From 9-13 September 1996 the Refugee Studies Programme, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford convened delegates from 24 industrialised and developing countries including scholars, practitioners, government representatives, bilateral and multilateral donors, and NGO representatives to examine measures which reduce the risk of impoverishment which continues to haunt uprooted populations. Displacement is avoided from the onset. If after all options are exhausted and resettlement proves unavoidable, displacement is transformed into a development opportunity for the displacees.
Resettlement is a dynamic process whose impacts on displacees takes place at different times.
Relief strategies are transformed into development strategies that draw on the regularities being identified through research on the displacement-resettlement process, adjusted to specific cultural aspirations and local conditions. Agencies, together with those to be displaced, prioritise risk factors that might lead to impoverishment. At minimum, the factors include the risks of homelessness, landlessness, marginalisation, erosion of health status, loss of access to common property and shared resources, decreased food security, and social disarticulation. External assistance involves institutional co-operation and is technically targeted to effectively reach those people facing the highest risk of impoverishment. Displacement programs not only repay their full replacement social and economic costs to the displaced, but improve their livelihood.