Globally, forced displacement has reached unprecedented levels, with more than 117 million people uprooted by conflict, violence, human rights violations, and disasters. While some cross borders as refugees, the majority remain within their own countries as internally displaced persons. By the end of 2024, a record 83.4 million people were living in internal displacement, highlighting a profound humanitarian, development, and peace challenge that extends far beyond emergency response.
Internal displacement now sits at the core of the global forced displacement crisis, affecting nearly one in every hundred people worldwide. IDPs often fall outside national systems that are already under strain, facing prolonged uncertainty and limited access to services and livelihoods. This reality underscores the need to move beyond short-term relief and address displacement as a long-term structural challenge linked to governance, poverty, social cohesion, and climate resilience.
A growing shift in thinking reframes displacement as a development issue that demands durable, inclusive solutions. Rather than focusing only on immediate needs, development-oriented approaches aim to restore dignity, agency, and opportunity for displaced people while also supporting host communities. By recognizing IDPs as rights-holding citizens, these solutions seek to rebuild the social contract, reduce tensions, and strengthen local economies through inclusive recovery.
UNDP’s development solutions approach reflects this shift by embedding internal displacement responses within broader national development frameworks. Aligned with interagency guidance and global commitments, this approach is already being implemented across multiple crisis-affected countries, helping governments address root causes of displacement while promoting long-term resilience, peacebuilding, and sustainable development.
Ethiopia illustrates both the scale of the challenge and the potential for transformative solutions. Driven by conflict, intercommunal violence, natural disasters, and climate extremes, internal displacement in Ethiopia is often protracted and deeply disruptive. The launch of the country’s National Strategy to Implement Solutions Pathways to Internal Displacement in 2024 marked a major step toward nationally owned, development-focused responses centered on livelihoods, dignity, and community restoration.
As a pilot country under the UN Secretary-General’s Action Agenda on Internal Displacement, Ethiopia has also leveraged innovative financing through the Internal Displacement Solutions Fund. This mechanism supports government-led, multi-agency initiatives that align humanitarian action with development and peace objectives, demonstrating strong results in national ownership, evidence-based planning, catalytic impact, and gender equality despite global funding constraints.
The global push toward a humanitarian reset reinforces the importance of the humanitarian-development-peace nexus, particularly as needs rise and resources tighten. By prioritizing nationally led, multi-year, and area-based approaches, the nexus enables local governments and communities to lead solutions that integrate social cohesion, climate resilience, and economic recovery while reducing long-term dependency on humanitarian aid.
Ethiopia’s Qoloji site exemplifies how this global vision can translate into local change. Once established as an emergency displacement site, Qoloji is being transformed into an integrated, climate-resilient settlement anchored in improved governance, essential services, green infrastructure, and peacebuilding. By embedding displacement responses into local development plans, the initiative offers a living model of durable solutions that foster belonging, resilience, and sustainable growth.
Looking ahead, the experience from Ethiopia highlights that addressing internal displacement sustainably requires more than short-term assistance. Durable solutions depend on aligned leadership, development financing, inclusive planning, and strong partnerships across sectors. When these elements come together, displacement can shift from a protracted crisis to an opportunity for rebuilding communities, strengthening resilience, and achieving lasting development impact.
