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PART 3URBAN INTERNALDISPLACEMENT:RISK, IMPACTS AND
SOLUTIONS

Damage and destruction in Damascus,
Syria. Photo: IOM/Muse Mohammed,
November 2015

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Bogota has also felt the effects of the political andeconomic crisis in Venezuela in recent years. More than
238,000 refugees and migrants have arrived in the city
in search of jobs and livelihood opportunities, representing almost 20 per cent of the Venezuelan population in Colombia.308 With support from the national
government and international humanitarian organisations, the city’s authorities have had to adapt quickly
to cater to the new arrivals’ needs.309
Despite the sophisticated systems Colombia has tomonitor and respond to internal and cross-borderdisplacement, the complexities and rapidly changing
dynamics of displacement to, from and within Bogota
make it difficult to paint a clear picture of the phenomenon in the city. Assessing and comparing the living
conditions of its IDPs, refugees and migrants and how
long they have been displaced is equally challenging.
Even for those registered upon arrival in the city, there
is only limited information about whether they stayed,
moved to other locations or were displaced again bydisasters, insecurity or urban development projects.
Bogota is just one of many towns and cities across theworld that are affected, and are being shaped by forced
displacement. From Damascus and Sana’a, ravaged byconflict, to Jakarta and Tokyo, struck by disasters, thedrivers and triggers of urban displacement vary considerably, as do the capacities of national and local governments to respond.
When large numbers of displaced people seek refuge ina city, the repercussions may be felt by whole communities and urban systems. Competition for work may
increase, as does the demand for housing, healthcare,education and other services. In this sense, urban
displacement constitutes a local and national development challenge, and reducing it is a prerequisite forachieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).310

Displaced people make their way to urban areas because
they are seen to offer opportunities. IDPs are often
highly vulnerable and lack protection, but the social
networks, jobs and services in towns and cities havethe potential to help them achieve durable solutions.
Ever better connectivity and new technologies, greatersocial mobility and planning aligned with this century’s
urban agenda hold the promise of positively shaping
entire communities and driving national-level growthand development. In principle, urbanisation and humanmobility present great opportunities for individual andsocial wellbeing.
Not that urban areas are spared challenges. Many cities
have high levels of poverty and inequality, and large
numbers of residents who live in inadequate housingwith few if any basic services. This is the reality for
many, if not the majority of IDPs, and the differentiatedliving conditions in cities influence the ways in whichdisplacement is experienced and the way urban centres
are able to support displaced people.311
How cities cope with these challenges affects the extent
to which they are able to welcome and support those
displaced.312 If IDPs are offered the means to integrate,urban centres benefit from their productive social andeconomic contributions. Rapid and badly managed
urban growth and the forced movement of people
to and within cities stretches urban systems and thecapacity of authorities and host communities to deal
with displacement. Urban crises may also trigger new
and secondary displacement, creating a downward
spiral of vulnerability and risk. How displacement andurban change are managed therefore makes the difference between systemic resilience or risk of collapse.
This calls for a better understanding of how urban
displacement comes about, so that it can be effectively
addressed and reduced. Knowing how displacement
drivers, risks and impacts play out in urban settings
will be vital in implementing the 2030 Agenda for
Sustainable Development, particularly given the central
role cities will continue to play in shaping 21st century
societies and economies.313 Left unaddressed, urban
displacement will impede achievement of SDG 11 on
making cities safe, resilient and sustainable, with knockon effects for the achievement of other goals.

PART 3

Bogota has a long history of displacement. Today,
more than 386,000 internally displaced persons are
estimated to be living in the city, around five per centof its population.306 City authorities have made different
forms of support available and have established assistance centres for victims of conflict.307 Over the years,
some IDPs may have found a way to settle into their
new urban environment, but others live in poverty anddeprivation without adequate housing or basic services.

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DEFINING “URBAN” AND“DISPLACEMENT”
Given the lack of a common definition of what constitutes an urban area, for the purposes of this report itis defined as “a spatial concentration of people andwealth that is usually reliant on a cash-based economy,
with relationships between the two shaped and regulated by a set of political, social, legal and economic
institutions”.314 In this sense, both towns and cities are
considered urban areas (see Glossary p.105).
The Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement define
IDPs as “persons or groups of persons who have been
forced or obliged to flee or to leave their homes orplaces of habitual residence, in particular as a result ofor in order to avoid the effects of armed conflict, situations of generalized violence, violations of human rights
or natural or human-made disasters, and who have notcrossed an internationally recognized border”.315 Urban
displacement encompasses forced movements fromrural to urban areas; between urban areas, referred toas inter-urban; and within urban areas, referred to as
intra-urban (see Figure 19).

rural areas. In this urban century, a growing proportionof displacement can also be expected to start and end
within the same city. Urban centres’ capacity to deal
with the phenomenon varies significantly according
to their size and wealth and whether they are main or
secondary cities.
Urban displacement is a complex topic that touches ona wide range of issues. The following does not try tocapture it in its entirety but will focus on the specificways in which displacement risk accumulates in urban
areas and its impacts, and the main aspects of urbanlife that influence the extent to which IDPs are able
to adapt. These include employment and livelihoods,
housing and tenure security, basic services and infrastructure. It will also propose ways forward in addressing
the challenges of internal displacement in towns andcities across the world.

Towns and cities are common destinations for people
fleeing conflict, violence, disasters and development
projects, but also dispossession and loss of income in

Figure 19: Urban displacement flows

Urban andperi-urban
areas

Towns
Displacement flows

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Rural areas

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Conflict and insecurity, climate shocks and changes in
the rural economy erode livelihoods and drive displacement toward cities in many countries. As such, urban
systems and growth are strongly connected to what
happens in peri-urban and rural areas. That said,
displacement increasingly takes place within cities,
whether the result of urban conflict, disasters or infrastructure and urban renewal projects.

THE IMPORTANCE OF RURALCONDITIONSDisasters, conflict, a lack of livelihoods, land grabs, theeviction of indigenous and poor communities, and lossof land, productivity and opportunity in rural areas all
push people toward cities.316 Extended drought in theHorn of Africa, for example, has severely disrupted
the ability of pastoralists and farmers to make a living
in recent years. Options to diversify their income
have become increasingly limited over time, forcing
them to move to urban areas in search of alternative
livelihoods.317
People from rural areas are also drawn to cities by theprospect, real or perceived, of better income and livelihood opportunities, access to education, healthcare
and markets, and greater individual liberty and social
mobility.
Acknowledging that many IDPs who make for cities do
not want to go back to rural areas is also important.
Young people and the more educated are particularly averse to returning. The majority of young IDPs
in Butembo, DRC, for example, decided to stay in thecity because it offered them better socioeconomic
conditions and opportunities than their rural placesof origin.318 A study conducted in Khartoum, Sudan,
showed that IDPs with better education, higher levelsof economic integration and job security were more
intent on staying to establish urban lives.319

Unpacking the push and pull factors and the relationships and overlaps between them is key to understanding when and why displaced people may choose
to move to cities, stay there or return to their placesof origin. Investments in connecting rural and urban
areas and improving socioeconomic and security conditions in areas of origin have been shown to go someway in increasing people’s choices and reducing urban
displacement.320

URBAN CONFLICT, VIOLENCEAND DISPLACEMENT
Conflict and violence in cities may trigger mass displacement both within and from them, and the damage
and destruction wrought may create long-term barriers
to return and other durable solutions.321 Many of theworld’s most recent conflicts have taken place in densely
populated urban areas, as evidenced in Iraq, Libya, Syria
and Yemen. Other types of violence that do not reachthe threshold of armed conflict may also trigger significant displacement, as seen in Latin American cities
affected by criminal and gang violence.
Urban conflict triggers displacement in a number ofways. Warring parties use cities as military bases andas places to hide, and booby traps and sniper fire canturn residents’ everyday routines into potentially lifethreatening activities. The use of explosive weapons indensely populated areas causes significant civilian casualties and displacement.322 The death toll from conflictin urban areas of Iraq and Syria has been eight times
higher than in other areas, and airstrikes and mortar
fire have displaced hundreds of thousands of people in
the last two years in cities such as Hodeida in Yemen
and Raqqa in Syria. The disruption of basic services andthe destruction of housing and infrastructure such as
schools, hospitals, electricity plants and water mains also
have direct, indirect and cumulative impacts.323

PART 3URBAN DISPLACEMENT IN THE CONTEXT
OF CONFLICT, DISASTERS AND
DEVELOPMENT

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Displacement patterns specific to urban conflict andviolence have been identified. Some people move tosafer neighbourhoods within the same city, as was seen
during the battle for the Iraqi city of Mosul. Others may
flee further afield and across borders.324 Parties to aconflict may also seek to exert territorial control in cities
by expelling certain political, ethnic or religious groups.
This took place in cities such Baghdad and Aleppo,
where residents were segregated and their previously
peaceful coexistence shattered.325
Such politics of exclusion may persist long after aconflict ends.326 Sieges have also been used in recent
Middle East conflicts, denying people access to food andhealthcare and preventing them from fleeing high-riskareas, a serious violation of international humanitarianlaw.327
Destruction, segregation and the presence of booby
traps, unexploded ordnance and other explosive
hazards are among the main obstacles to return andother durable solutions. Returning refugees and IDPs
may unwittingly go back to damaged or destroyed
homes or neighbourhoods that are still highly insecure, which may effectively mean they continue to live
a life of internal displacement.328 If the destruction issuch that service delivery and urban systems collapse,
conflict may also lead to “de-urbanisation”, as seen intowns such as Bentiu and Rubkona in South Sudan’s
Unity state in 2013, when an almost complete lack offacilities and services makes it difficult to consider theseas urban centres.329
Reconstruction costs tend to be extremely high, as thecase of Marawi city in the Philippines shows (see Philippines spotlight, p.32). The challenges associatedwith reconstruction can be overcome, however. A UN
planning framework for the reconstruction of Mosul
published in January 2019 envisages rebuilding not only
homes but also public and social spaces, with particularemphasis on markets. It aims to encourage investment
and stimulate the urban economy to create livelihood
opportunities for returnees. The restoration of basic
services and transport infrastructure is also a priority.330
Criminal violence can also have effects comparable withthose of a war zone, displacing thousands of people
within and from urban centres. Central American cities
such as San Pedro Sula in Honduras and San Salvador in
El Salvador have some of the highest homicide rates in
the world as a result of widespread criminal and gang

