Disasters and Climate Change: Internally Displaced Persons and Refugees

The number of forcibly displaced people has grown from 33.9 million in 1997 to 65.6 million persons in 2016 due in large part to conflicts in the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa. The rise in conflict globally has resulted in the occurrence of 20 displacements per minute last year and a new record high for the total number of people affected by displacement. As shown in the infographic by the Aid and International Development Forum (AIDF), there were 22.5 million recorded refugees in 2015, which is roughly the population of Australia and 24 percent of them were survivors of torture and/or violence.

Disasters were responsible for 23.5 million new displacements in 2016, with 97 percent caused by weather and climate-related events. Almost 12.9 million displacements across the globe were resultant from the impact of storms such as Hurricane Matthew, which caused over one million people to be evacuated in Cuba alone.

More countries are participating in the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ (UNHCR) resettlement program. A total of 189,000 resettlements took place in 2016, with largest instances of program admission coming from the U.S. and Canada. Despite the increase in resettlement quotas, there is a great gap as 1.19 million people remain in need of resettlement. Click here to find out more.

The infographic has been published in light of the Global Disaster Relief & Development Summit. Humanitarian leaders and industry experts, including Christopher Smith, director of individual assistance at Federal Emergency Management Agency, U.S. Department of Homeland Security; Anna Spindler, head of supply chain management logistics service at UNHCR; and Joe Leitmann, lead disaster risk management specialist, Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery at World Bank Group, will share best practice and technological innovations to help strengthen disaster management capacities and improve livelihoods. See the full list of confirmed speakers here.

Take advantage of unparalleled networking opportunities at the Global Disaster Relief & Development Summit with over 300 high-level participants to exchange ideas, establish partnerships and benefit from prospective business opportunities. Register your participation at disaster-relief.aidforum.org

For all enquiries, please contact Alina O’Keeffe, Head of Marketing, AIDF at marketing@aidforum.org