Global Report on Internal Displacement 2023 - Internal displacement and food security

Key findings:

Internal displacement broke new records in 2022

• 71.1 million people were living in internal displacement worldwide at the end of 2022, a 20 per cent increase in a year and the highest number ever recorded.

• The La Niña weather phenomenon persisted for a third consecutive year, leading to record levels of flood displacement in countries including Pakistan, Nigeria and Brazil. It also fuelled the worst drought on record in Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya, triggering 2.1 million movements.

National and regional trends

• Internal displacement is a global phenomenon, but nearly three-quarters of the world’s internally displaced people (IDPs) live in just 10 countries: Syria, Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Ukraine, Colombia, Ethiopia, Yemen, Nigeria, Somalia and Sudan. In many, disasters and conflict overlapped in 2022, prolonging IDPs’ situation and displacing some for a second or third time.

• Mirroring the previous 10 years, sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East and North Africa had the highest numbers of IDPs.

• In countries such as the Philippines, Madagascar and South Sudan, consecutive disasters forced people to flee repeatedly, undermining their recovery and prolonging their displacement.

• Nearly half of the year’s disaster events triggered fewer than 100 movements, but taken together, their scale and local impacts were significant, as was the case in countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia and Viet Nam.

Internal displacement and food insecurity overlap

• Conflict, disasters and displacement have aggravated global food insecurity, which was already a concern as a result of the slow and uneven recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic.

• The data available on food security and internal displacement is far from comprehensive, but it reveals how the two phenomena overlap. Three-quarters of the countries where food security assessments were conducted had internally displaced populations.

• DRC, Nigeria, Afghanistan, Ethiopia and Yemen had the highest numbers of acutely food-insecure people in 2022. They were also home to more than 26 million IDPs, over a third of the global total.

• Ukraine and Russia are among the world’s largest producers of fertiliser and grain. The conflict between them has had cascading effects on global supply chains and food prices, heightening food insecurity in many countries where internal displacement is also an issue.

Pursuing solutions

• Unconditional cash assistance is a vital means of supporting the immediate needs of people affected by displacement and food insecurity. It is particularly useful for IDPs, given that their needs and priorities change as a result of leaving their homes and livelihoods behind.

• Developing IDPs’ livelihoods and skills would help to facilitate durable solutions by increasing their food security and their communities’ and countries’ self-reliance at the same time.

• Beyond immediate humanitarian assistance, investments are needed in anticipatory action and risk reduction measures that strengthen displaced communities’ resilience.

• Data gaps limit our understanding of how IDPs are affected by disruptions to food systems. Filling them would help to shine a light on the common drivers and impacts of displacement and food insecurity and provide evidence to inform solutions.