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activity. In other cities, such as Medellin in Colombia,
gang violence continues to trigger displacement despite
development gains (see Medellin and San Salvador spotlight, p.81).331

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SPOTLIGHT

MEDELLIN AND SAN SALVADOR
Urban displacement and criminal violence
Medellin is Colombia’s second city with a population ofaround 2.5 million people. Once considered the mostviolent in the world, it has successfully reduced poverty
and violence over the last decade. Criminal gangs still
operate in many peripheral neighbourhoods, however,where they continue to force individuals and families
to flee. Estimates put the number of people displacedat between 5,000 and 15,000 a year.
Displacement patterns associated with criminal violencein Medellin are mainly intra-urban, as people movefrom one neighbourhood to another in search ofsafety. Where they move to is influenced by a numberof factors, including family ties, economic opportunities and the nature of the threats they face. A fifth of
respondents in a recent study said they had fled violence
more than once.332 Returns only tend to take place oncea new gang has taken control of the area, the reason
for flight, such as an unpaid debt, has been resolved or
generalised violence has abated. The activities of street
gangs appear to trigger most of the displacement.
The same study identified two different types of trigger
for displacement: targeted gang violence, including
gender-based violence, forced recruitment, extortionand threats against community leaders based on theirrights activism; and generalised violence fuelled byshootouts between gangs or clashes between gangs
and police that may lead whole neighbourhood blocks
to flee.
Medellin’s IDPs tend to share socioeconomic conditions and characteristics. They are usually younger, havemore children and are more likely to have been activein their community than their non-displaced peers.
They are also likely to incur significant financial andsocial losses as result of their displacement. Many lacktenure documents for their homes, and for property
owners, violence tends to drive down prices. Many
IDPs also struggle to find work and afford three meals
a day, and children’s education is disrupted even if only
temporarily.

Similar patterns emerge in El Salvador’s capital of San
Salvador, where insecurity and criminal violence also
push people to leave their homes. For those who havebeen victims of crime or targeted persecution, it is often
the only reason they flee. For others, it may be oneof several considerations, including economic conditions and family reunification. Other factors are also
emerging, such as violence perpetrated by the security
forces, drought and food shortages.333
Much of the urban displacement that takes place in
El Salvador is effectively invisible, because many of
those affected prefer to remain anonymous for fear of
reprisals. Most, however, is known to take place frominformal settlements in peri-urban areas of large towns
and cities. IDPs tend to move to safer neighbourhoods inthe same city in an effort to minimise disruption to theirwork, education and family and social networks. If they
are unable to find a viable local option, however, or if
the threats or violence they face are severe, people will
flee further afield, whether it be to another city, department or country. In fact, what was previously a largely
intra-urban phenomenon appears to be becoming
less so. Some urban-to-rural displacement has been
observed and it is thought to be increasing, but many
more people choose to leave the country instead.
Several similar patterns emerge in the displacement
occurring in Medellin and San Salvador. Much of it
takes place in marginal neighbourhoods and many
people flee within the same city, to minimise the disruption to their lives, but others flee beyond the city andeven country borders. As increasing numbers of casestudies shed light on the drivers, triggers and impacts ofdisplacement associated with criminal violence in Latin
American cities, the issue can no longer be ignored.334

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URBAN DISASTERS ANDDISPLACEMENT
The close relationship between rapid and badly
managed urbanisation and heightened disaster risk iswell recognised. When hazards hit urban areas, theconcentration of people and assets and the vulnerability of residents and the built environment can leadto catastrophic outcomes.335 Displacement associatedwith disasters has only recently been acknowledged
in national policies and international frameworks. The
Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction is important in this sense, because it mentions disaster displacement and its risks among the main global challenges
to address in ensuring communities and countries areresilient.336 The New Urban Agenda reinforces this needas it applies to towns and cities.337
Given the rapid urbanisation the world is undergoing,
people’s exposure and vulnerability to disasters and thedisplacement they trigger is likely to continue to rise.
Many major and expanding urban areas are locatedin hazard-prone areas such as seismic zones, coasts,

Marginalized communities in the neighbourhood of Iztapalapa, in Mexico City, were still
living in displacement a year after the 2017
earthquake, at risk of flooding and diseases.
Photo: IDMC/Vicente Anzellini, August 2018

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deltas and estuaries, and climate change is increasing
the frequency and intensity of weather-related hazards.
Depending on their location, cities may also be exposed
to climate change impacts such as sea level rise, coastal
erosion, salinisation, extreme temperatures and water
scarcity.338
Beyond hazard intensity, urban disaster displacement
risk is largely determined by the way cities are planned,
developed and built. Kathmandu, which has undergone
rapid and largely unplanned and informal urban growth
in recent decades, is a case in point. Most of the 2.6
million people estimated to have been displaced by thedevastating earthquake that struck Nepal in 2015 were
living in the country’s capital.339
The city’s authorities were already aware about the link
between disaster risk and urban development. They
had devised a risk-sensitive land use plan for 2010
to 2020, intended to guide urban development that
reduced seismic risk and improved disaster resilience.340
The earthquake severely disrupted Kathmandu’s urban
system, but it also became an opportunity to accelerate
implementation of the plan, acting as a reminder that

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Stark differences exist within cities in how risk is distributed. Disaster impacts are often highly localised andaffect only a small proportion of the urban population.
There is, in effect, an urban segregation of disaster anddisplacement risk.342 Not all areas of Rio de Janeiro, forexample, are exposed to flooding and landslides andnot all homes are vulnerable to destruction. Those thatare often lack water and sanitation infrastructure, acommon feature of low-income neighbourhoods andinformal settlements.343
Urban poverty and inequality play a significant role inthe dynamics of urban disasters and the distributionof displacement risk. In cities such as in Mumbai andKolkata in India, high levels of exposure to hazards suchas floods combine with high levels of vulnerability, poor
education and limited access to critical infrastructure
and livelihood opportunities.344 This not only increases
displacement risk and impacts. Recovery also takes
longer if people do not have the financial resources torebuild or move elsewhere and impoverishment contributes to making displacement protracted.
Unplanned and poorly managed urban growth combinewith poverty to aggravate the impacts of disasterdisplacement. Urban expansion has grown in parallel
to Nigeria’s economic boom, but the percentage of the
population living in extreme poverty continues to rise.345
Lagos, Nigeria’s economic hub, is growing rapidly and issoon expected to become one of the world’s 20 mostpopulated cities.346 The city has attracted investment inrecent years and more roads and other infrastructure
have been built, reducing its water run-off capacity,and poor drainage systems are unable to cope withthe rainy season. The result is urban flooding.347 The
poor, who make up most of the city’s residents, aredisproportionately affected and many are displaced,as happened most notably in 2012 and again last year.
Corruption is also a pervasive underlying driver of urban
disaster displacement risk. Mexico City, for example,
has stringent construction standards, but corruption
continues to compromise compliance. This can haveserious consequences as witnessed in the 2017 earth-quake when many buildings that were not compliant
with the building code collapsed.348 The recovery
process was also blighted by a lack of transparency.349
Civil society organisations have developed promising
approaches to challenging and tackling corruption
before, during and after disasters, but a better understanding is needed of how it continues to impact risk
levels and people affected, including IDPs.350
Most future displacement associated with disasters
is expected to take place in urban settings. Disasters
also have the potential to cause the collapse of urban
systems, markets and supply chains, with short andlong-term implications for cities’ residents and economies. As such, displacement should become part of abroader conversation about the reduction and management of urban disaster risk that also covers planning,governance and poverty reduction.

PART 3robust urban planning, land use regulation, zoning andbuilding standards are vital in reducing urban disasterand displacement risk. The same applies in other cities
and for other hazards, particularly floods that displacelarge numbers of people every year (see Flood displacement risk spotlight, p.84).341

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SPOTLIGHT

FLOOD DISPLACEMENT RISK
An urban perspective
Floods are the most common hazard to affect towns
and cities around the world, which means that mitigating the risk of urban flooding would considerably
reduce future disaster displacement. IDMC improved its
global disaster displacement risk model for floods, andresults show that around 80 per cent of the people atrisk of displacement associated with riverine flooding
live in urban and peri-urban areas.
By using more granular exposure data for its modellingand disaggregating the results by urban and rural locations, IDMC was able to calculate that on average 17.8
million people worldwide are at risk of being displacedby floods every year, far more than previously thought.

