CONCLUSION “In terms of the magnitude of the crisis and the challenge it poses to the international community, today’s problem of internal displacement is no less acute or pressing than the post-WWII refugee crisis.” – Roberta Cohen and Francis Deng, 1998285 IDMC was established almost 20 years ago to provide the international community with a unique source of information on the numbers, needs and vulnerabilities of IDPs worldwide. IDMC was set up to document, collate and centralise data on internal displacement, to analyse its many drivers, patterns and impacts, and to shape and inform government responses to the phenomenon. By synthesising the latest evidence and research on what has become a truly global crisis, our annual GRID report reveals the growing scale and complexity of internal displacement, and the many shortfalls in national and international efforts to address it. Some reflection is useful before we look ahead. We can’t help but notice recurring patterns and themes in our annual findings, the most glaring of which is the relentless rise in the number of people whose lives are uprooted by internal displacement. Our calls for more data, for comprehensive solutions that bridge the humanitarian to development gap, and for more political investment in addressing the causes of displacement have gone unheeded, leading us to the following three conclusions. There is a gulf between aspiration and reality. The international community has said it wants to halve the number of IDPs by 2030, but we expect the amount of displacement to continue increasing. This is because the causes of displacement risk have not been addressed. Donor spending has increased, but not enough international assistance is directed toward the factors that give rise to crises in the first place. This year more money was spent on resettling refugees in 86 GRID 2017 donor countries than in the places where the crises that forced them to flee originated and continue to fester. As our figures for DRC reveal, neglected crises do not go away. They erupt in cycles, sending shockwaves through already fragile systems and institutions, and adding to the misery of long-suffering and increasingly vulnerable people. Until the structural drivers of poverty, inequality and underdevelopment are addressed, conflict and human rights violations will continue to cause displacement and impede solutions. At the same time, more and more people are expected to move into areas prone to natural hazards, particularly urban centres on floodplains and along coasts exposed to cyclones and storm surges. The displacement and impoverishment disasters cause are not inevitable byproducts of rapid urbanisation and economic development, but they will continue to happen unless more is done to address people’s vulnerability and exposure, and as long as those displaced are regarded as little more than collateral damage in these processes. The extent of international attention, resources and political will does not match the current scale of displacement and human suffering. Roberta Cohen and Francis Deng hit the nail on the head as long ago as 1998: “What happens in one country reverberates regionally and even internationally. Conflicts allowed to fester and go unchecked can produce mass migration and leave deep political and economic scars which ultimately affect the economic well-being and political security of neighbouring states and of the international order as a whole… A world in which the privileged among nations ignore the plight of the unfortunate can be neither prosperous nor safe for anyone.”286 The sad truth is that in the 20 years since they made their comments, there have been few meaningful signs of the political will, solidarity