Platform on Disaster Displacement

The Platform on Disaster Displacement (PDD) aims at following up on the work started by the Nansen Initiative in 2012 and to implement the recommendations of the Nansen Initiative Protection Agenda, endorsed by more than 100 governmental delegations during a Global Consultation in October 2015.

People who are forced to cross a border in the context of a disaster and the effects of climate change have limited protection when they arrive in another country. Rather than calling for a new binding international convention on cross-border disaster-displacement, the Platform supports an approach that focuses on the integration of effective practices by States and (sub-)regional organizations into their own normative frameworks in accordance with their specific situations.

The enormous challenges that cross-border disaster-displacement generates are diverse. Because of their ‘borderless’ nature, international cooperation as well as regional and national engagement is crucial. While being a state-led process, the Platform is building strong partnerships between policymakers, practitioners and researchers and constitutes a multi-stakeholder forum for dialogue, information sharing as well as policy and normative development.

Under the leadership of Member States, the multi-stakeholder Platform on Disaster Displacement is built on four pillars: a Steering Group, an Advisory Committee, a Secretariat and a Group of Friends. Since the creation of the PDD in May 2016, Germany and Bangladesh held the the Steering Group Chairmanship and Vice-Chairmanship, respectively (June 2016-December 2017), then Bangladesh and France (January 2018-June 2019). On 1 July 2019, France took over the Chairmanship, with Fiji as co-Chair. The Envoy of the Chair, Pr. Walter Kaelin, provides strategic advice to the Chair and the Steering Group, and promote the work of the PDD in high-level public events. The Group of Friends was established in 2019 as an open-ended group of States and regional organizations supportive of the objectives of the PDD, and co-chaired by the European Union and Morocco.

In a Steering Group meeting on 6 July 2022, the Steering Group members welcomed the European Union (EU) as the Chair of the PDD and Kenya as the Vice-Chair until December 2023.

Watch António Vitorino, IOM Director General answering a question from PDD on "How is the International Organization for Migration contributing to address the challenges of disaster displacement?":

To contact the Platform, please e-mail the Secretariat at info@disasterdisplacement.org or call at + 41 22 917 84 88.

Visit the Platform's website

Relevant Publications

Platform on Disaster Displacement (PDD) Strategy 2019-2023 

Platform on Disaster Displacement (PDD) Strategy 2019-2023, Annex I: Workplan 

PDD Leaflets - A State-led initiative working towards better protection for people displaced across borders in the context of disasters and climate change, FR, SP

Related Links

Disaster Risk Reduction

Global Compact

Humanitarian Border Management

Humanitarian Emergencies

Inter-State Consultation Mechanisms on Migration

Internal Displacement

International Migration Law

Land, Property and Reparations

Migrants in Countries in Crisis Initiative (MICIC)

 

Key PDD documents

PDD Strategy (2019-2023)

PDD Workplan (2019-2023)

PDD Leaflet

PDD Steering Group TOR

PDD Advisory Committee TOR