Eighty per cent, or 14.2 million, live in urban and periurban areas (see Figure 20). Flood displacement risk ishighest in South Asia and East Asia and Pacific, and alsohigh in Sub-Saharan Africa (see Figure 21).
The model also allows the assessment of displacement
risk at the subnational level to reveal hotspots, which
unsurprisingly are urban areas. Dhaka, the capitalof Bangladesh and home to more than nine million
people, is traversed by six rivers that have been vital totrade, transport and livelihoods for centuries. In recent
years, however, rapid urbanisation and badly managed
embankment and drainage schemes have increased therisk of flooding and waterlogging.351

Figure 20: Global flood displacement risk

Dhaka

Bangladesh

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Dhaka Division

Dhaka City

Roads (Source: OSM)

People at risk of being displacedby floods
High risk of displacement

Rivers (Source: OSM)

Low risk of displacement

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Figure 21: Flood displacement risk, by region

92.2%

South Asia

East Asia
and Pacific80.1%

Sub-SaharanAfrica76.1%

Europe andCentral Asia

62.7%
50.7%

Americas

AAD Urban

Middle East andNorth Africa

75.6%
0

1

AAD Rural
2

3

4

5

6

7

8

Average Annual Displacement - AAD, in millions

As the city continues to expand, this risk will grow withcity’s population unless adequate measures to reduce
it are put in place. By revealing where in Dhaka flood
displacement risk is concentrated, the results identify
areas where interventions are most needed (see Figure22). Such metrics are useful to decision-makers at the
local, national and global level to inform planning andinvestments in disaster risk reduction. This in turn will
help to prevent displacement and reduce its impacts.

Figure 22: Flood displacement risk in Dhaka, Bangladesh

Given that no climate change scenarios were applied
to the model and that it uses current levels of exposure, future climate variations and urban growth havethe potential to increase the displacement risk revealed
significantly.

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URBAN DEVELOPMENT
PROJECTS ANDDISPLACEMENT
From large-scale infrastructure projects to local gentrification initiatives, urban development can trigger
displacement. The construction of infrastructure, theupgrading of neighbourhoods and gradual changes inhousing markets can force people to move with little or
no respect for their rights, including to relocation andcompensation. The scale, severity and visibility of thistype of displacement vary depending on the projector change taking place, and there are also significant
differences in the phenomenon between countries andregions.
Data is sparse and difficult to obtain, and greater efforts
are needed to fill this significant information gap. Thereis currently no global estimate of the scale of displacement associated with development projects, but thefirst attempts to compile one reveal significant risk inurban areas (see Box 7).

Development-based displacement may be a slow processthat evolves over months or even years, but it sometimes
takes the form of sudden movements when people areevicted. Evictions are not by definition unlawful, butthere are concerns that in reality many are because they
violate people’s rights (see Nairobi spotlight, p.88).
Displacement to make way for development projects
is often justified as being in the public interest, but it
often lacks the prospect of durable solutions for thoseaffected.352
The UN’s Basic Principles and Guidelines on Development-based Evictions and Displacement recognise thatforced evictions “share many consequences similar to
those resulting from arbitrary displacement” as definedin the Guiding Principles. They also highlight the factthat forced evictions violate the right to housing. The
guidelines, together with the right to adequate housing,constitute a strong normative framework to guide policy
and practice on urban housing and neighbourhood
regeneration that prevent displacement and reduce its
impacts.353
Adopting a human rights approach to make visible thechallenges of displacement, evictions and resettlement

Box 7.	 Development and displacement: an urban glimpse of a global issue
IDMC began to explore approaches to estimating the number of people at risk of being displaced by development
projects in 2017. One such approach was to review data on projects funded by the World Bank, which represent
only a fraction of those that involve displacing or relocating people, but on which documentation was available.354
The World Bank has some of the most rigorous environmental and social standards and reporting requirements forinfrastructure investments. It is one of the few institutions to publish resettlement plans.355 An analysis of nearly
600 of its resettlement plans, published between 2014 and 2017, identified more than 130,000 people at risk ofdisplacement in 77 countries. Most of the projects assessed were in Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and East Asia
and Pacific.
Taking the projects in the dataset that could be geolocated, 70 per cent of the people at risk of displacement
were identified as living in urban and peri-urban areas. The project’s scale and nature varied from small and highly
localised to medium and large-scale initiatives, some of which cut across municipalities, provinces or, in the caseof roads and pipelines, even countries. Some also cut across sectors.
Efforts to fully understand and report on this phenomenon are still in their infancy, but new methodologies andtechnologies such as satellite imagery analysis, economic and built environment growth projections and demographic change analysis offer the prospect of gradually painting a comprehensive picture.

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Good examples of more inclusive approaches to resettlement do exist. An urban development project led
by the Wold Bank in Nouakchott, Mauritania in 2004
involved resettling 2,300 households. Participatory
approaches were used and socioeconomic studies that
informed the process were conducted to minimise thenegative impacts on those forced to move. The Artisan
and Fez Medina project in Morocco, included a resettlement programme that focused on maintaining IDPs’
jobs, even for those in informal work, during and after
the project.357
All too often, however, the displacement of poor andmarginalised populations happens without any suchsupport, rarely attracting the attention of national orinternational organisations or the media.358 The evictionof people from informal settlements has short and longterm effects on those affected, and for many the lossof their homes often means the loss of their livelihoods
too.359 Nor do the urban poor tend to benefit from the
projects they are displaced to make way for, whether
they be neighbourhood upgrades, shopping malls or
high-speed city trains.360
State-driven affordable housing schemes in India havebeen promoted as upgrading slums and reducing
poverty. In the cities of Mumbai, Vishakhapatnam and
Raipur, however, making the case for “slum free cities”
has been used to justify infrastructure megaprojects
that have been detrimental to the urban poor and triggered evictions.
Many people were displaced toward urban peripheries
without being considered or consulted in decisionmaking processes.361 Others said their new homes had
not been adapted to their livelihoods and were disconnected from markets and other urban services. Beyond
the physical loss and deprivation people suffered,impacts on people’s feelings of wellbeing and othermental health issues caused by displacement also cameto light.362

Many questions about displacement associated with
developments projects arise, among them the role ofthe private sector. States are the ultimate duty bearers
when it comes to addressing the impacts of displacement, but this does not absolve other parties of all
responsibility.363 A better understanding is needed of
how real-estate and other private sector investments
trigger urban displacement, and how they can play arole in reducing displacement risk.
Gentrification has played an increasingly significant rolein urban demographic change and displacement.364
In cities of emerging and high-income economies
and neighbourhoods, it often involves large capital
investments in urban renewal processes that lead tochanges in the built environment and land-use of an
unattractive neighbourhood to raise its socioeconomic
status. It can also result in evictions and other forms ofdisplacement.365
High gentrification rates in San Francisco have mademany neighbourhoods increasingly unaffordable tolocal residents, leading to the displacement of somelower-income families.366 Large numbers of evictions
are recorded in the US every year, but little information
is available on how long those affected are displacedfor.367 The relationship between gentrification anddisplacement generally is complex, and its drivers,
patterns and impacts poorly understood.368
Homelessness can be also linked to gentrification insome situations.369 The relationship between displacement and homelessness is hard to define, however,and differentiating between homeless people and
IDPs can be difficult, particularly in urban settings.370
Yet, it is unlikely that most homeless people would
be considered IDPs, and many displaced people haveshelter and do not consider themselves homeless.371
The two groups do, however, tend to suffer similar
discrimination, marginalisation, impoverishment andhuman rights violations.
The data and knowledge gaps on urban displacement
associated with development projects should not
detract from the significance of the phenomenon. Inan ever-more urbanised world, people forced to moveby development, renewal and expansion in towns andcities should not be left behind.

PART 3

associated with developments projects is useful, but it
does not easily translate into practical action. Situating
it within national and international sustainable development frameworks would help identifying steps towards
reducing displacement risk and impacts by applying
more inclusive approaches that respect people’s rights
and promote sustainable solutions.356

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SPOTLIGHT

NAIROBI
Development and displacement
Nairobi is one of the fastest growing cities in the world.372
Natural population increase, international migrants andrefugees, IDPs and internal economic migrants haveall contributed to shaping the urban landscape anddemography.
Ethnic, political and economic disputes over land andproperty have also played a part in the Kenyan capital’s
development for decades. Powerful groups have carved
the city up to their benefit through land acquisition andevictions.373

flies in the face of commitments made by the government to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals”.377
Nairobi illustrates the problems that many cities in low
and middle-income countries will face in the coming
decades if the risk and drivers of urban displacement
are not addressed. The quality of infrastructure and theway it is built will play an important role in determining
the risks and impacts of displacement, as will the typesof governance and accountability mechanisms in place
to oversee and manage urban development.378

These dynamics have created a city divided by income
and ethnicity, in which half of the population is concentrated in just two per cent of the metropolitan area.374
Electoral violence and disasters have triggered urban
displacement, and the city’s social and spatial divergence
aggravate the risk of new and secondary movements.375
More than 30,000 people were evicted from an informal
settlement in July 2018 to make way for a road. The
project and its consequences were justified as being in
the public interest. The Kenya Urban Roads Authority,
the National Land Commission and the Kenya National
Commission on Human Rights reached an agreement
before the evictions took place meaning that, on paper
at least, the process was legal.
Kenya’s 2012 law on internal displacement states thatwhen no feasible alternatives exist, the government is
obliged to seek the free and informed consent of thepeople to be displaced by a development project, and is
responsible for providing those affected with a durable
solution.376
In reality, however, people were evicted without
adequate notice, and homes and schools were bulldozed. The situation was condemned by the UN Special
Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing, who
said “the destruction of houses, schools and a place ofworship in one of the poorest communities of Kenya

