Chapter 3
reported in Burundi (65%), Sudan (57%), Chad
and Ukraine (both 56%). The data confirmed that
the overall male-female ratio of IDPs has not
changed significantly since 2010, when women
constituted about half of IDPs in 2010 (with
some countries being an exception).
Children continued to be heavily affected by
internal displacement in some of the worst
humanitarian crises of the decade, and their
situation remains dire today. In Afghanistan, the
Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia and
Burkina Faso, for instance, children constituted
more than 60 per cent of IDPs at the end of 2019.
In the Central African Republic, Chad, Niger,
Pakistan and Yemen, their proportion ranged
between 53 and 57 per cent. Comparing these
figures to IDP situations in Afghanistan, the
Central African Republic and Somalia in 2010,
the proportion of children increased by a few
percentage points.
Insufficient data on persons with disabilities still
hinders a better understanding of the risks they
face in displacement, although population surveys
reveal that the prevalence and negative impacts of
living with a disability are more pervasive in crisisaffected countries, such as Syria, where 27 per
cent of the total population above 12 years of age
have a disability. 47
UNHCR and the future of
internal displacement
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
and its commitment to ‘leave no one behind’
provide a powerful basis for the inclusion
of internally displaced people in economic
development planning, as well as in all other
measures taken by States to achieve the
Sustainable Development Goals.
At the World Humanitarian Summit held in May
2016, far-reaching commitments were made,
including an ambitious target of reducing
the number of people in protracted or new
displacement by 50 per cent by the year 2030.
47 https://www.globalprotectioncluster.org/wp-content/uploads/
Disability_Prevalence-and-Impact_FINAL-2.pdf
UNHCR > GLOBAL TRENDS 2019
Over the course of the upcoming decade, UNHCR
will continue to work with national governments
in supporting efforts by States to adopt inclusive
policies that better integrate internally displaced
people into society and social safety nets;
recognize them as socio-economic assets and
contributors (including through better data); and
strengthen the laws that ensure their protection
and human rights.
In 2019, UNHCR released an updated IDP Policy,
which recommitted UNHCR to be a predictable
and effective stakeholder in situations of internal
displacement both operationally and within
inter-agency response mechanisms, in support
of affected States and communities. As an
operational agency and in its capacity as lead
of the Shelter, CCCM 48 and Protection Clusters,
UNHCR will continue to work with its partners
in addressing both immediate and longer-term
needs of internally displaced people and host
communities, and in supporting them to become
resilient and self-reliant. UNHCR will, in particular,
promote an active role by IDPs in decisions
affecting their lives, and their communities,
including through participation in peacebuilding
and conflict resolution processes.
UNHCR will also make prevention a priority, as it
recognized many situations of internal displacement
could be avoided, or their impact minimized, if
compliance with human rights standards and
international humanitarian law was maintained.
UNHCR will consistently embed protection
considerations in the various steps of agency
and inter-agency preparedness efforts and will
contribute to scenario-based contingency planning
within its shelters and settlements, and camp/site
coordination and management areas of expertise.
By 2030, many gains will be realized, though
internal displacement situations are likely to
continue due to conflict, violence or disaster,
including health pandemics. UNHCR will continue
to engage across the entire spectrum of forced
displacement, with refugees, internally displaced,
and stateless people, ensuring access to
protection, addressing factors that may contribute
to further displacement or onward movement, and
emphasizing both solutions and prevention.
48 Camp Coordination and Camp Management
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