Deadline:
10/25/21
Event Date:
03/1/22
Location name:
N/A
Organization:
Forced Migration Review
Climate crisis and displacement: from commitment to action
Due out March 2022
Deadline for submissions: Monday 25th October 2021
In 2008 we published our first FMR issue focusing on climate change and displacement. This issue explored the potential impact of climate change on people’s mobility and the tension between the need for research and the need to act. Thirteen years on, the debate should no longer be about the need to act but about how to act.
There is now a range of high-level commitments, policy instruments, stakeholder partnerships, and mechanisms to provide guidance for international actors (including governments) on how to avert, minimise and address internal and cross-border displacement related to the adverse effects of climate change. These include:
- the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (SDGs), including SDG 13
- the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030
- the Nansen Initiative Protection Agenda
- the 2015 Paris Agreement under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
- the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM)
- the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR)
In March 2022, we will publish an issue of FMR debating how to strengthen action by international, regional and national actors in light of these frameworks and commitments – that is, how to move from commitment to action.
In 2022 we will be halfway through the period set for achieving the objectives of the SDGs and the Sendai Framework, while key commitments under the Paris Agreement should be on their way to being met. 2022 will also be the year when the first International Migration Review Forum will take place to discuss and share progress on the implementation of all aspects of the Global Compact for Migration. What have we learned since 2015 (when the Paris Agreement, SDGs, Nansen Initiative Protection Agenda and Sendai Framework were drafted) and how can these lessons be put to use?
This FMR feature will provide a forum for policymakers, practitioners, researchers and affected communities to debate perspectives, share experience and good practice, and offer recommendations. We welcome constructive, policy-oriented reflection on the obstacles to implementation and how to surmount these. We invite case-studies illustrating effective policymaking, innovative programming and ground-breaking thinking, particularly where there is potential for replication in other contexts. We also actively encourage examples of challenges, obstacles and failures from which lessons can be drawn. We welcome articles that discuss aspects such as:
Collaboration, coherence and dialogue
- Collaboration between State and non-State actors, including private sector actors, in the implementation of internationally agreed frameworks
- Building awareness of and making better/best use of existing policy and legal frameworks, multi-stakeholder mechanisms, financing opportunities, and tools
- Strengthening dialogue at different levels of decision-making
- Promoting policy coherence in national policy development and planning: for example, in national adaptation plans, disaster risk reduction, disaster displacement risk profiling, and early warning early action mechanisms
- Intersections with other drivers of displacement, such as conflict, and ways in which global frameworks and collaboration (such as between development, humanitarian and peace actors) can tackle compound risks and vulnerabilities
Action, inclusion and accountability
- Practical steps that countries are taking in terms of averting, minimising and addressing displacement and the risk of displacement, as well as managing and facilitating other forms of human mobility such as migration as adaptation and planned relocation
- The particular challenges and experiences faced by Small Island Developing States and Least Developed Countries
- Inclusion of voices from climate change-affected communities and regions in international, regional and national policymaking
- Policy, legal and programmatic responses to expand regular pathways for admission and stay for affected people and communities
- The role of the media, academia, and advocacy organisations and activists in enriching the debate and accountability in this policy area
Innovation, evidence and addressing gaps
- Innovative financing models and mechanisms at international, regional and national level, such as forecast-based financing and risk insurance facilities
- Specific challenges and examples of good practice that arise in data gathering, handling, dissemination and take-up in the context of climate change-related displacement
- Protection-related gaps in current law, policy and practice
GUIDANCE FOR POTENTIAL AUTHORS
Before writing your article: If you are interested in contributing, please email the Editors at [email protected] with a few sentences about your proposed topic so that we can provide feedback. Please make sure that what you propose responds to one or more of the bullet point/s above, and tell us which you are responding to. Please also make sure you tell us your affiliation. We will then notify you to say if we are interested in receiving your submission, and will at that stage provide you with further guidance and our submission requirements.
Please note that in June 2020 we published a feature on Climate crisis and local communities. That feature focused on the impact on and response by local communities. This latest feature will prioritise articles focusing on the response of international, regional and national actors.
In addition:
- You are welcome to email us and submit articles in English, French, Spanish or Arabic.
- We are particularly keen to reflect the experiences and knowledge of communities and individuals directly affected by this topic. We are also happy to work with individuals to help them develop an article and are keen to have displaced people’s perspectives reflected in FMR.
- We ask all authors to give appropriate consideration to the particular relevance of their articles to persons with disabilities, to LGBTIQ+ persons, to older persons, and to other groups with specific vulnerabilities, and to seek to include a gendered approach as part of their articles.
- While we are looking for examples of good, replicable practice and experience as well as sound analysis of the issues at stake, we also urge writers to discuss failures and difficulties: what does/did not work so well, and why?
Deadline for submission of articles: 25th October 2021
We welcome articles of between 1,200 and 2,500 words. Please note that the maximum of 2,500 words includes any endnotes.
