Key messages || Significant new internal displacement associated with conflict and disasters takes place every year, mainly in low and lowermiddle income countries. Those affected add to the many millions of people already living in displacement, some of whom have been doing so for years and even decades. This reflects the intractable nature of the phenomenon, and governments’ inability to cope with, respond to and recover sustainably from its impacts. || Some countries drop off the international agenda only to re-emerge a few years later with significant numbers of new displacements. This was the case in 2016 for the Democratic Republic of Congo, and highlights how the failure to address the underlying causes of conflict and displacement results in recurrent crises, takes a heavy toll on communities and undermines the search for sustainable solutions to IDPs’ needs. || Despite the fact that IDPs outnumber refugees by around two to one, internal displacement has been sidelined in recent global policy processes and is overshadowed by the current focus on refugees and migrants. There is a relationship between internal and cross-border movement, both in terms of flight and return, but its nature and extent need to be better understood, including the push and pull factors that prompt IDPs to become refugees, asylum seekers and international migrants. Such an evidence base is essential to set the global agenda, and for national planning and international support. || Persistently high levels of internal displacement underscore the need for more development spending to be allocated to reducing existing vulnerabilities and future risk and for mitigating the longer-term impacts of internal displacement. Humanitarian and development sectors need to invest simultaneously rather than sequentially across all phases of displacement. Current humanitarian budgets are not designed to respond to the many and complex needs of the millions of IDPs caught up in protracted, cyclical and repeated displacement. || Displacement will continue to take a heavy toll on communities and national economies unless the drivers of poverty, environmental change and state fragility are addressed. Many more political and financial resources should be invested in conflict prevention, disaster risk management, state-building and diplomacy to address the multiple interwoven causes of displacement crises. || A more explicit focus on displacement risk presents an opportunity to link policies and programmes more closely to the broader global development agenda. To do so will require greater attention in implementing the Sustainable Development Goals, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and the New Urban Agenda if commitments are to be realised. || There have been several clearly articulated demands for rigorous and transparent data on internal displacement, which is needed to establish a global baseline and measure progress toward targets. Longitudinal data in particular is needed to measure needs and vulnerability. Displacement, however, is rarely monitored from its outset to its end, which means that global figures currently do not reflect the true scale, nature and patterns of the phenomenon. || States are not investing sufficiently in the collection and publication of credible data on internal displacement. Despite repeated UN resolutions calling on member states to collect and share data, only a small number of countries do so. This severely limits their capacity to address IDPs’ needs, and our ability to paint a comprehensive picture. It also means that the right levers and incentives for governments to develop stronger accountability mechanisms at regional and global levels have not yet been found. Global report on internal displacement 2017 7