External Assessment Report in Support of the Strategy Review Process of the Platform on Disaster Displacement 2022-2023

In its Ambassadorial level Steering Group (SG) Meeting of 16 December 2021, the Steering Group of the Platform on Disaster Displacement (PDD) decided to continue the PDD beyond 30 June 2022 to extend the PDD Strategy 2019-2022 until 31 December 2023 and to task the Chair of the PDD at the time, Fiji, and it successor from 1 July 2022, the European Union (EU), to lead a transparent and inclusive strategic review process.

In June 2023, a team of consultants was recruited to conduct an External Assessment of the work of the PDD in support of the current Strategy Review process 2022-2023. This external assessment was conducted over 23 days between June and September 2023. The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) contracted the consultants and acted as the main point of contact. The ‘Sounding Board’ for this assessment was constituted of the European Union as Chair of the PDD, Kenya as Vice-Chair of the PDD, and Fiji as previous Chair of the PDD (from 1 January to 30 June 2022), as well as Switzerland.

The methods included a literature review, observation of the Strategic Retreat (Chateau de Bossey, Vaud, 13 June 2023), introductory meetings in Geneva, in-depth interviews with key stakeholders (remote), follow-up questionnaires and the presentation of findings on the Sounding Board on 31 August 2023. The consultants selected stakeholders who could contribute a diversity of perspectives, taking into consideration factors such as current or previous engagement with the PDD, the capacity of that engagement, geographic representation, and organizational or institutional mandates. The total number of assessment respondents was 39, who contributed over 60 responses comprised of six introductory meetings, 29 in-depth interview responses, and 25 follow-up questionnaires and inputs via email.