UN Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel on Internal Displacement

The High-Level Panel on Internal Displacement was established in Oct. 2019 by the UN Secretary-General to identify concrete recommendations on how to better prevent and respond to internal displacement, with a particular focus on achieving solutions for persons displaced in the context of armed conflict, generalized violence, human rights violations, as well as disasters and the adverse effects of climate change. To carry out its mandate, the Panel reviews written submissions, holds meetings, as well as bilateral/regional/thematic consultations with a wide range of actors. The significant body of information stemming from these various channels will be analysed and help draw recommendations. The Panel was comprised of 8 members, advised by an Expert Advisory Group and supported by a Secretariat based in Geneva. The final report of the Panel was submitted to the UN Secretary-General on 29 Sept. 2021 and the Panel terminated its work on 31 Dec. 2021.

As part of its work, the Panel has looked specifically at challenges and opportunities of internal displacement in an increasing urbanized world. On that subject, a series of consultations co-organized by the Panel, UN-Habitat, the Joint IDP Profiling Service (JIPS), the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), were held with mayors, municipality administrators and other local authorities from cities in Burkina Faso, Colombia, Iraq, Honduras, Somalia and Ukraine. The series culminated with a global roundtable in April 2021. During that event, experts called for a fundamental shift in internal urban displacement response. Emphasis was put on the need for changes in development and humanitarian assistance and programming in urban contexts, as well as strengthened coordination across the humanitarian-development-peace nexus. In particular, the centrality of local governments in responding to urban displacement was also underlined given that municipality officials are typically the primary responders who serve on the “front lines” of each crisis.

Additional resources

• IDPs in towns and cities –working with the realities of internal displacement in an urban world, Submission to the UN Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel on Internal Displacement by IIED, JIPS and UN-Habitat, May 2020.
• Executive Summary of the Global roundtable on “Internal Displacement in an Increasingly Urbanized World: Challenges and Opportunities”, 19 April 2021.
• Shining a light on internal displacement – A vision for the future, High Level Panel on Internal Displacement, 29 September 2021.

Contact person:

• Greta Zeender, Head, Research & Outcomes, Secretariat of the UN Secretary General’s High Level Panel on Internal Displacement, zeender@un.org