In the search for durable solutions: Panel’s roundtable reviews coordination challenges and opportunities
5 May 2021
The UN Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel on Internal Displacement convened a third virtual roundtable on 11 May as part of its current phase of testing and refining its recommendations. More than 30 representatives of States, UN agencies and NGOs across the headquarter and country levels provided feedback on how the international system could be optimized to support solutions to today’s protracted displacement.
Discussions centered particularly on the role of the UN Resident Coordinators (RCs), solutions strategies, appeals and system performance management on internal displacement. Opening the meeting, Panel member Paula Gaviria Betancur reiterated the role of national governments as the “primary duty bearers” in internal displacement contexts. Nevertheless, UN and other international actors also play an important role in “laying the groundwork for solutions”. She highlighted the importance of integrating solutions efforts as part of development agendas, not seeing internal displacement as a stand-alone humanitarian issue, and for all accountability holders to work together in complementarity across the humanitarian-development-peace nexus as the Panel has heard stressed throughout its consultative process.
“Each context is unique, and in some cases, the role of international actors may be minimal. But in general speaking, the Panel has observed the challenges of realizing the nexus in practice,” she said.
Participants strongly endorsed the importance of integrating durable solutions into national development plans in the first session. As stated by the Panel’s Expert Advisor Walter Kaelin: “Integrating IDPs is a clear political message to say that these are citizens and they are not left behind.” In this light, the crucial role of RCs in leading the collective engagement of international actors in the development of strategies for durable solutions, as elaborated in the UN Secretary-General’s Policy Committee Decision 2011/20, was reiterated. However, participants also recognized the capacity and resource constraints faced by RCs and the need to empower and support them in a more predictable way.
In the second session, the elaboration of solutions strategies, plans and appeals attracted a number of reflections. There was caution against proliferating appeals while the benefit of costed plans in raising catalytic funding was also highlighted.
Support for strengthened accountability to affected populations was widely underscored in the last session of the roundtable. However, different views and concerns were expressed when it comes to the specific ways in which this accountability could be institutionalized or reinforced in performance management systems.