Figure 1.12: Number of people internally displaced by conflict and violence as of the end of 2016, by region and income group Source: IDMC, with World Bank data Inconsistent monitoring Beside the reality that more people are becoming internally displaced each year and remaining so for long periods of time, the generally upward trend in the total number of IDPs is also at least partly explained by inconsistent monitoring and accounting for caseloads over time. The tracking of IDPs’ trajectories and vulnerabilities tends to trail off after an initial period, because humanitarians, national governments and civil society lose or divert the resources, and often the interest, to continue monitoring and counting them. The lack of regular and updated information precludes us from measuring IDPs’ progress toward sustainable solutions, and continues to swell the global figures each year (see part 3). Perhaps the most visible example of how an overly broad counting method can lead to everincreasing figures is the case of Colombia. With more than 7.2 million IDPs as of the end of 2016, it hosts the highest number worldwide – more than in Afghanistan, Nigeria and South Sudan combined and surpassing Syria by a wide margin (see figure 1.11). As the country emerges from more than five decades of armed conflict, Colombia serves as a crucial litmus test for the new approach to protracted displacement called for at the World Humanitarian Summit (see spotlight, p.29).63 28 GRID 2017 The country’s registry for IDPs, part of the national victims’ registry administered by the government’s victims unit, is primarily intended as a tool to facilitate the provision of reparations, in accordance with law 1448 of 2011. Widely known as the victims’ law, it establishes that a person only loses their recognition if they provide fraudulent information during their registration process. Victims are meant to be recognised as such forever, in some ways symbolically, but also to ensure continued access to assistance and reparations. In other words, the number of IDPs in the country never decreases. Even if IDPs are able to progressively reduce the vulnerability, impoverishment and marginalisation they face, there is no system in place to monitor their progress toward achieving durable solutions. Anecdotal evidence, meantime, suggests that large numbers have resettled in urban areas and live in conditions comparable with those of their host communities. Until there is a monitoring system in place that determines if and when IDPs have achieved durable solutions, their number will continue to increase. Should Colombia’s definition and approach be applied to the victims of conflict in other countries with persistently high numbers of IDPs, such as DRC, Iraq, Nigeria, Syria or Ukraine, one can only imagine the ever-growing global total reported annually and the repercussions for planning and prioritising responses.