CALL FOR PAPERS
‘Getting to 2030: The Future of Internal Displacement and Sustainable Development’
Special Issue January 2019
The internal displacement of millions of people every year is a human tragedy, as well as a political, social and economic challenge for many countries across the globe. It is increasingly recognised that large-scale, protracted internal displacement is often underpinned by problematic development trajectories, and that long-term displacement has a significant, if still unquantified, impact on national and regional economies, stability and security. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development gives express attention to internally displaced persons (IDPs) as a vulnerable group not to be left behind. Moreover, internal displacement cuts across all Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), meaning that failing to address the realities of internal displacement risks holding back or even reversing progress on achieving those goals. Yet, while the negative impacts of internal displacement can hamper national progress, the evidence for how this plays out remains fragmented, and systematic studies are scant.
2018 marks the 20th anniversary of the UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement. A number of initiatives and events are celebrating this important milestone by taking stock of the progress made over the last two decades. While reflection is of course crucial, we must also look to how we take the internal displacement agenda forward, beyond 2018, building on what has been achieved to date. Towards this aim, the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) is hosting a conference in Geneva in October 2018, for which it has published a call for abstracts inviting contributions that explore the relationship between internal displacement and sustainable development. For its next issue, the Journal of Internal Displacement (JID) is collaborating with the IDMC to build on the outcomes from the conference, as well as inviting additional contributions that explore how internal displacement concerns fit into national and global sustainable development efforts and the UN prevention agenda.
Paper themes:
To address the identified knowledge gaps, lessons on the relationship between internal displacement and the SDGs are sought from a range of disciplines, including, but not limited to, migration and mobility studies, economics, human rights, human geography, health and political sciences, law, and area studies. By inviting contributions from across the globe, and from differing socio-economic and governance contexts, this Special Issue will unpack what it actually means to integrate internal displacement into national and regional development planning today and into the future.
Paper submissions are specifically welcome on the following themes:
- the impact of internal displacement on long-term educational and employment outcomes;
- the effect of protracted displacement on economic growth and inequality;
- the interplay between sudden-onset disasters, slow-onset impacts arising from climate change, and internal displacement;
- the nature of access to justice and state accountability barriers faced by IDPs;
- the challenges of collecting and aggregating data to support planning, as well as the prevention of internal displacement;
- the existing gaps and opportunities for financing; and
- case studies of instances where national and local authorities have integrated internal displacement into planning.
Beyond these themes, papers that present further relevant lessons under the SDGs are welcome, as are papers that explore any other aspects of the relationship between internal displacement, sustainable development and prevention.
Submission guidelines:
- Manuscripts must be submitted to internaldisplacement@gmail.com no later than Thursday 8 November 2018.
- Manuscripts must be a maximum of 30 pages (i.e. approximately 15,000 words including references). Further author guidelines are provided here.
