Virtual Event | Human Mobility, Disasters and Climate Change in Africa

August 23, 2021
Events

26 August 2021, 3:00pm EAT / 2:00pm CEST

Disasters linked to natural hazards and the adverse effects of climate change are amongst the most important and overlapping drivers of human mobility across Africa. Without urgent global and national climate action, the World Bank’s Groundswell study projects that in Sub-Saharan Africa, there could be more than 86 million people moving within their countries’ borders by 2050.

How can governments better prepare for population movements in the context of disasters and the adverse impacts of climate change? How can affected people be effectively supported and protected, and how can displacement in these contexts be avoided? How can Africa strengthen solutions for migrants compelled to move in the context of disasters and the adverse effects of climate change?

This virtual event will be held at the occasion of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM) African Regional Review Conference 2021. Jointly co-organized by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the Platform on Disaster Displacement (PDD), it will showcase how evolving regional and national initiatives across Africa aim to minimize the adverse drivers and structural factors that compel people to leave their country of origin, while also facilitating safe, orderly and regular migration in the context of disasters, climate change and environmental degradation in the IGAD and other regions in Africa.

There will be an opportunity to learn about the Joint Programme “Addressing Drivers and Facilitating Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration in the Contexts of Disasters and Climate Change in the IGAD Region”, implemented by IGAD, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the Platform on Disaster Displacement (hosted by UNOPS), the International Labour Organization (ILO), the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the IGAD Climate Prediction and Application Centre (ICPAC), funded by the Migration Multi Partner Trust Fund (MPTF).

The event will contribute to addressing the following key topics for implementing the GCM:

Enhancing models and data on climate induced human mobility for evidence-based policymaking, including analyses on how climate change affects human mobility patterns both within countries and across borders;
Effective practices in the protection of migrants who are compelled to move and/or unable to return in the context of disasters and the adverse effects of climate change, particularly women migrants and those in vulnerable situations;
Facilitating safe, orderly and regular migration, including through the implementation of national and regional migration policy frameworks
Strengthening resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards and disasters in all countries, including through ongoing initiatives at country and regional level that have demonstrated success in addressing human mobility challenges in disaster and climate change contexts;
Setting priority areas and developing recommendation for key gender-responsive policy and programmatic responses

The virtual event will be run in English, with translation available in French.

Contacts:

Lena Brenn – IGAD Disaster Displacement Advisor (lena.brenn@igad.int)

Hyewon Jung – UNDP Regional Human Mobility Advisor (hyewon.jung@undp.org)