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Over half of Nairobi’s population lives in just two per cent of themetropolitan area. Photo: Portland Seminary, November 2008.
https://flic.kr/p/6KYAHs

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When IDPs arrive in an urban area, they face challenges and opportunities determined by its character,demographic composition, spatial layout, infrastructure, socioeconomic dynamics and governance.379 Theirexperience and ability to adapt will also depend on
their gender, ethnic and cultural background, economic
resources and social networks before and after theirdisplacement. Any thorough analysis of urban displacement also needs to consider how its impacts differ fromthose observed in rural areas and camps, and how
responses may also have to vary in terms of timeframes,
stakeholders, approaches and financing.
In the Nigerian city of Maiduguri, for example, preexisting unemployment and lack of livelihood opportunities affect both IDPs and host communities, and theformer face challenges in accessing credit and engaging
in economic activities. Displaced women in particular
struggle to find work and integrate into urban life. Thatsaid, insecurity, freedom of movement restrictions andeven more limited livelihood opportunities in rural areas
still make Maiduguri a destination for many.380

By contrast, many IDPs who were forced to flee to Iraqi
cities during of waves of violence in 2014 and 2015 wereable to establish lives in their new urban environments.
People who moved from one urban area to anotherfound it easier than IDPs from rural areas to get informal
and temporary work and make a living. Public sector
workers also found it easier than their counterparts inthe private sector to re-engage in work and earn an
income.381
How IDPs navigate and adapt to urban spaces varies
from city to city and between different groups andindividuals. There is little evidence about the different
impacts of urban displacement on IDPs, host communities and marginalised groups, but urban profilingexercises are particularly useful in establishing a better
understanding and should be a priority so as to inform
tailored responses (see Spotlight, p.90).382
That said, urban IDPs also face many similar impacts
and challenges across cities, countries and regions (seeFigure 23).

Figure 23: Urban displacement: main impacts on IDPs383
LIVELIHOODS
Jobs are more readily available in urban than inrural areas or camps, and cities may support
self-reliance in the long run. Urban IDPs’
economic conditions, however, tend to be similar
to if not worse than those of the urban poor.
They often have lower incomes and only limitedsocial networks, making it even harder for themto adapt to their new environment. Farmers andagricultural workers who flee from rural areas
tend to find their skills are irrelevant in the city.

URBAN
INTERNALDISPLACEMENTHEALTH

SECURITY
On one level cities provide IDPs anonymity andsecurity, but informal settlements and poorly
managed collective centres may also carry risks.
Displaced women, children and other vulnerable
groups may be subject to abuse, harassment andviolence. Young IDPs in some cities may be
exposed to criminal violence and forced to joingangs.

Cities tend to offer better access to healthservices than rural areas, but the overcrowded
conditions in which many IDPs live, with little orno access to safe water and sanitation, increase
the risk of diseases for them and their hosts alike.
The mental health implications of displacement
are also widely acknowledged but tend to beoverlooked.

EDUCATION
Cities offer better education opportunities thanrural areas. Urban IDPs tend to prioritise
education over other services because it istransferrable human capital that may be key torebuilding their lives. During urban crises,
however, schools may be used as emergency
shelters. They may also be damaged or destroyed
during conflict or disasters. Ensuring education
for displaced children as well as those from hostcommunities should be a priority.

HOUSING AND INFRASTRUCTURE
Many urban IDPs live in overcrowded, sub-standard conditions. They often settle in the poorest
peripheral neighbourhoods where their informal
arrangements make them particularly vulnerable
to eviction and abuse from landlords. IDPs
regularly cite rent as one of their main expenses.
Ensuring they have access to adequate housingwith secure tenure should be a priority for urban
authorities. Lack of access to adequate infrastructure may drive new and secondary displacement.

ENVIRONMENT
Large influxes of IDPs into already overpopulated
urban areas may rapidly increase water and soil
pollution, and create challenges in terms of solid
waste. Cities should be prepared and able toadapt their waste management, sanitation andwater infrastructure to cope with mass displacement.

SOCIAL AND CULTURAL LIFE
Cities offer more potential than camps for social
mobility and local integration, but many urban
IDPs find themselves isolated and marginalised
because of their backgrounds. Creating ties withhost communities is essential to support theirintegration. Authorities should also take aparticipatory approach to decision-making by
including IDPs and local residents in the process.

PART 3URBAN DISPLACEMENT IMPACTS AND
CONDITIONS90
SPOTLIGHTDISPLACEMENT PROFILING
In urban areas
Effective interventions to address internal displacement
depend on robust and trusted evidence of its impacts.
The complexity of displacement dynamics in cities,
however, makes collecting such data particularly challenging. For a start, urban IDPs tend to be less visible
than those in camps because they do not all live in one
area, which makes them difficult to reach with assistance and protection measures.
Profiling exercises strengthen the evidence on urban
internal displacement by bringing stakeholders together
to collaborate in collecting and analysing data. This
provides the basis for information to be more relevant
and useful in informing the pursuit of durable solutions.
The process involves analysing not only IDPs’ needs,
but also those of the general population living in thesame area to better understand how both groups areaffected by displacement.
To best capture the diverse experiences of urban
displacement, a combination of complementary datacollection methods is used. This normally includes
enumeration, sample-based household surveys, interviews with key informants, focus group discussions
and a review of secondary data. This mixed methods
approach has proven the most effective in establishinga shared and in-depth understanding of the challenges
that urban IDPs and their hosts face.
A series of profiling exercises in cities in Somalia, Iraq
and Syria have yielded a number of important lessons
that have helped to refine the methodology and scopeof the process and adapt it to other urban displacement
situations.
An exercise conducted in Mogadishu in 2014 and 2015
mapped and enumerated informal settlements, which
helped to identify IDPs and differentiate them from theirhosts. The analysis highlighted the specific challenges
IDPs faced in different areas of the city where little or no

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information on their conditions previously existed. The
exercise only covered displaced populations in specificsettlements and not in the entire city, but its results
have been useful to the local authorities in Mogadishu
in supporting durable solutions.
With the Mogadishu experience in mind, a second
exercise conducted in the Iraqi city of Erbil in 2015 and2016 adopted an area-based approach. It provided aholistic and comparative analysis not only of IDPs andnon-displaced populations, but different areas of thecity as well. The results also informed broader local
authority plans for issues such as service delivery, which
benefit IDPs and their hosts alike. The exercise was not,however, able to analyse the pressure displacement puts
on service provision. A main takeaway was the need formore specific urban planning expertise and additionaltime and resources to generate more detailed results.
These considerations in turn were built into a series of
profiling exercises under way in various Syrian cities.
They include the identification of gaps between the
population’s needs and the city’s capacity to meetthem. Understanding urban systems and their capacity
to respond to IDPs’ needs is the next important step toincorporate into urban displacement profiling.
The lessons learned from these and other displacement
profiling exercises have made a significant contribution
to good data collection and analysis practices for urban
crises.384 Forging stronger partnerships and encouraging
joint planning among humanitarian and development
responders, technical experts, local authorities andothers is key to helping urban IDPs overcome the challenges brought on by displacement.
Source: JIPS385

91

Similar challenges in managing displacement in majorurban centres occur in other countries and regions.
Not only are cities difficult to govern. Large influxes ofpeople put further strain on already fragile systems. The
speed and scale of displacement into urban areas tends
to significantly outpace regular urbanisation processes.
This in turn means that urban systems, including planning processes, services, markets and financing instruments, need to adjust much more quickly to displacement than they otherwise would usually do.387

EMPLOYMENT, HOUSING
AND BASIC SERVICES:URBAN GOVERNANCE OFDISPLACEMENTInternal displacement creates a wide range of challenges for urban systems. If local authorities are unable
to cope and respond effectively, its impacts are borne
almost entirely by IDPs and their hosts, fuelling further
vulnerability and displacement risk. Cities’ capacity tosupport IDPs and create opportunities for them is central
to reducing such risk, and local and national authorities have a key role to play in ensuring they are able toachieve durable solutions.388
This section covers three areas which will be criticalto preventing, avoiding and reducing the impacts ofurban displacement: first, the employment opportunities affecting IDPs’ self-reliance and local integration;
second, the role of adequate housing in reducing therisk of new, secondary and protracted displacement;
and finally, the ways in which basic infrastructure andservices can help both IDPs and those at risk of displacement to improve their living conditions and wellbeing
Political participation and urban governance cut acrossall three of these areas. An inclusive city is all the more
likely to be able to address and reduce displacement.
The consultation and participation of IDPs and theirhosts in governance and decision-making would also
directly shape their lives and increase the likelihood of
their being able to achieve durable solutions.

