What it is
The IASC Framework on Durable Solutions for Internally Displaced Persons provides criteria and guidance for determining when IDPs have achieved a durable solution through sustainable return, local integration, or settlement elsewhere.
Governance function
The framework operationalizes durable solutions by identifying conditions such as safety, adequate standard of living, livelihoods, housing, documentation, family reunification, participation, and access to remedies.
Who is included
IDPs pursuing return, local integration, or settlement elsewhere, including those in protracted displacement and post-conflict or post-disaster settings.
Who is left out
People may remain outside if governments define solutions narrowly as return, if IDPs are not consulted, if informal settlers lack tenure, or if people are no longer counted after leaving camps.
Where continuity breaks
Continuity breaks when IDPs leave emergency assistance but do not regain housing, land, livelihoods, documentation, security, education, health access, or participation in local governance.
Why it matters
The framework is central to the displacement continuum because it defines solutions as more than physical movement. The political economy archetype is solutions criteria without automatic implementation authority.
Governance coding table
| Political economy archetype | Solutions criteria without implementation authority |
|---|---|
| Responsibility | National authorities carry primary responsibility, supported by humanitarian, development, peacebuilding, human rights, and local government actors. |
| Eligibility | Eligibility depends on internal displacement status and the pursuit of one of the three durable solutions, but durable outcomes are assessed through conditions rather than a single status label. |
| Financing | Financing depends on national recovery budgets, local development finance, humanitarian-development cooperation, donor support, and sectoral programmes. |
| Data systems | IDP profiling, intentions surveys, return monitoring, housing and land records, service access data, livelihood assessments, and local governance data are central. |
| Delivery system | Delivery occurs through government recovery programmes, local authorities, humanitarian and development partners, housing/land systems, livelihood programmes, and service providers. |
| Portability | Portability is essential: documentation, entitlements, assistance records, school records, health access, and land claims must follow IDPs across return, integration, or settlement locations. |
| Accountability | Accountability depends on national law, local governance, participation mechanisms, grievance systems, protection monitoring, and inter-agency coordination. |
| Time horizon | Medium- to long-term solutions process, often extending well beyond emergency response. |