13 February 2019: The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) released the first results from a research program on the economic impact of displacement crises around the world. Its report estimates the financial impact of displacement in eight countries: the Central African Republic (CAR), Haiti, Libya, the Philippines, Somalia, South Sudan, Ukraine and Yemen. The authors build on this assessment to place the global cost of displacement at USD 13 billion.

For the 38-page report titled, ‘Unveiling the Cost of Internal Displacement,’ researchers assessed the immediate costs associated with the impacts of internal displacement, including impacts on health and livelihoods, loss of homes and education opportunities, and providing security and basic services in camps and host areas. Quantified in economic terms, these losses range from less than one percent of pre-crisis GDP to as much as 11%.

IDMC estimates that the number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the world is twice as high as the number of refugees. The research program seeks to make visible “the submerged part of the iceberg” by reporting on IDPs, who are often not counted in official statistics. IDMC has noted the 2030 Agenda’s call for disaggregating data by migratory status. The research seeks to provide an evidence base for reporting on global migration targets, including those in the 2030 Agenda.

The paper is part of a thematic series on ‘The ripple effect: economic impacts of internal displacement,’ which focuses on measuring the effects of internal displacement on the economic potential of IDPs, host communities and societies as a whole. [Report Webpage] [Publication: Unveiling the Cost of Internal Displacement]