Employment and livelihoods
One of the main concerns for displaced people is toensure a livelihood and regular income. Doing so is vitalto improving their self-reliance and preventing theirdisplacement from becoming protracted.389 It also helps
them to integrate socially, reduce their dependence on
government and humanitarian aid and contribute to
the local economy.390
The potential for IDPs to integrate economically andimprove their overall situation over time is greatest in
urban areas.391 A distinct advantage of cities can bethat the range of opportunities expands, particularly
for those who previously lived in rural areas and had
less diversified sources of income, provided the rightconditions are in place.392 Higher employment figures
do not necessarily mean a higher employment rate,
but evidence shows that cities tend to provide more
opportunities, and that job prospects tend to be betterin larger, more economically diverse cities.393
There is relatively little information about the extent towhich displaced people are able to take advantage ofthese opportunities, but research suggests that morethan half of the IDPs displaced by conflict for whom
location data is available live in urban areas. Given that
almost half among them are of the working age, theyshould in theory at least be in a position to benefit
from the better access to employment cities offer.394
More detailed data would help to enrich these typesof analyses.
IDPs’ economic activity may also have positive impacts
on urban areas, and their skills and enterprise may
benefit host communities. Somalian refugees andEthiopian IDPs in Addis Ababa trade with their areasof origin and bring in goods, contributing to a vibrantlocal economy in the Ethiopian capital.395 IDPs and refu-

PART 3

These impacts are not only barriers to durable solutions
and sustainable urban development. They may alsofunction as triggers and drivers of new and secondary
displacement. Many IDPs fleeing conflict, disasters andlack of livelihoods in rural areas of Somalia have made forthe capital, Mogadishu, in search of safety and opportunity. Once there, however, they face overcrowded
housing conditions, insecure tenure and only limitedaccess to basic services and infrastructure. They also
have difficulty finding livelihood and income-generating
opportunities and are at high risk violence, including
gender-based violence. Poverty, marginalisation andextortion, forced evictions and disasters push many into
secondary displacement.386

92gees have also helped to diversify the local economy
Kitchanga in DRC’s North Kivu province, where many
young displaced people have found alternative livelihoods. Some have even managed to buy land and settle
permanently.396
That said, large influxes of displaced people over a shortperiod of time can have adverse local effects on local
economies, at least initially, in many cases driving down
wages while increasing rents.397 This in turn makes it
more difficult for IDPs to settle temporarily or permanently, particularly if the city concerned already had highunemployment or underemployment before their arrival.
Years of conflict and insecurity in and around the
Nigerian city of Maiduguri have decimated the local
economy. The regional employment rate was less than
30 per cent in 2017, and many local markets and businesses have had to close.398 Instead of finding new
livelihood opportunities in the city, IDPs only receive
humanitarian assistance. This not only has the potential
to make them more vulnerable and marginalised, it also
puts further strain on a local government already struggling to provide the city’s displaced people with food,water and shelter.399

Internally displaced Nigerian repairs
phones for a living in Old Maiduguri,
Nigeria. Photo: NRC

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When formal employment opportunities are scarce,
informal labour and businesses emerge. UN data showsthat more than half of the labour force and more than90 per cent of small and medium enterprises worldwide
are involved in the informal economy.400 This reality
presents both challenges and opportunities.
Informal local economies help urban IDPs to foster livelihood opportunities and self-reliance.401 For many of
those in Soacha, on the outskirts of Bogota, informal
labour remains their only source of income even after
several years of displacement.402 Many IDPs and refugees
in the Ugandan capital of Kampala have also adopted
informal livelihood strategies to cope with displacement
in an urban environment where jobs are scarce.403
The informal sector, however, often involves discrimination and the exploitation of IDPs, and may encourage
dangerous or high-risk activities. The average day rate
for casual construction work in Goma, the capital of
DRC’s North Kivu province, is normally $1.80, but IDPs
earn as little as $1.20.404 A profiling exercise in Mogadishu showed that almost half of IDPs were working as
day labourers, compared with 36 per cent of economic
migrants and 30 per cent of host community membersin the same informal settlements.405

93Addressing these challenges will require investment
in both the formal and informal institutions of labour
markets rather than offering one-off income generating initiatives. This may include providing IDPs andhost communities with the documentation they needto engage in formal work, offering incentives such as
tax breaks or wage subsidies to businesses that employ
displaced and other disadvantaged people, and developing and investing in long-term economic growthstrategies at the municipal level that consider the implications of population influxes on labour supply anddemand.410
Accepting that informal labour markets are a reality
in many cities may be the first step in ensuring they
contribute to solutions for both displaced people andthe urban poor. There is increasing evidence fromacross the globe that the risks associated with informal
employment, as with housing and services, are reduced
when formal systems accommodate and find provisions
for less regulated markets.411
Involving IDPs and unemployed urban residents in city
development may help to release them from the poverty
trap many find themselves in. Instead of evicting vendors
who trade in goods from their areas of origin, negotiating their regulated use of market space supports
small businesses and self-employment with relatively
little investment from local authorities. Many informal
settlements are places of small-scale economic activity
where people set up home or street-based enterprisesthat often coalesce to form complex economies.412
Understanding and improving the livelihoods and skills
that IDPs bring with them and providing vocational
training helps to support their local integration. The
skills IDPs bring from rural areas can become irrelevantin urban settings, and helping them to develop new
capacities benefits both them and their host cities.413

Humanitarian approaches such as cash-based assistancehave also shown promise in urban displacement situations.414 Cash is a cost-effective means of support andit gives beneficiaries more choice and flexibility in theirspending. It also helps to reinvigorate local markets andtrade rather than dampening them as in-kind assistancedoes can. Importantly, people are not passive recipientsof relief but rather play an active role in revitalizing local
urban economies.415 It requires a detailed understandingof market systems, products and services and local-level
demand, but it is increasingly seen as a potential way ofmoving from humanitarian to longer-term development
interventions.416
More important than targeted programmes, perhaps,
are broader changes to institutional arrangements.
These include local trade and business incentives, labour
market regulations, access to banking and insurance
policies that facilitate the generation of employment
opportunities.417
IDPs and other vulnerable groups in Mosul, for example,
were employed by local small businesses involved in city’sreconstruction and recovery process. This combinedwith self-build support for housing facilitated the returnof IDPs and refugees and helped to reinvigorate whole
neighbourhoods and local urban economies.418 Other
positive examples exist, mainly involving refugees, butthey offer valuable lessons applicable to urban IDPs.419

Housing, land and property
Finding shelter is among IDPs’ main priorities, and its
provision is a core priority for those involved in humanitarian responses to crises. Beyond crises, the provision of
housing becomes a matter for urban planners, municipal authorities and community organisations, and lies atthe centre of unlocking the challenges associated withurban displacement. Many countries, however, do not
do enough to guarantee their IDPs’ housing, land andproperty (HLP) rights, an old and unresolved issue that
requires renewed attention.
Urban centres tend to offer more housing stock thanrural areas, but that does not necessarily mean thaturban IDPs and poor residents find it easy to accessadequate and affordable housing. Even if they do, they
may struggle to secure tenure over their homes. Thisissue tends to be overlooked or poorly addressed bynational and local authorities, but tenure insecurity is asignificant driver of urban displacement risk.

PART 3The hardship of internal displacement may also pushchildren into work. Many displaced Afghan children
earn money as street vendors or car washers, which
exposes them to the risk of road accidents, abuse andviolence.406 Displaced women too face specific challenges in terms of employment and livelihood opportunities in cities.407 In 2016, around 68 per cent of unemployed IDPs in Ukraine were women.408 Many displaced
women in Abuja, Nigeria, resorted to self-employment
and remained either unemployed or outside of formal
labour markets.409

94
There are many forms of tenure, from freehold andpublic or private rental agreements to cooperative,
customary and even religious systems.420 Each has its
advantages and disadvantages. Which of these arrangements are available to IDPs newly arrived in urban areasand how they provide them and hosts with secure
tenure influences the extent to which they are able
adapt to their new situations (see Box 8).

Some resort to taking out loans to cover their rent
payments in an effort to avoid being evicted, leading tounsustainable debt burdens. Long-term housing policies
and urban planning and the implementation of regulations and municipal housing programmes are needed
to mitigate and address such issues.423

Tenure insecurity is often driven by IDPs’ and poor urban
dwellers’ search for affordable places to live. Housing
costs in some cases account for up to three-quartersof their monthly income.421 This leaves many, particularly newly, displaced people with little or no option
but to live in informal and unregulated settlementsthat tend to be overcrowded, insecure and lacking inservices. As such, the housing challenges urban IDPs
face involve not only unaffordability but also inadequacy
and precariousness.
In the DRC city of Goma, for example, both displacedand host communities lack adequate housing and accessto sanitation and hygiene, but IDPs have less tenure
security and are at greater risk of forced eviction.422

Box 8. Tenure ambiguity in Afghanistan and Vanuatu
Many Afghan IDPs live in informal settlements in and around Kabul, where ambiguity over land ownership makes
it difficult for many to obtain formal deeds or rental agreements. It also facilitates land grabs and the occupationof empty homes and other buildings by returning IDPs and refugees.
The latter phenomenon is aggravated by the fact that many refugees returning to Afghanistan find their own homes
have been occupied by other displaced people or local power brokers, effectively meaning they return to a life ofinternal displacement. Even those who have deeds may struggle to reclaim their property because mechanisms toresolve legal disputes are ineffective.
The lack of clear tenure has led to conflict over land disputes, harassment, unjustified rent increases and evictions
without due process, all of which have triggered secondary displacements.424 The government developed policies on tenure security and the upgrading of informal settlements in 2006 and 2013, but implementation of theirprovisions has been slow.425
In Port Vila, the capital of Vanuatu, customary and newly introduced tenure arrangements exist side-by-side, creatinga hybrid legal system that makes it difficult to settle land disputes and is often applied arbitrarily. Powerful public
and private elites use the grey areas to justify forced evictions, in some cases of whole communities.
These have altered the cityscape and pushed its boundaries out into peripheral areas of a city that has not planned
adequately for such expansion. The new displacement policy that Vanuatu adopted in 2018 is still to address theseregulatory and legal issues, to the detriment of Port Vila’s IDPs.426

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95
PART 3Around 248,000 new displacements wererecorded following the earthquake and tsunamithat hit the city of Palu in Indonesia.
Photo: ERCB/Martin Dody|| Reconstruction, resettlement and the right tohousing
Transparent HLP rights and processes for settling
disputes are vital to the resolution of urban displacement.427 Therefore, the establishment of tenure security
and guarantees of housing rights for displaced and hostcommunities should be included in conflict prevention,
disaster risk reduction and durable solutions initiatives.
They also need to be part of transitional justice, peacebuilding and reconciliation processes in the aftermathof conflicts.
The same issues are fundamental in ensuring sustainable returns for IDPs and refugees, and reducing therisk of new and secondary displacement.428 In thissense land and property disputes in places of origin
can be both a cause and consequence of displacement.

