UNHCR policy brief on displacement and disaster risk reduction: 2017 update

This policy brief stresses the need for A ‘people-centred’ protection perspective to ensure effective Disaster Risk Reduction. Persons already displaced or at risk of displacement need to be recognized as particularly vulnerable and have unique protection needs related to their history of mobility and hazard exposure. At the same time, displaced populations have developed incredible resilience and have skills and capacities to offer to host communities in disaster risk reduction activities.

UNHCR key messages for the Global Platform pertain to two areas of UNHCR’s work. In implementation of the Sendai Framework, UNHCR calls on Governments, local authorities and other DRR actors to make sure that DRR strategies and plans at local, national and regional levels include

1. provisions on refugees and persons of concern already displaced, and
2. provisions on preventing, addressing, and promoting solutions to displacement associated with disasters, in support of the key messages of the Platform on Disaster Displacement (PDD).