From Responsibility to Response: Assessing National - Brookings

and profiling of three types of IDPs in Afghanistan:
conflict-induced, natural-disaster induced, and protracted-displacement
IDPs. While task force data are
used for planning purposes, it is commonly accepted
that the data do not accurately reflect the displacement
situation in Afghanistan. There are various challenges
to ensuring that data are both accurate and comprehensive,
including the temporary nature of displacement;
insecurity and the lack of access to IDPs, particularly
in the southern provinces of Helmand, Kandahar and
Uruzgan; and the various methodologies applied to determine
who is an internally displaced person and who
is an economic migrant and when displacement begins
and ends. The National IDP Task Force has sought to redress
problems and discrepancies in data collection and
reporting on IDPs in order to provide them with greater
protection and assistance—including by establishing
the ad hoc Working Group on IDP Data Reconciliation
and Harmonization with technical staff from UNHCR
and the MoRR which has sought to streamline data collection
and reporting methodologies. 23 However, the
MoRR, DoRRs and UNHCR continue to face serious
challenges in data collection.
Some governments do not appear to collect data on
IDPs, as in Myanmar and the Democratic Republic of
the Congo (DRC). In the Central African Republic,
while the government does not collect IDP data it does
facilitate the collection of data by international actors
and is working with UNHCR on a pilot registration
project in some areas. 24 The government of Uganda collects
data on IDPs, but there is no standardized system
23 IRIN, “Afghanistan: Little Relief for Growing Number
of Conflict IDPs,” 14 October 2010 (www.irinnews.org/
report.aspx?reportid=90768).
24 One of the objectives of the National Standing Committee
in the Central African Republic is to collect data on the
number and profile of IDPs in the country; however,
there was no evidence at the time of writing that it had
done so. See Erin Mooney, Examen du cadre normative
de la République centrafricaine relatif à la protection
des personnes déplacées à l’intérieur de leur propre pays
: Audit juridique, Brookings-Bern Project on Internal
Displacement, February 2011, pp. 21–23 (www.brookings.
edu/reports/2010/11_car_audit_juridique.aspx).
Benchmark 3 Data Collection on Internally Displaced Persons
49
for data collection across districts—a problem that has
also been reported in Nepal and Sri Lanka. In some
cases, as in DRC and Sudan, current IDP figures are
provided by international agencies. In still other cases,
as in Iraq, registration of IDPs may be suspended and
restarted in response to particular policies. 25
Government authorities may discriminate against certain
populations of IDPs for political reasons, as evident
in their data collection or registration procedures.
Until the adoption of the National Policy on Internally
Displaced Persons (2007), the government of Nepal
registered only IDPs displaced by Maoist violence,
while those displaced by government security forces
were not recognized as IDPs. 26 With the adoption
of the 2007 policy, the government began to register
IDPs displaced by both government security forces
and Maoists, although it does not officially recognize
as IDPs those displaced due to ethnic conflict in Terai.
Similarly, the Pakistani government registers IDPs in
the National Database and Registration Authority but
does not register IDPs from areas not recognized as
conflict areas or those from tribes that it considers to
be associated with insurgents. In Afghanistan, politics
affects the accuracy of the number of IDPs reported
and the provision of protection and assistance, illustrating
the complexity of the IDP issue in the country.
According to UNHCR in 2006, “there is much at stake
for IDP leaders when determining the numbers of
people in their settlements” because aid distribution
amounts are dependent on those figures. In addition,
poor individuals often have presented themselves as
IDPs, especially in the “less official camps” in Panjwayi
and Maywand, “and received equal benefits as the
‘genuine’ Kuchi IDPs.” 27 Another politicized factor
25 In Iraq, IDP registration was stopped in 2009 and restarted
in 2010 to enable people to register as IDPs so that they
could subsequently register as returnees.
26 IDMC, Nepal: Failed Implementation of IDP Policy
Leaves Many Unassisted, January 2010 (www.internaldisplacement.org).
27 Asia Consultants International, Durable Solutions for
Kuchi IDPs in the South of Afghanistan: Options and
Opportunities, commissioned for UNHCR Kandahar,