There are numerous accounts in Sudan, for example,of the government forcibly evicting the new occupantsof abandoned homes to allow IDPs to return, fuelling
new tensions and triggering further displacement.429
Recent reconstruction efforts in Syria also show thatin the absence of transparent HLP rights, resettlement
schemes contribute to the wilful appropriation of IDPs’
property (see Spotlight, p.96).
Many cities have undertaken major gentrification andneighbourhood upgrade projects that involve largescale resettlement programmes for slum dwellers as well
as displaced populations. Such initiatives carry impoverishment risks that need to be addressed particularly
when, as if often the case, approaches seem to deal
with the symptoms rather than the causes of lack ofadequate housing.430

96
SPOTLIGHT

SYRIA
Reconstruction and challenges around housing, land and property
Eight years of civil war have left around a third of the
Syria’s urban housing stock in ruins.431 As the government retakes control of towns and cities across thecountry, reconstruction is beginning, but evidence
suggests that segregation and displacement are being
used as part of the process to consolidate the state’s
authority and reward its supporters. New HLP laws havealso been passed that raise questions about how IDPs
and other groups will be included in the reconstruction
process.432
The government adopted a law in April 2018 thatspeeds up expropriation procedures to support thereconstruction effort and “redesign unauthorised orillegal housing areas”. Known as Law No. 10, it is anextension of Decree 66, a measure first implemented in
the Damascus area. The new law initially established adeadline of just 30 days for people to prove ownershipover property subject to expropriation, but this was
extended to a year in November under internationalpressure.433
Once the deadline has passed, people will not becompensated and property rights will revert to the stateor local authorities.434 This has the potential to disproportionately affect Syria’s 6.1 million IDPs and more than
5.7 million refugees, many of whom are likely to find it
hard to prove ownership, whether because they havelost documentation, are unaware of the new legislation or are unable to travel to deal with the formalities required.435 Many land registries have also been
destroyed during the war.436

the population lived in such areas, meaning that it has
the potential to significantly change the demographic
and spatial composition of Syrian cities.438
There are concerns that Law No. 10 and other HLP
regulations will be used to consolidate the government’s authority to the detriment of its opponents, as
highlighted by the case of Basateen al-Razi neighbourhood in Damascus. An informal settlement associatedwith the opposition, its working and lower middle-classresidents were evicted to make way for Marota City,an upmarket real estate project.439 Other legislation
imposes strict security clearances for property transactions, ostensibly an anti-terrorism measure, and provides
for the confiscation of property owned by people who
failed to do military service.440
Given that around half of Syria’s pre-war population
has been displaced during the conflict, resolving HLP
issues will have to be a first and central step toward
nationwide peace-building and stability. In its current
form, however, Law No. 10 appears to benefit only asmall fraction of the population, raising serious questions about its role in the post-conflict recovery process.

Nor does Law No. 10 provide for enough compensation
and assistance, making it difficult for former residents
to re-establish themselves in their areas of origin.437 Thishas the potential both to prevent IDPs returning andcause new displacement.
The law applies to informal and unplanned settlements
where residents lack building permits or property titles.
Even before the conflict, between 30 and 50 per cent of

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High levels of damage and destruction in Eastern
Ghouta, Syria. Photo: Karl Schembri/NRC

97

Lessons from a similar approach four decades earlier
clearly had not been learned. Nearly 30 per cent of
Rio’s informal settlers were moved to marginal areasof the city in the late 1960s and early 1970s, ultimately
creating new favelas with high levels of insecurity andpoverty, and with it driving new displacement risk.

|| New approaches to addressing housing
challenges

Target 11.1 of the SDGs aims “to ensure adequate,
safe and affordable housing and basic services andupgrade slums”. Given that the previous Millennium
Development Goal referred only to improving the livesof slum dwellers, the mention of adequate and affordable housing reflects acknowledgement of a major gap
in urban development. Meeting the target would alsosignificantly increase IDPs’ prospects of improving theirlives and achieving durable solutions, including millions
living in protracted displacement.443
Affordable housing schemes in many countries do notnecessarily meet the needs of the people they intend
to help, or in some cases are simply insufficient to copewith ever-growing demand. Urban displacement adds
to the challenges, as seen in Colombia (see Box 9).444

Despite attempts to raise global awareness of the importance of housing, not least with the New Urban Agenda
and SDG 11, more than a billion urban dwellers acrossthe world are thought not to have decent accommodation or tenure security. Many if not most cities acrossthe world, even those unaffected by displacement, haveshortages of affordable and adequate housing.442

Box 9. Matching housing policies to IDPs’ specific needs in Colombia
Colombia has one of the highest numbers of people displaced by conflict globally, and new displacements associated with both conflict and disasters take place every year. The government has created robust legislation toaddress the challenges of internal displacement, but as the national ombudsman’s office highlighted in a 2014
report, there was an important law and policy gap on making housing accessible and affordable to IDPs. It said
housing legislation failed to reflect IDPs specific vulnerabilities, and called for taking a differentiated approach
toward IDPs as a vulnerable group.445
The Constitutional Court made a similar point in 2016 when it ruled that the government had made only “medium
to low” progress in providing them with housing. It also noted that some urban municipalities had been allocatedfunds to build homes without having been consulted to ascertain if they had enough land available for theirconstruction. It called on the government to expedite targeted action to fill this and other gaps.446
The housing ministry responded by issuing a decree in late 2017 that revised the housing legislation and included
a differentiated approach toward IDPs.447 The decree considers people displaced by both conflict and disasters,
and establishes key actions and the lead institutions accountable for them. Social and other housing policies now
need to consider IDPs recognising their specific situations.
Such efforts to match national housing policy with IDPs’ needs are commendable, but questions remain open, suchas how many IDPs will benefit, how resilient the homes provided will be to disasters, how safe and secure theirlocation will be, and which livelihood opportunities will be available. In short, the extent to which the legal reforms
will support IDPs in achieving durable solutions beyond the provision of four walls and a roof remains to be seen.

PART 3

The Brazilian government, for example, launched a flagship programme known as Minha Casa Minha Vida, or
My House My Life, in 2008 to build a million homes
across the country in four years. The focus, however, wason quantity over quality, and led to millions of people
being resettled into poor-quality houses in peripheral
urban areas, far from their jobs and amenities.441

98
A number of promising approaches to tackle IDPs’
housing challenges have been developed over the past
decades, many of them originally designed to address
the general scarcity of urban housing and then adapted
to the pursuit of durable solutions. They can broadly
be divided into housing approaches and area-based
approaches, the former including incremental housing
schemes and purchase certificates targeting individuals’
needs and the latter broader schemes such as neighbourhood upgrades, incremental tenure, support grants
and cooperative development initiatives.448

legal obstacles; and the financial sustainability of subsidised housing schemes. In Mariupol, the last two combine
resulting in limitations to the support made available.
National budget allocations to the local authorities do
not account for IDPs and at the same time, IDPs are not
locally registered, leaving them unable to exercise theirright to vote and with little leverage over local officials.452

As with informal labour markets, recognising that
housing and urban development in many cities are
driven by informal processes is an important step towardfinding ways to build on existing potential. In Latin
America, for example, more housing per square kilometre of city is built and maintained by informal settlers
than by governments and developers.449 Accepting thisreality implies adopting new approaches that find waysof turning temporary answers to housing crises into
sustainable solutions for all.

