Climate Mobility Policy Responses for Development Aid Ministries

This is the second in a five part series of ministry-focused briefs setting out rights-based, country-agnostic recommendations on climate mobility that governments can act on now.  To view the rest of the briefs, visit the overview.

WHY RESPOND TO CLIMATE MOBILITY?

Tackling climate mobility is essential to achieving global development, international cooperation and national security objectives.  Left unmanaged, the consequences of rapid onset and slow onset climate events will endanger lives, erode livelihoods and degrade natural resources. This can in turn cause regional instability and insecurity, strain social cohesion and overwhelm institutions, threatening global development and compounding humanitarian challenges.  Well-targeted development aid has a critical role to play: it can and should support climate adaptation, reduce the risk of forced displacement and support pathways that meet donor Governments’ labour market needs, as well as foster regional stability.

WHY ACT NOW?

Climate mobility is not a white space: donor Governments including the EU, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark and (previously) the U.S. have already begun to invest in interventions designed to prevent climate-related displacement, and programmes harnessing the adaptive capacity of safe, regular migration.  Donor Governments that invest in early programming will benefit from shaping the climate mobility landscape, setting priorities and obtaining leadership in climate diplomacy dialogues, while directly meeting partner Governments’ needs in managing this challenge.  Responding to climate mobility does not require setting up a new policy vertical with dedicated funding lines. Programming can form part of existing development aid portfolios on climate adaptation, disaster preparedness, urbanisation, natural-resource management, skills and migration.

KEY POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS:

Development aid ministries should focus interventions in four key areas:

1. INVEST IN ANTICIPATORY ACTION TO PREVENT OR REDUCE THE RISK OF DISPLACEMENT. 

• Invest in data, modelling and foresight on climate mobility: Donor Governments should invest in creating publicly available data, forecasting and modelling on climate mobility hotspots and migration routes.  In the medium term, this can strengthen the evidence base on climate mobility and attract targeted investment, while also supporting impacted States in making evidence-based requests to global climate funds.
• Strengthen early warning systems and pair with anticipatory action: Donor Governments should improve and upgrade early warning capabilities on forecast climate events, particularly in climate vulnerable regions. These systems should be integrated with anticipatory action plans to help communities prepare in place to avoid displacement and, where necessary, to move to safety before displacing climate events strike. Effective systems include the Early Warnings 4 All (EW4All), which can be upgraded and made accessible to all local communities. Regional models such as the IGAD Climate Prediction and Applications Centre (ICPAC) in East Africa exist and support national Governments in anchoring climate mobility data, risk profiling and predictive displacement forecasting. These examples demonstrate how early warning can effectively contribute to climate mobility planning in the short term.

2. SUPPORT THE CLIMATE RESILIENCE OF PEOPLE ALREADY ON THE MOVE BY BUILDING RESILIENT CITIES AND COMMUNITIES CAPABLE OF RECEIVING CLIMATE MIGRANTS.

Where displacement prevention is unlikely to succeed, development aid should help people on the move and in receiving communities to build resilience and find durable solutions.  Successful interventions should (i) be ‘status-blind’, supporting both host communities and migrants and (ii) recognise that climate-related displacement is often recurrent or protracted.

• Facilitate effective urban integration: As climate mobility frequently involves movement from rural areas to cities, effective medium-term interventions should support destination cities prepare to accommodate population inflows through (i) better urban planning (such as the EU’s ‘Sustainable Urban Integration of Displaced-Affected Communities’ in Sub-Saharan Africa or SUIDAC programme in African cities), (ii) developing growth-resilient urban economies (such as the Swiss Government’s proposed programme in Asia) and (iii) establishing climate-resilient infrastructure (such as BRAC’s programming in Bangladesh).
• Improve access to and governance of natural resources: Population movements can strain access to natural resources in destination communities, which can drive social tension and conflict. In the short term, donor Governments can address root causes of resource degradation by funding environmental management programmes, including efforts for ecological conservation, irrigation and reforestation. Support should also be given for community-level governance of natural resources to mitigate the risk of further conflict.

3. ENABLE SAFE, DIGNIFIED AND ECONOMICALLY SUSTAINABLE MIGRATION AS ADAPTATION WHEN DESIRABLE, NECESSARY OR BENEFICIAL.

• Support preparation for planned relocation: Where communities face extreme and fatal climate risks and remaining in place is no longer viable, donor Governments can play a critical role in facilitating the complex and lengthy process of planned relocation. Previous examples included providing support in establishing standard operating procedures and a new trust fund for climate-induced relocation in Fiji, financing relocations and supporting partner Governments to engage affected communities.

4. MOBILISE DIASPORA FINANCE, REMITTANCES AND SKILLS FOR ADAPTATION IN PLACE.

• Building and strengthening diaspora partnerships: Diaspora remittances, investment and skills are critical to climate resilience; however, remittances should not be diverted away from basic needs like food and education. Successful remittance programmes should (i) co-finance disaster response with diaspora disaster relief efforts, (ii) train remittance-receivers to use remittances in climate adaptive ways, (iii) alert and incentivise the diaspora to send remittances when displacing climate events are forecast and before they strike, and (iv) support partner Governments in matching diaspora remittances.
• Leveraging green diaspora bonds as innovative financing: In the context of development aid cuts, green diaspora bonds are innovative debt instruments issued by Governments to borrow primarily from their diaspora for defined ‘green’ or climate adaptation investments. They are most likely to succeed where there is a strong diaspora trust in the Governments and its institutions.  Donor Governments should play a role in providing technical assistance to partner Governments to establish green diaspora bonds by (i) socialising and advocating for the issue as one (of many) solutions to global climate finance needs, (ii) providing the technical assistance to structure and design the bonds (iii) providing the seed funding for the bond (iv) helping map the partner Government’s diaspora globally and (v) helping design the adaptation investments to boost the diaspora’s trust that the bonds will be used well.

IMMEDIATE NEXT STEPS:

• Establish a clear internal lead for climate mobility as well as clear channels for cross-departmental coordination.
• Systematically audit existing humanitarian, climate, migration, displacement, urban and resilience programmes to identify how they intersect with climate mobility and identify blind spots.
• Invest in climate mobility data and modelling as a starting point for targeted decision making.