs) remain unmet and, globally, long-term solutions to their situation appear elusive.
This conference provides a forum for researchers, practitioners, policy-makers and students from all disciplines to come together to present, debate and reflect on ‘solutions’ to internal displacement and their future. It offers the chance to develop new research agendas and collaborations around questions relating to solutions and internal displacement, such as:
- How do we conceive ‘solutions’ to internal displacement? Is it a useful concept? Are ‘solutions’ to internal displacement identical in all contexts? What do newer ideas such as ‘durable solutions’, ‘transitional solutions’ or ‘development solutions’ add?
- On the location of solutions, is return always the ‘preferred solution’ to internal displacement? How does integration in a new host community work in IDP contexts? Where is the relocation of IDPs justified as a solution to their displacement?
- How to move from short-term humanitarian assistance to IDPs to long-term solutions to their displacement? How to connect with wider approaches, such as development, peacebuilding, disaster risk reduction, climate adaptation and mitigation?
- What are roles of different institutions and sectors play in IDP solutions, including the IDPs themselves, the host community, wider society, returning refugees, local and national authorities, international agencies, clusters, civil society etc.?
- How do law and policy frame and shape solutions for IDPs? Do certain kinds of sectoral interventions make an outsize contribution to solutions, e.g. housing, land and property; civil documentation; family reunification etc.?
- How to measure achievement of solutions? How good is current data on solutions? What opportunities are there to improve data on solutions? What challenges arise? Are there specific methodological issues in researching solutions in IDP settings?
- What is the impact of the recent UN work on solutions? Have the High-Level Panel report and the Action Agenda effected change? What is the legacy of the activities carried out by the Special Adviser? What next steps are needed?
Panel Sessions
Across the conference, research will be presented across 12 panel sessions. Thematic panels address topics relevant specifically to the theme of solutions, whilst Open panels address other topics relating to protection and assistance to IDPs and displacement-affected communities.
2. Keynote speakers, hosts and conference committee
Keynote Speakers
- “Academic Research on IDPs: Trends, Gaps, Possibilities”
Professor Elizabeth Ferris, Director of the Institute for the Study of International Migration, Georgetown University, USA
- “From Displacement to Solutions: Pathways to Break Patterns of Protracted Internal Displacement”
Robert Piper, Special Adviser on Solutions to Internal Displacement, Office of the United Nations Secretary General
Hosts
The Internal Displacement Research Programme is based at the Refugee Law Initiative, a unique academic centre promoting interdisciplinary research, teaching and exchange on law, policy and practice in displacement contexts. As a national focal point for leading and promoting research in this field, the RLI works to integrate the shared interests of scholars and practitioners, stimulate collaboration between these fields, and achieve policy impact at the national and international level.
As part of the UN Secretary-General’s Action Agenda on Internal Displacement, he created a time-bound position of Special Adviser on Solutions to Internal Displacement. The Office of the Special Adviser, established in June 2022, serves as the UN’s prime advocate on solutions and is tasked with helping drive a change in the approach to solutions within and outside the UN system. The Secretary-General appointed Robert Piper to serve as the Special Adviser in May 2022.
Conference Committee
- Professor David Cantor, Director of the Internal Displacement Research Programme / RLI
- Greta Zeender, Head of Research, Office of the UNSG Special Advisor on Solutions
- Dr Bríd Ní Ghráinne (Maynooth University, Ireland)
- Dr Lidia Kuzemska (Forum Transregionale Studien, Germany)
4. Registration
All attendees, including presenters, will need to register for the conference.
Registration is now open here.
There is a standard registration charge of £15 to cover the administrative costs of running the conference. RLI Affiliates and students on our MA in Refugee Protection, as well as displaced persons, can register for free, please email requests to idpconference@sas.ac.uk. Conference registration for one day only is not available. Tickets are non-refundable.