Protection during Early Recovery
Session 8.2:
Durable Solutions Framework
(Place) – (Date)
Adapted from presentation developed by the Office of the Representative of the Secretary General on the Human Rights of
Internally Displaced Persons
Overview
I.
Why Durable Solutions?
II.
The Framework on Durable
Solutions
Adapted from presentation developed by the Office of the Representative of the Secretary General on the Human Rights of
Internally Displaced Persons
Part I: Why Durable Solutions?
– Because it is not sufficient for people affected by
natural disasters to survive and get through the
emergency phase.
– Because in many cases, people affected by a
disaster are not able to restart normal lives on their
own when houses, infrastructure and the economy
are destroyed.
– Because the fact that people displaced by a disaster
can return to their homes or are relocated to a safe
area does not mean that such solutions are
automatically durable and sustainable.
Because recovery is often not
successful
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4 months after Cyclone : Houses are rebuilt and food
distribution ends, but it will take 4 years to restore
destroyed cash crops : How to feed the family?
1 year after the big floods: Houses are ready at
relocations sites but people move back to danger
zones: Why?
5 years after Hurricane Katrina: People cannot return
and rebuild their houses because they do not qualify
for subsidies or cannot prove ownership: What’s their
future?
10 years after Hurricane Mitch: New settlements,
solid houses, a school - but no access to livelihoods:
Should people migrate back to the parts of town
from which they were resettled because of
dangers of new floods?
Because recovery in cases of displacement
is prescribed by Guiding Principle 28
1. Competent authorities have the primary duty and
responsibility to establish conditions, as well as
provide the means, which allow internally displaced
persons to return voluntarily, in safety and with
dignity, to their homes or places of habitual
residence, or to resettle voluntarily in another part of
the country. Such authorities shall endeavor to
facilitate the reintegration of returned or resettled
internally displaced persons.
2. Special efforts should be made to ensure the full
participation of internally displaced persons in the
planning and management of their return or
resettlement and reintegration.
Part II: IASC Framework on Durable Solutions
Developed to address the challenge of finding
durable solutions for persons displaced by armed
conflict and revised in 2009 based on input from field
In order to provide benchmarks for:
Planning recovery processes
Assessing progress made, and
Determining when displacement has ended
Also useful tool for identifying elements necessary for
successful post-disaster recovery (whether or not
affected persons are displaced)
Conceptual challenge
Q: When do displacement and other problems caused by
a natural disaster end?
A: Three ways of answering the question:
– When the disaster is over ? (= cause-based criteria)
– When affected persons rebuild their homes and
return to them? (= solutions-based criteria)
– When affected persons no longer have particular
needs directly linked to their having been displaced
(or otherwise affected) by the disaster? (= needsbased criteria) => MOST APPROPRIATE
APPROACH
The Framework
The Framework for Durable Solutions:
• Identifies elements necessary to achieve a
durable solution
• Combines an analysis of:
– The relevant needs of IDPs (and other
affected persons)
– The process necessary to enable voluntary
decision of IDPs (and other affected persons)
– The substantive conditions necessary for
making solutions (recovery) durable
The Framework
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Understands that finding durable solutions
is a gradual process
Identifies the parameters of such process
based on human rights
Identifies criteria for determining the
degree to which durable solutions have
been achieved
Organized around 4 questions
Question 1: What is a durable solution?
A durable solution is achieved if displaced
(or otherwise affected) persons:
Have no longer any specific assistance and
protection needs and vulnerabilities that are directly
linked to their having been displaced (or otherwise
affected) by the natural disaster;
Enjoy their human rights without being
discriminated against because the were displaced (or
otherwise affected) by the natural disaster.
Durable solutions can be achieved through:
 Sustainable reintegration at the place of
origin (hereinafter referred to as “return”);
 Sustainable local integration in areas
where internally displaced persons take
refuge (local integration);
 Sustainable integration in another part of
the country (settlement elsewhere in the
country).
The search for any of these durable solutions
for IDPs should be understood as:
 A gradual, often long-term process of
reducing displacement-specific needs and
ensuring the enjoyment of human rights
without discrimination;
 A complex process that addresses human
rights, humanitarian, development,
reconstruction and peace-building
challenges;
 A process requiring the coordinated and
timely engagement of different actors.
Question 2: What key principles should guide
the search for durable solutions?
 The primary responsibility of the government;
 Rapid and unimpeded access by humanitarian
and development actors;
 Needs, rights and legitimate interest of IDPs as
primary condideration;
 Respect for the right of IDPs to make an informed
and voluntary choice regarding return/local
integration;
 Non-discrimination; and
 Attention to communities (re-)integrating IDPs
Question 3: How should a rights based process
to support a durable solution be organized?
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Informed and voluntary decision;
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Consultation and participation of IDPs;
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Access of all actors; and
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Effective monitoring.
Question 4: What criteria determine to what
extent a durable solution has been achieved?
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Safety and security;
Adequate standard of living, including access to
adequate food, housing, health care, and
education;
Access to employment and livelihoods;
Access to housing, land and property restitution
or compensation mechanisms;
Access to documentation;
Family reunification;
Participation in public affairs; and
Access to justice.
Thank you!