If you wonder why vulnerable developing countries have demanded a Climate Change Displacement Coordination Facility (‘Facility’), the 22.5 million people displaced annually by weather related disasters since 2008 are happy to remind you. The Facility, as a placeholder for adequate institutional arrangements, could begin with a focus on closing knowledge gaps by collecting, sharing and managing relevant information on displacement. It could then expand its work to build Parties’ own capacities to address displacement, facilitate voluntary migration, and encourage participatory and dignified planned relocation as a last resort. The Facility could also provide a space to convene and collaborate between UN agencies, as well as international and regional organizations, governmental initiatives and civil society concerned with climate-related displacement and migration.
Some remain concerned that this facility would be duplicating activities of other UN agencies, such as the UN Refugee Agency and the International Organization for Migration. However, these agencies strongly advocate that this is not a duplication at all. They call for the creation of a Facility to reinforce and sustain their work.
As highlighted by the the Nansen Initiative Protection Agenda, endorsed by 110 Governments this past October in Geneva, there remain many gaps. These include legal protection, institutional arrangements and knowledge and data collection. States should remember their past commitments to address this issue, and create this Facility as a convening space to catalyse action and fill these noted gaps.
