Flagship 4 Shaping Solutions to Forced Displacement

Migration is at the core of urbanization, and while today cities are home to 54 percent of the world’s population, by 2050 this number is expected to rise to 66 percent. The total number of international migrants in 2020 was estimated at 280.6 million. A total of 82.4 million were forcibly displaced due to conflict and violence in several regions and countries. Additionally, climate change is driving displacement and increasing the vulnerability of those already forced to flee. While the movement of large populations poses a variety of challenges to towns and cities, migration and displacement can boost productivity, enhance local economic development and strengthen urban-rural economic and social linkages.
Thus, given the mandate of the Flagship 4 programme “Inclusive cities: Enhancing the Positive Impacts of Urban Migration, this event focuses on pathways to establish scalable, sustainable and transformative solutions to forced displacement both internally displaced people and refugees, through their integration in inclusive territorial and urban development strategies. It responds to both the Secretary-General's Action Agenda on Internal Displacement and the Multistakeholder Pledge “Climate Resilient Sustainable Human Settlements for Refugees and their Hosting Communities” launched at the Global Refugee Forum (December 2023).
The event will explore new approaches to the challenges of forcibly displaced people and host communities and allow to share practices and lessons learned from a range of countries across different continents.
It will also feature a presentation of the proposed Framework “Towards inclusive solutions to urban internal displacement” developed by UN-Habitat, with support from IIED and in consultation with UNDP, IOM, UNHCR as well as other agencies, country offices and governments. The framework offers an integrated programmatic approach to deliver impact. The event will also feature the need for empowering local governments and innovative approaches to leverage financing. It will demonstrate how to apply the HLP policy in displacement in the urban settings, by referring to UN-Habitat’s new publications including “Housing, Land, and Property Solutions to Resolve and Prevent Displacement”; and “Durable housing, land and property solutions for customary displacement contexts.”
The event will also illustrate how strategic partnerships across the UN system and with the Multilateral Development Banks, such as the World Bank are key to achieving results at scale.