The Duration of Disaster Displacement

Disaster displacement is a global phenomenon which causes major negative impacts on individuals, local communities, national economies and sustainable development (Quarantelli 1982; Toole 2005; Uscher-Pines 2009; IDMC 2018). Its scale is captured in the annual figures published by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) on disaster displacements, a term that encompasses initial and onward movements of people during disaster events. IDMC also publishes estimates on the number of people displaced at the end of each year, but these estimates are highly conservative due to limited data collection and reporting after disaster events. Further information is collected systematically about the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of displaced populations but understanding of the factors that influence how long people are displaced and of displacement impacts is limited.