What it is
The Nansen Initiative produced the Protection Agenda for people displaced across borders in the context of disasters and climate change. The Platform on Disaster Displacement was created to follow up and support implementation of that agenda.
Governance function
The agenda and platform identify practices and policy tools for admission, stay, planned relocation, disaster risk reduction, migration pathways, and protection cooperation in disaster displacement contexts.
Who is included
People displaced across borders by sudden-onset disasters, slow-onset processes, and climate-related hazards may be addressed through the agenda, as may people at risk of displacement.
Who is left out
People may remain outside if states do not use discretionary admission, humanitarian visas, temporary protection, migration pathways, or other mechanisms. Internally displaced disaster-affected populations are addressed mainly through other frameworks.
Where continuity breaks
Continuity breaks when admission is temporary, when protection tools are discretionary, when return is unsafe, or when people move from disaster response into irregular migration status.
Why it matters
This entry captures one of the main gaps in the displacement continuum: people displaced across borders by disasters often do not fit refugee law but still require protection. The political economy archetype is tool-based protection without a binding status category.
Governance coding table
| Political economy archetype | Tool-based protection without binding status |
|---|---|
| Responsibility | States remain central, supported by the Platform on Disaster Displacement, IOM, UNHCR, regional organizations, disaster risk actors, migration authorities, and civil society. |
| Eligibility | Eligibility depends on national or regional tools such as humanitarian admission, temporary stay, visas, migration pathways, evacuation, planned relocation, or protection against return. |
| Financing | Financing depends on national budgets, international cooperation, climate and disaster risk finance, development assistance, and humanitarian support. |
| Data systems | Disaster displacement data, climate risk assessments, migration data, border records, early warning systems, and humanitarian assessments shape policy use. |
| Delivery system | Delivery may occur through immigration authorities, disaster agencies, consular systems, humanitarian actors, planned relocation programmes, and local services. |
| Portability | Portability is fragile because protection often depends on discretionary status, temporary stay, documentation, and national admission rules. |
| Accountability | Accountability is mainly policy-based and cooperative rather than treaty-based, unless domestic or regional law creates specific rights. |
| Time horizon | Preparedness, displacement response, temporary stay, planned relocation, and longer-term adaptation. |
Sources
Official sources
- Platform on Disaster Displacement official website
- IOM page on Platform on Disaster Displacement
- Nansen Initiative Protection Agenda PDF
Secondary sources
No sources listed yet.