A Critical Time to Address
Forced Displacement
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Globally, 68.5 million people are forcibly displaced because of conflict or violence. Between 2000 and 2017, the number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) doubled from 20 million to 40 million, and the number of refugees rose from 18 million to 25.4 million—fueled by violence and conflict in Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, Myanmar, Somalia, South Sudan, and Syria.
Eighty-five percent of the world’s forcibly displaced live in low- or middle-income countries.
At the time of this evaluation, 60 of the World Bank Group’s country clients had large, conflict-induced displaced populations, threatening the institution’s ability to achieve its twin goals of poverty reduction and shared prosperity.
The magnitude of the problem for Bank Group client countries and the increasingly protracted nature of forced displacement have added to the recognition within the Bank Group that forced displacement requires a development response.
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Toward a Development Approach to Forced Displacement
Awareness is growing that the humanitarian model of care and maintenance is unsustainable in the longer term and that forced displacement requires a development response to complement humanitarian assistance.
In 2016, the World Bank Group stepped up its engagement in situations of conflict-induced forced displacement at the global and country levels and adopted a new approach to its engagement that recognizes displacement as a development challenge that must be addressed to attain the World Bank Group’s twin goals.
The Bank Group views the development challenge of forced displacement as a corporate priority and a long-term challenge. Forced displacement creates specific vulnerabilities for refugees and IDPs.
The forcibly displaced lose rights, assets, livelihoods, and social capital when they flee their homes. Forced displacement disproportionately affects women and children: they make up 80 percent of refugees. Of these children, 52 percent are younger than 18 years old. These two groups are among the most vulnerable and are subject to abuse and violence.
The extreme poverty and human suffering associated with refugees and other displaced people exacerbate existing development challenges and affect the development prospects of host communities, countries, and regions.
A fundamental objective of the evaluation is to highlight lessons from the past and emerging lessons from recent experience to facilitate learning and to inform the Bank Group as it moves forward with the implementation of the 18th Replenishment of the International Development Association (IDA18) and discussions on the 19th Replenishment of IDA, and to help shape the Bank Group’s future support for IDPs, refugees, and host communities.
Main Findings
Overall, the evaluation finds that, notably, between fiscal year (FY)00 and FY18, the Bank Group’s strategies and support have increased, evolved, and moved in the direction of a development approach. However, the Bank Group is not yet fully leveraging its comparative advantages in implementing its intended development approach.

More about the Questions that Guided this Evaluation and Methodology
More about the Background and Context for this Evaluation (Chapter 1)