Publication
13 February 2019
Unveiling the cost of internal displacement
Internal displacement can limit affected people’s ability to contribute to the economy and generate specific needs that must be paid for by IDPs, their hosts, their government or other aid providers. This report presents our first estimates of the financial impact of major displacement crises in eight countries: the Central African Republic, Haiti, Libya, the Philippines, Somalia, South Sudan, Ukraine and Yemen. Using publicly available data and an original methodology, this report assesses the costs and losses associated with internal displacement’s most direct consequences on health, shelter, education, security and livelihoods.
Although they uncover only a fraction of the economic impacts of internal displacement, these estimates amount to a noticeable share of the countries’ GDP. Multiplying the average impact per IDP per year ($310) to the total number of IDPs recorded across the world - 40 million as of the end of 2017 - would amount to nearly $13 billion. Though more research is needed to analyse more countries and account for more impacts, this report already points to the risk internal displacement represents, not only for security and human rights, but also for national development.
