Disaster Displacement and DRR

Every year, millions of people are displaced by cyclones, floods, earthquakes, droughts, sea-level rise, desertification and other natural hazards. More people are displaced by disasters today than by conflict. Disaster displacement has devastating impacts on individuals and communities; leading to loss of livelihoods and unemployment, interrupting education and reducing access to basic services. Different groups of people including women, children, older people, persons with disabilities, migrants and people already displaced are often more vulnerable to displacement linked to natural hazards than the rest of population.

This working session aimed to increase understanding of disaster displacement and encourage countries to address disaster displacement in their disaster risk reduction strategies, programmes and actions. The session will discuss good practices and challenges in disaster displacement from various countries, regions and organisations. The session will also recommend practical actions to prevent disaster displacement, protect displaced people and build the resilience of the displaced population and their host communities to find durable solutions.

Moderator:

Andrew Harper, Director, Division of Programme Support and Management, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

Keynote speaker:

Walter Kaelin, Envoy of the Chair of the Platform on Disaster Displacement

Speakers:

Fathia Alwan, Director for Health and Social Development of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, Djibouti

Jessica López Mejía, Ministry of Governance, Migration Policy Unit Director of Policy for the Protection and Integration of Migrants Directora de Protección para la Protección e Integración de Migrantes, Mexico

Kamal Abou Jawdi, Governor of Bekaa Lebanon

Tasneem Siddiqui, Professor of Political Science and Chair of the Refugee and Migrating Movements Research Unit of the University of Dhaka