The Platform on Disaster Displacement (PDD) is a State-led initiative that aims to follow up on the work started by the Nansen Initiative and to implement the Nansen Initiative - Agenda for the Protection of Cross-Border Displaced Persons in the Context of Disasters and Climate Change, endorsed by more than 100 States in October 2015. 

IOM provided active support to the Nansen Initiative from 2012 to 2015, and has continued to do so with the establishment of the PDD in 2016. IOM is, together with UNHCR, a Standing Invitee to the PDD Steering Group, and plays a key role in supporting States’ efforts to implement the Protection Agenda, the PDD Strategy and PDD Workplan, which are directly in line with IOM’s vision and action on addressing human mobility associated with disasters and climate change. On 9 December 2020, IOM has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the PDD, which reinforces the partnership and collaboration between IOM and PDD at the global, regional and national levels.  

The Organization’s work on environmental migration and disaster displacement directly builds on policy work and institutional expertise in areas such as international migration law and policy, migration research, displacement tracking and camp management in disaster situations, disaster risk reduction, emergency response and preparedness, transition and recovery, immigration and border management, labour migration and development, and migration health. 

IOM takes the lead on several areas of the PDD workplan 2019-2023 with the support of IOM thematic specialists in Geneva as well as in regional and country offices, including a specialized Migration, Environment and Climate Change (MECC) Division, the institutional focal point for PDD.

For more information on IOM’s activities in support of the PDD, please click here.