Global Report on Internal Displacement 2020

• 30 Apr 2020

Why in News

The ‘Global Report on Internal Displacement 2020’ revealed that conflict, violence and disasters led to 50.8 million internal displacement across the world at the end of 2019.

• Internal Displacement refers to the forced movement of people within the country they live in due to conflict, violence, development projects, disasters and climate change.
• Report is published by Norwegian Refugee Council’s Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC).

Key Highlights

• Displacement due to conflict
  
  • All regions are affected by conflict displacement, but it is highly concentrated in a few countries. Of the global total of 45.7 million people displaced due to conflict and violence in 2019, three-quarters or 34.5 million, were in just 10 countries
  • Top Five countries with highest displacement by conflict and violence are: Syria, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Burkina Faso and Afghanistan.
• Displacement related to disasters
  
  • Nearly 1,900 disasters sparked 24.9 million new displacements across 140 countries and territories in 2019.
    
    • This is the highest figure recorded since 2012.
    • Out of the 24.9 million displaced due to disasters, 23.9 were weather-related, and “much of this displacement took place in form of pre-emptive evacuations”.
• Noted efforts to prevent and respond to internal displacement
  
  • Countries such as Niger and Somalia improved their policy frameworks on internal displacement.
  • Others, including Afghanistan, Iraq and the Philippines, incorporated displacement in their development plans, in their reporting on the Sustainable Development Goals, or when updating risk management strategies in line with the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.
  • The combination of official monitoring of disaster displacement in the Philippines with mobile phone tracking data and social media analysis helped improve planning for shelters, reconstruction and long term urban recovery.
  • Improvements in the quantity and quality of data available also enabled better reporting and analysis, which in turn informed more effective responses and risk mitigation measures.

Data Related to India

• Nearly five million people were displaced in India in 2019
  
  • It is the highest in the world.
• Reasons: The displacements were prompted by increased hazard intensity, high population and social and economic vulnerability.
  
  • Southwest Monsoon: More than 2.6 million people suffered displacement due to the southwest monsoon. 2019 was the seventh warmest year since 1901 and the monsoon was the wettest in 25 years.
  • Cyclones Fani and Bulbul also led to huge displacements.
    
    • Evacuations save lives, but many evacuees had their displacement prolonged because their homes had been damaged or destroyed.
• Over 19,000 conflicts and violence also prompted the phenomenon.
  
  • Political and electoral violence, especially in Tripura and West Bengal, led to the displacement of more than 7,600 people.

Source:IE