Thank you to today’s co-chairs, their Excellencies Ambassador Šimonović and Ambassador Ladeb for convening this meeting.

I am especially pleased to see representatives from Colombia and Nigeria on this panel.

As expressed in UN General Assembly Resolution 75/290 of 2021, when transitioning from relief to development, “the ultimate goal [is] resuming long-term sustainable development”. 

Excellencies, this is lacking in current internal displacement responses.

We must shift from responses that consider IDPs only as aid beneficiaries. Instead, we need to support IDPs as displaced citizens. 

It’s the breakdown of the social contract between displaced citizens and States that leaves IDPs behind. 

Often, IDPs go years without basic services, social protection or decent work - unable to exercise equal rights as citizens or become agents of progress in their communities. 

Lasting solutions for IDPs will be viable only by renewing this vital bond.

Over the last five years, the number of IDPs worldwide jumped by 50 percent to a record high of over 75 million. 

This is both a cause and consequence of crises – from conflicts and violence to climate change and the disasters it brings. 

It is simply not sustainable to treat internal displacement as humanitarian crises. 

Development is the only path out of crisis. 

This means, first, addressing the root causes driving people to leave everything behind and secondly, moving the Humanitarian, Development and Peace Nexus from theory to practice. We need to combine short-term humanitarian relief with long-term development and peace efforts. 

In 2019, 57 Member States called for a High-Level Panel on Internal Displacement to be established to look to how to respond more holistically to IDP situations.  

The Panel found that fundamental changes are needed. 

It called for bringing national ownership to the forefront and addressing internal displacement through its broader links to governance, development, rights and peace.  

Two years ago today, the Secretary-General also launched the Action Agenda on Internal Displacement with a vision of how the UN, along with member states, can cooperate on solutions.  

The message has been: “more of the same is not good enough”. 

UNDP welcomes the resounding call for change towards government-led and development-anchored solutions.  

Our contribution as UNDP is to work on sustainable “development solutions,” to overcome the social, economic and environmental challenges driving displacement over time.

This is part of our core support, with over half of UNDP resources going into fragile contexts.

We’re working closely with national governments and local authorities in places like Colombia, Ethiopia, Libya and Nigeria, on developing solutions strategies. 

We aim to mainstream internal displacement responses into national and local development plans. 

Additionally, we’re leveraging our large-scale stabilization and early recovery programming, including more than $2.5 billion in investments in places like Iraq, Mozambique and across the Lake Chad Basin to enable long-term solutions for IDPs. 

We’re supporting governments in establishing Integrated National Financing Frameworks (INFFs). 

These are key in reshaping financial systems, to ensure risk-informed and crisis-sensitive financing for priorities including internal displacement in countries such as Colombia and Ethiopia. 

UNDP calls for renewed focus on addressing internal displacement as a key development challenge hindering long-term peace and stability, along with the Sustainable Development Goals for 2030. 

This includes important discussions here at the 2024 ECOSOC Meeting on the Transition from Relief to Development. 

These must also go beyond "transition” spaces, to the heart of the 2030 Agenda, ensuring our world can sustain, and include, everyone. 

The upcoming High-Level Political Forum and ECOSOC Ministerial Segment in July is another opportunity to push that, and for internal displacement to be prioritized in the 2025 ECOSOC work Programme. 

As we accelerate SDG action over the next five years, we must reach those furthest behind first, including IDPs. 

Working alongside our ECOSOC colleagues, UNDP is here. We stand ready to support countries in doing so. 

Together, we can keep the SDG’s promise: leaving no one behind.

Thank you again for this opportunity!