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Over 50,000 people are displaced in the Pacific region every year due to climate and disaster related events. IDMC’s analysis reveals that Pacific small island developing states (PSIDS) have high levels of displacement risk relative to population size given the range of hazards, exposure and differing levels of resilience. This means that individual inhabitants of Pacific SIDS are sometimes several times more likely to become displaced by disasters than people living in larger countries in the Asia-Pacific region. Altogether the Asia-Pacific region consistently records over 50 per cent of global disaster displacement. At the same time, slow-onset processes occurring over long periods of time, such as sea level rise, rising sea temperatures, ocean acidification, coastal erosion interact with sudden-onset processes and weather events (such as king tides) also contribute to displacement risk. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports that people will increasingly be compelled to leave their homes, blurring the distinction between predominantly voluntary and forced movements and in the context of some low-lying atoll Pacific nations, between internal and international displacement.

The UN Secretary General in October 2019 announced the establishment of a High-Level Panel on Internal Displacement (the Panel). The Panel’s work is intended to increase global attention to internal displacement, while also developing concrete recommendations for Member States, the UN system and other relevant stakeholders on how to better prevent, respond, and achieve solutions to internal displacement.

To inform the recommendations and overall work of the UN SG High Level Panel, the Pacific region through the Pacific Resilience Partnership’s Technical Working Group (TWG) on Human Mobility in the context of increasing climate and disaster risk will be undertaking a regional consultation on the issue of internal displacement driven by climate change and disasters. This consultation will provide an opportunity for government officials, UN agencies, NGOs, CSOs, academia, the private sector and other development and humanitarian partners to present country-specific best practices, lessons learnt, and challenges related to internal displacement. The meeting will also serve as an opportunity to review and validate recommendations put forward in submissions to the HLP.

An outcome document will be prepared at the end of the consultation containing a set of messages on internal displacement in the context of disasters and climate change based on the Pacific context which will be submitted as the consolidated input from the Pacific Technical Working Group on Human Mobility to the High Level Panel.