“It’s essential that displacement risk is factored into development plans but also into emergency response and recovery efforts following humanitarian crises,” explains Loretta Hieber Girardet, Chief of the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) in Asia Pacific.

“Governments can take specific measures in advance such as identifying land to host displaced families. We need to intervene earlier with social protection schemes and innovative solutions like forecast-based financing, where funds are released before disasters strike based on weather predictions that can then be used to build resilience at the household level”.

The Guide includes a range of practical recommendations. These include the need to conduct risk assessments that gather data on displacement before, during and after disaster events that be used to develop baselines that inform DRR strategies.

Displacement risk should also be factored into national and local laws, regulations and policies relating to DRR across different sectors. Displaced communities themselves should be consulted on DRR and development plans that directly affect them.

“The Guidelines set out to ensure that no-one is left behind. Quite often displaced people are invisible and lacking in basic rights,” says Silvi Llosa, representing the Norwegian Refugee Council.

“Governments should recognize informal or marginalized settlements in their DRR strategies. If you are living in temporary accommodation where you are not registered with local authorities, your children may be unable to go to school and accessing healthcare may be difficult”.

They are intended as a companion for implementation of Sendai Framework target (e) which seeks a substantial increase in the number of countries with national and local strategies for disaster risk reduction by 2020.

Date:

4 Jul 2018

Sources:

United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction - Regional Office for Asia and Pacific (UNISDR AP)

Themes:

Advocacy & Media

Countries:

Mongolia

Regions:

Asia, Oceania