The provision of services, like housing, lies at the heartof urban planning and development. Access to water,
sanitation, healthcare, education, security and transport
determine the living conditions of all urban dwellers.
They are also central to IDPs’ ability to integrate locally,
and to addressing and reducing urban displacement
more broadly.453

Mariupol municipality in Ukraine, for example, recognised a need to provide IDPs with the option of affordable rented accommodation as well as the opportunity of buying property. It developed a “rent to own”
initiative, in which a range of stakeholders including
an international development bank, the local government, civil society organisations and contractors havecome together to create affordable housing options
for IDPs. Those eligible received homes with a contractthat gives then title deeds to their rented property after
10 years.450
Venezuela tested cooperative approaches in Petare, thelargest informal settlement of the capital Caracas. The
idea was to facilitate the securing of loans for a groupof families and close communities against the value oflarger properties. To do so, informal settlers were given
land rights under collective rather than individual leaseagreements. This approach could be applied to urban
displacement situations when it becomes clear that IDPs
are unable or do not want to return to their areas oforigin. It would allow them to invest into their homes
and neighbourhoods while reducing the risk of gentrification and secondary displacement in the long-term.451
These examples are promising steps in the right direction,
but three major challenges remain: the availability of dataon numbers of IDPs, their capacities and requirements;

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Basic services and resilient
infrastructure

The SDGs reflect the global significance of these services
and the infrastructure required to deliver them.454 SDG
3 covers health, SDG 4 education, SDG 6 water andsanitation, and SDG 9 infrastructure, including transport. SDG 11, the urban goal, also calls for better service
provision as part of its call for safe and affordable
housing. Targets 11.1 and 11.5 emphasise the importance of access to healthcare, drinking water, sanitationand social protection programmes. One of the Sendai
framework’s seven targets focuses on reducing thedisruption of basic services associated with disasters.455
Many cities, however, have a serious shortfalls in termsof coverage, quality and affordability. Only 43 per cent of
the urban population in low-income countries have accessto basic sanitation.456 Fewer than one in ten settlements
for IDPs in Haiti meet minimum standards for water, sanitation and hygiene.457 Provision is inadequate for mostdisplaced households in Kathmandu.458 Twenty per centof IDPs in Libya live in former schools or warehouses
without adequate sanitation.459 Evidence from countries
in eastern Europe and Central Asia shows that urban IDPs
are more likely to be dissatisfied with the public healthservices they receive than their non-displaced counterparts, even 10 or 15 years after their displacement.460
Shortfalls in urban service provision are often combinedwith or are the result of infrastructure gaps, which may
also contribute to segregation, tensions, conflict anddisaster risk.461 Many urban areas in low and middleincome countries have poor infrastructure, which means

99|| Disruption of basic services
The extent of basic services disruption and infrastructuredamage caused by urban conflict may be make somecities all but uninhabitable. It has the potential to cause
the collapse of entire city systems and can have cumulative or indirect effects that ripple out into peri-urban
and even rural areas.463 The restoration of services is avital element in establishing conditions conducive to
IDPs’ sustainable return.
In western Mosul, were most of the fighting against
ISIL in the Iraqi city took place, critical infrastructure
including nine out of 13 hospitals was severely damaged.
Medical staff also fled, bringing health services to a
virtual standstill and obliging people in need of treatment to move to eastern areas of the city. Many IDPs
who have returned to Mosul still live in damaged or
destroyed homes without access to services.464
Disasters also regularly destroy critical infrastructure anddisrupt service delivery, and the effects may continue
to be felt long after the event. Typhoon Haiyan caused
widespread damage in the Philippine city of Tacloban in
2013. Seventeen health facilities, including two public
and five private hospitals, were affected, more than 90
per cent of education facilities were severely damaged
and most power lines were brought down. Tacloban’srecovery has been effective given the extent of thedamage, but Haiyan was a powerful reminder of theimportance of building disaster-resilient infrastructure.465|| Dealing with the infrastructure and service gap
Not only is critical infrastructure indispensable forservice provision, it also plays a role in determining
future displacement risk, and current practices in many
cities may be increasing rather than reducing it.466 In
the US, for example, aging and decaying infrastructure
and the way in which urban development has been
conceived and implemented in recent decades havebeen major drivers of flood risk. Not only is the riskof flooding increasing, but its impacts also tend to beconcentrated in poorer areas.467
Approaches that aim to address infrastructure gaps at
the same time as integrating informal neighbourhoods
and systems into the broader city have been developed

in recent decades, and many of these, once again, in
Latin America. Along with housing, these initiatives
have placed significant emphasis on transport infrastructure, to the extent that “the most effective urban
policies were transport policies”.468
Projects such as cable cars and express bus networks
that connected low-income neighbourhoods withcity centres became known as “urban acupuncture”,
applying pressure and change to a small part of acity with positive effects for the whole system. Urban
acupuncture became a key strategy in cities including
Medellin in Colombia and Curitiba in Brazil, and onother continents, with important lessons for efforts
to address urban displacement about the significanceof infrastructure in fostering inclusion (see Box 10,
p.100).469
Service provision and infrastructure development
before, during and after crises plays a significant rolein shaping IDPs’ vulnerabilities and the patterns andimpacts of urban displacement.470 If current challenges
are to be overcome and global sustainable development goals achieved, planning tools and financing
instruments, particularly those of local authorities, will
have to consider future demographic changes including
displacement risk.
The cost of meeting SDG targets in terms of universal
access to drinking water, sanitation and electricity inboth urban and rural areas by 2030 has been estimated at $3.5 trillion per year, the equivalent to 0.3
percent of global GDP and significantly more thancurrent investment scenarios envisage.471 Many countries currently trying to deal with internal displacement
are still catching up and trying to plug their existing
infrastructure and service gaps, but significantly more
inclusive urban investment will be needed to fulfil theircommitments under the SDGs.472

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local authorities may also struggle to cope with mass
displacement, whether to or within their cities.462

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Box 10. Connecting the formal and the informal with urban acupuncture
Curitiba’s innovative bus rapid transit (BRT) system has
been replicated in 170 cities around the world.473 It
was originally conceived in the 1970s to respond to
rapid urban growth that was congesting the city, andto connect peripheral areas with its economic centre.
The scheme was complemented by a range of otherinvestments in schools, parks and cultural buildings thatserved to upgrade a number of low-income neighbourhoods while preserving their character and identify.474
Medellin has made a series of urban acupuncture investments over recent decades, from the renovation of
the city’s road network and the improvement of waterand sanitation facilities in poor neighbourhoods, toinstalling street lighting in less secure areas and running art workshops to prevent young people being recruited
into gangs.475 These focused and relatively low-cost investments have been particularly successful in Comuna 13,
a neighbourhood affected by displacement, and have also helped to city as a whole to transform its image.476 A
similar initiative was successfully applied in Bogota.
There are also lessons to be learned from community-based approaches adopted by people living in informal settlements in sub-Saharan Africa and south and south-east Asia, who used joint negotiating power to secure access as
a community to electricity, water and waste management, healthcare and education.477 The efforts of so-called
Slum Dwellers Federations helped to ensure that informal settlements were upgraded rather than demolished,
preventing potentially significant urban displacement.
A community-based initiative in Nairobi also successfully relocated residents of Kibera, the city’s largest informal
settlement. It facilitated new housing near people’s previous homes, minimising disruption to their lives and local
communities by preserving their networks and employment, livelihood and education opportunities.478
Urban planners, architects and engineers in cities across the world have developed innovative solutions to seemingly
intractable problems that can be brought to bear to support urban IDPs in integrating locally and achieving durable
solutions. In the Peruvian capital of Lima, for example, drones, community mapping and 3D-printing were used toestablish neighbourhood-level evidence to influence local and national policy to the benefit of the urban poor.479
Through the co-production and visualisation of quantitative and qualitative spatialised data, the communities
themselves and the municipal authorities were able for the first time to picture and combine the spatial aspects
required for planning with results from community-led household surveys and vulnerability mappings. The exercise
made the authorities aware of the “considerable income, time and labour that the urban poor spend on improving
collective accessibility and services and ameliorating housing conditions”.480 This shifted perceptions of the city’spoor as a problem and brought their resilience and potential productivity to light.
A similar approach could be taken to highlighting and harnessing the huge investment that displaced people makeover time to navigate and survive in their host cities. Negotiated upgrade or resettlement schemes led by IDPs andother inhabitants of informal settlements could go a long way toward countering the negative effects of evictions
and reducing the risk of secondary displacement.

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This year’s GRID reconfirms that internal displacement
is clearly a development and a humanitarian concern.
The global data highlights the fact that the persistently
high numbers of new displacements associated withconflict and disasters are the result of a convergenceof risk drivers, most of which are development-related
and often concentrated in cities.

A new narrative and approach tourban displacement
The notion and narrative of urban displacement have tochange. When attention is drawn to displaced people’s
agency, resilience and potential contributions, local
responses are more likely to emphasise participationand inclusion rather than assistance and exclusion fromthe longer-term vision of a city. Focusing on victimhoodand vulnerability will only convey a negative picture ofurban displacement.481

There is a need for comprehensive development
approaches to urban displacement, along withhumanitarian responses. But the institutions, policies
and financing instruments needed for an integrated
approach are not yet in place. A number of vital steps are
required to support displaced people in cities, prevent
displacement and reduce the risk of it happening in the
future. Despite the highly localised and specific natureof each urban displacement situation, a few general
conclusions on the most important of these steps are
drawn below.

Vulnerabilities undoubtedly exist and may be aggravatedover time, but the language and framing of the issue
must promote and support IDPs as active agents of theirown solutions. Local authorities and urban communities, for their part, should be seen not only as facilitators
but also beneficiaries of their resilience.

Filling data gaps and establishingan evidence baseAccepting local integration as adisplacement solution

There are significant data and knowledge gaps on urban
displacement, and the lack of clear understanding about
its scale, duration, severity and the way it relates tobroader urban development challenges impedes thedesign and implementation of appropriate prevention,risk reduction and response measures. A vital first stepto addressing the phenomenon and reducing its risk
and impacts effectively would be to establish a solidand shared evidence base to guide policy and practice.

