Policy Background

The Project to Avert, Minimize and Address Disaster Displacement (PAMAD) aims to develop a better understanding of displacement in the context of losses and damages associated with climate change and support measures aimed at averting, minimizing and addressing displacement and its impacts for vulnerable people and communities.

PAMAD is embedded in several global policy processes and frameworks, and aims to contribute to their implementation through improved knowledge and understanding, action and support.

The Task Force on Displacement and its Recommendations

The policy foundation of the project resides in the recommendations of the Task Force on Displacement (TFD), established by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Paris Agreement under the Warsaw International Mechanism on Loss and Damage. The recommendations list a set of actions that can help Parties, stakeholders and affected communities better understand and address climate-related displacement.

The recommendations invite actors to:

• Consider formulating national laws, policies and strategies reflecting the challenges of disaster displacement; 
• Enhance research, data collection, risk analysis and sharing of information to better map, understand and manage human mobility related to the adverse impacts of climate change;
• Strengthen preparedness, including early warning systems, contingency planning, evacuation planning and resilience-building strategies and plans;
• Support and develop innovative financing approaches, such as forecast-based financing, in disaster displacement contexts;
• Integrate climate change-related human mobility challenges and opportunities into national planning processes, by drawing on available tools, guidance and effective practices;
• Strengthen efforts to find durable solutions for internally displaced people;
• Facilitate orderly, safe, regular and responsible migration and mobility of people by enhancing opportunities for regular migration pathways.

Displacement and Loss and Damage

Averting, minimizing and addressing displacement and its impacts has been recognized as a priority for all the processes focusing on loss and damage. 

In 2019, Parties established the Santiago Network for averting, minimizing and addressing loss and damage associated with the adverse effects of climate change (SNLD). The Network aims to catalyze technical assistance to vulnerable developing countries. While the modalities of the SNLD are still being discussed, its operationalisation represents an opportunity to promote policy coherence and action at national and local levels. Action on displacement, including through enhanced preparedness (e.g. development of institutional and community capacities to prepare for displacement, identification and setup of displacement sites), response and durable solutions (e.g. risk-informed returns, planned urban development in areas to which displaced persons are forced to move), will be a core component of needed support, and PAMAD aims to explore and pilot ways in which relevant work could be rolled out. 

Averting, minimizing and addressing loss and damage will require sustainable and predictable financing. Following the establishment of the Loss and Damage Fund at the 27th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC (COP27), relevant discussions have been significantly accelerated, and are advancing in 2023 and 2024 through the work of the Glasgow Dialogue and the Transitional Committee. The project seeks to contribute to these processes through the development of evidence on the economic and non-economic impacts of displacement, including through family separation, reduced well-being, disruption of communities. It also seeks to strengthen national capacities to accessing related funding, through identification of relevant opportunities and training.

Displacement and Other Processes

Improving understanding of displacement in the context of disasters and climate impacts, strengthening relevant policy frameworks and institutional capacities, and promoting effective operational responses requires bringing together actors and resources across sectors. The project is promoting cross-sectoral discussions at global and national levels, including bridging and coordinating the work of professionals working on disaster risk reduction and management, humanitarian response and protection of human rights, governance of human mobility and displacement, development, transition and recovery assistance.

The Project to Avert, Minimize and Address Disaster Displacement (PAMAD) is made possible through the generous support of the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad). The project is being implemented by the Platform on Disaster Displacement (PDD), a State-led initiative working towards better protection for people displaced across borders in the context of disasters and climate change. 

What is Loss and Damage?

Read the news story on how COP27 Reached Breakthrough Agreement on New “Loss and Damage” Fund for Vulnerable Countries