Press Release

Assessing Displaced Communities to Aid Drafting of a Policy Document for Internally Displaced Persons

09 May 2022

With funding from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) Development Fund and United States Agency for International Development (USAID), IOM is providing technical inputs in the execution of field assessments with the Department for Provincial and Local Government Affairs (DLPGA) and provincial authorities to gather evidence on internal displacement to help inform planning and decision-making targeting displacement affected communities and providing inputs in the drafting of a policy document for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).

IOM and DPLGA teams joined by local authorities from the respective provinces carried out assessments in selected areas hosting displaced communities in Manus, Milne Bay, and Madang provinces.

Vital information, including the living conditions of the displaced population and the challenges experienced to attain durable solutions, was collected and fed into the drafting of the IDP’s policy document for Papua New Guinea.

In discussions with local authorities during the fieldwork, the DPLGA highlighted that the IDP's Policy input document would focus on displacement induced by climate change, natural hazards, disease outbreaks, and human-induced hazards, including law and order, and gender-based violence related displacement.

“We are thankful for your visit to our community. We have been displaced many times because of river flooding. We hope that this assessment will outline some better solutions in the policy to capture our needs as vulnerable people so that we can see better responses when disasters struck and displace people,” said Mr. Tokwakwasi, Divinai’s Ward Councilor in Alotau district, during a discussion with the assessment team in Milne Bay province.

Information gathered through the assessments is being drafted as a case study and will be incorporated into a National Situational Report (NSR) on the displacement situation. IOM and DPLGA will convene a workshop that will review the NSR and identify policy gaps and specifications to support drafting the IDPs' Policy input document.