A new understanding and acceptance of the natureand duration of urban displacement is also required.
There is growing evidence that a significant number ofurban IDPs plan to stay. Responses to both acute andprotracted urban displacement need to recognise this,and authorities and host communities need to accept
that local integration will often be the only feasible
option for many.

Promising collaborative methods of doing so have beendeveloped and are in use, but more investment andgreater efforts to ensure that data is interoperable areneeded. The empirical evidence available makes it clearthat local planners, sector departments, neighbourhoodorganisations, local businesses and displaced people
themselves will all need to be involved.

Common concerns about the impact of displacement on
a city’s housing, infrastructure, services, labour markets,stability and demographic and cultural composition willneed to be addressed with a long-term perspective in mind.

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TOWARD A DEVELOPMENT APPROACH TO
URBAN DISPLACEMENT

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Building leadership of local
communities and municipalities
Inadequate urban infrastructure, housing and services,and limited job prospects and opportunities to accessjustice and participate in public life are all issues that go
beyond the humanitarian sector’s remit. When urban
displacement crises occur, however, humanitarians often
find themselves having to deal with such challenges.
The leadership and continuous engagement of local
authorities before, during and after crises is paramount,
as is the active participation of displaced people andtheir hosts in processes that affect their lives. Theirinvolvement in and even management of urban planning and service provision is central to their success.
Community-led data collection, needs assessments andrisk analyses in informal settlements, at-risk neighbourhoods and other urban areas have proven effective infacilitating sustainable approaches to urban integration
and resettlement.

Supporting local authorities inhosting and integrating IDPs
Instead of focusing on providing humanitarian assistance,
national governments and the international community
need to devise new ways of supporting local authorities,
service providers and businesses in addressing displacement and reducing the risk of it happening.
This includes identifying new ways of providing assistance at the local level through national governments
and organisations as well as directly, using existingdevelopment funding instruments and developing newones to support local governments and communitybased organisations, and creating incentives for local
and national authorities to accept responsibility for their
IDPs and facilitate their local integration.

Integrating formal and informal
markets and institutions
In the absence of functioning formal housing and labour
markets, and strong governance and institutions toaddress grievances and deliver justice, informal systems
take their place. For many IDPs, and particularly new
arrivals, the latter are all that is available. Humanitarian

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and development stakeholders need to understand andaccept the role that informal local powerbrokers play infacilitating life in the city for IDPs, and allow a combination of formal and informal institutions to support themin their process of local integration. This requires dealing
carefully with the benefits and risks of informal arrangements, including transparency and accountability.

Developing new approaches tohousing and tenure
The pivotal role of tenure security for IDPs and the urban
poor more broadly is recognised. New approaches havebeen developed over the past decade that address theambiguity of tenure that many displaced people experience, and facilitate their entry into more formal housing
arrangements and markets over time.
Innovation and adaptation will be vital in regulating IDPs’
tenure agreements and supporting them in making thetransition from abusive rental markets to more secure
tenure and housing. Progressive approaches to housing
policies and informal markets also mean investing in
new approaches to informal settlements that allow forthem to develop in ways that benefit the city as a whole.

Setting goals and tracking
progress at the local level
To understand the progress made in addressing urban
displacement and reducing displacement risk globally,
steps toward local durable solutions need to be monitored at the city level.482 SDG 11 contains targets andindicators on planning and urban development financingthat will also need to be monitored effectively from thebottom-up. The latter should in principle provide a solid
basis not just for reporting but also for planning.
As progress is aggregated, however, and ultimately
measured at national level, the metrics will not necessarily reflect urban realities. The disaggregation ofdata by location, sex, age and mobility status has also
been encouraged, but there are few tools and little
capacity to systematically collect and analyse data in thisway.483 In this sense, most of the SDGs’ metrics will be
more effective in tracking the performance of national
governments than in informing and shaping action at
the local level.484

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CONCLUSION
From global to local solutions
In 2018, IDMC took stock of the progress made in the
20 years since the adoption of the Guiding Principles
on Internal Displacement. This year is the 10th anniversary of the Kampala Convention, and to mark theoccasion the African Union has declared 2019 the Yearof Refugees, Returnees and IDPs. Activities across thecontinent will draw attention to internal displacement
and the need for durable solutions, but the situationof those displaced has not significantly improved at theregional or global level.
The figures presented in this report show that in many
countries affected by conflict, not only is displacement
becoming protracted, but new displacements continue
to take place, deepening national and regional crises.
Certain countries and regions are also consistently
affected by disasters year after year. Many IDPs faceserious vulnerabilities and protection gaps and are athigh risk of being displaced again within urban centres,
particularly if they lack secure tenure, employment andsocial support that ensure their local integration.
Humanitarian responses alone will not resolve theinternal displacement crises affecting many countries
around the world, nor reduce the risk of future displacement. As our cities grow and the landscape of urban
displacement changes, local authorities will be at theforefront of both responding to crises and reducing riskin the long-term. National responsibility and leadershipand international accountability now must combinewith tangible and significant support to local action.
And given that growing numbers of IDPs live in urban
centres across the world, this local action will increasingly need to happen in towns and cities.
The provision of basic services for IDPs remains animportant humanitarian challenge in active crises andcamp settings. It also lies at the heart of development
efforts in complex urban and protracted displacement
settings.485 Long-term displacement in already deteriorating socioeconomic conditions makes it difficult
for local authorities to provide services to the wholeurban population. Decades of conflict and displacement result in municipal structures and services unable
to meet the needs of the urban poor. Many IDPs aretrapped in poverty, which in turn contributes to making
their displacement protracted. In such circumstances,
concerted and coherent poverty reduction efforts,
including targeted assistance and broader social protection, need to be developed in place of siloed, short-term
humanitarian interventions.486
Cities are also tasked with applying and localising global
and national development frameworks as part of thesustainable development agenda, but often struggle
to do so. The way and extent to which authority andresources are decentralised will determine their capacity
for effective governance and implementation. Financial capacities to achieve development objectives andaddress humanitarian crises vary considerably fromcountry to country, and from city to city. Size, economic
productivity, social equality and institutional arrangements all determine the ability of a city’s government
and its communities to prevent and cope with crises,
including internal displacement crises.487
Affecting city-level change will require progress acrossat least three main areas. Knowledge and evidence ofthe drivers, impacts and risks of urban displacement andof appropriate and successful approaches to addressing
it are a prerequisite for effective action. The capacity
to act on the evidence also needs to be strengthened,particularly in low-income countries and those that facelarge displacement crises.
Most importantly, however, incentives to increase political will are needed at both the municipal and national
level to adapt urban planning, investment, regulationand service delivery to the realities of informality andprotracted displacement. Urban opportunities cannot be
unlocked without political solutions, and those solutions
need to move beyond short-term responses to embracelong-term risk reduction and inclusive development.

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In moving ahead in these three areas, a checklist ofsorts may be useful to guide prioritisation of local-level
actions and encourage more national and international
support for relevant sectors and institutions, adapted toeach city. Data and insight, and the capacity to present
evidence that generates incentives to create the required
political will are critical in this regard and suggest afirst set of priority areas for action at local level (seeFigure 24).
As we look into the coming years, the conclusions fromour last global reports remain alarmingly valid. Morethan 20 years of mass displacement and increasingly
protracted situations across the globe leave us todaywith the highest number of people living in displacement ever. Despite policy progress in several countries,
the root causes of internal displacement persist.

This report shows, however, that despite the significant
challenges, promising approaches exist. In a rapidly
urbanising world, many of the opportunities for solutions to displacement are located in and around cities.
For the urban displaced to break out of protracted andcyclical displacement, inclusive legislation, housing
provision and service delivery need to become a partof the DNA of urban governance.
The involvement and, over time, leadership of displaced
people in urban planning and service provision is central
to their success. Where responsible states work handin hand with local governments and communities,
supported by the international community, solutions
are found and the future of those displaced today andof global displacement risk becomes less bleak.

Figure 24: Toward a checklist for action on urban displacement: start by building an evidence base

Data and analysis|| Systematically account for urban IDPs. Record their number and the duration and severity of their displacement, disaggregated by sex, age, disability and other relevant criteria|| Monitor movements and conditions of those displaced over time, not just during and immediately after crises|| Undertake profiling exercises that include both displaced and host populations|| Collaborate with humanitarian, development and other stakeholders working to reduce vulnerability and risk
to ensure that any data collected is interoperable

Capacity and participation|| Build on communities’ existing capacities, including for the collection of data on their vulnerabilities and needs,
but also their existing resources, skills and community services|| Strengthen the capacity of local organisations and government departments for data and statistical analysis|| Work with IDPs and those at risk of displacement to identify priority areas in service delivery and infrastructuredevelopment|| Identify urban development approaches that accommodate informality, including through flexible and secure
tenure arrangements and adaptive labour market strategies in line with national and international sustainable
development initiatives

Incentives and political will|| Estimate the impacts of displacement on city development and the risks inherent in inaction, including effects
on the city’s economy, security, stability and social wellbeing|| Use risk assessments to advocate for new and appropriate financing mechanisms to support city action andmake displacement risk one of the core considerations in urban planning and development|| Document successful approaches to managing and reducing internal displacement in cities and provide aplatform for exchange and learning for municipalities and their partners|| Recognise IDPs as local citizens, even when return is their preferred long-term solution, by allowing voting
rights and providing space for public participation, and supporting their access to documentation

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