From Responsibility to Response: Assessing National - Brookings

CHAPTER 1 Assessing National Approaches to Internal Displacement: Findings from 15 Countries
methodologies for doing so are still being developed.
The need for improved data collection and monitoring
is evident in an observation of IDMC relating to the
countries that it monitors: “In 2010, IDPs’ needs were
consistently assessed in only 40 per cent of countries
monitored.” 1 Yet without data on the number, location,
conditions and needs of IDPs, it is very difficult
to ensure that programs target and are relevant to IDPs.
Even when estimates of the total number of IDPs are
made, such data are rarely complete and adequately disaggregated.
IDP data also are not usually updated frequently
enough to reflect changes in a situation; at best,
data are updated yearly, where annual IDP registration
exercises may take place.
Other complications to data collection and monitoring
methods include that the situation and needs of IDPs often
change over time. IDPs may be displaced multiple times
by external events; moreover, IDPs may move from place
to place as a way of coping with the challenges that they
face. For example, they may go back to their communities
for a while and then return to their place of displacement,
or they may test various locations before deciding to stay
a while in a given area. Less often, governments set up
temporary camps to house IDPs; in those cases, counting
or estimating the number of IDPs is usually easier
than when they are dispersed among the population. But
often camp populations also are dynamic: IDPs move in
and out in response to perceived security, livelihood possibilities
and government policies.
Unlike the term “refugee,” the term “internally displaced
person” does not denote a legal status; it is only a
descriptive term. A person is “recognized” as a refugee
if he or she is found to meet certain criteria specified
in the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 protocol,
in particular, a “well-founded fear of persecution” or
being outside of their country and unable to access the
protection of their government. Being outside of their
country, such persons require international protection.
1 IDMC, Internal Displacement: Global Overview of Trends
and Developments in 2010, March 2011, p. 9 (www.
internal-displacement.org).
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There is no corresponding need to confer IDPs with
a special status under international law because they
remain within their country, under the sovereignty of
their state, and in principle they should benefit from the
state’s protection. Even so, many governments have developed
systems to “register” IDPs and in some cases to
confer them with a special status under national legislation.
As the analysis below illustrates, registration has
been central to efforts to collect data on IDPs. But registration
systems are necessary only when they are used
to determine eligibility for assistance. When there is no
assistance, or when assistance is given in a discriminatory
manner, there is little incentive for IDPs to register.
Reluctance to come forward to be registered is especially
acute in conflict situations and in areas where the government
is perceived as contributing to the conditions
causing displacement. Therefore, under-registration is a
common phenomenon. When assistance is provided to
IDPs registered with the government or in some cases
with an international actor, IDPs are more likely to register.
In such cases, there may an incentive for people to
register as IDPs in a camp in order to receive assistance
even though they may be staying in another location or
to register in multiple locations. There may also be cases
where over-registration serves political purposes, as in
Serbia or Azerbaijan.
In order to facilitate government, humanitarian and development
planning and assistance and advocacy efforts
to improve the situation of internally displaced populations,
profiling should take place during all phases of
displacement. IDP profiling is a collaborative exercise
consisting of identification of internally displaced
groups or individuals through data collection (including
counting) and analysis in order to take action and
advocate on behalf of the IDPs, to protect and assist
them and eventually, to help bring about a solution to
their displacement. Profiles of internal displacement
situations should include the following core data:
—Number of IDPs disaggregated by age and
sex, even if the numbers are only estimates; in
many cases data are available only in certain
locations.