More than 200 researchers, practitioners and policy experts working in Africa and beyond came together in 2021 to develop a Research Agenda for Advancing Law and Policy Responses to Displacement and Migration in the Context of Disasters and Climate Change in Africa.
A Virtual Workshop Series was organised by the Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law (UNSW), the Platform on Disaster Displacement, the International Organization for Migration, UNHCR, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), the Centre for Human Rights of the University of Pretoria, and the University of Nairobi.
The resulting Research Agenda presents 15 proposals for research, providing a guide for researchers, research institutions and funding bodies wishing to support the development and implementation of evidence-based law and policy responses. The research proposed spans a range of fields of law and policy, including climate change, disaster risk reduction, migration and free movement of persons, transhumance, refugee protection, human rights, protection of internally displaced persons (IDPs), and planned relocation.
The Research Agenda includes specific proposals to:
- map integration of disaster displacement and human mobility in African States’ climate change and disaster risk reduction laws and policies
- map norms and provisions relating to planned relocation in Africa
- develop key metrics and indicators for monitoring and reporting disaster displacement against disaster risk reduction objectives
and, focusing on the context of disasters and climate change, to:
- analyse the application of regional refugee law
- assess the impacts of displacement and migration on urban communities
- analyse the dynamics of immobility
- assess the implementation of free movement of persons agreements
The Research Agenda recommends that research should be people-centred, by prioritising the needs and perspectives of affected communities, and should promote research integrity and diversification of knowledge production.
To access the Research Agenda and find out how to support its implementation, visit the Climate Mobility Africa Research Network (CMARN) at www.cmarnetwork.com.