The International Recommendations on Internally Displaced Persons Statistics (IRIS) have been developed by the IDP subgroup of the Expert Group on Refugee and IDP Statistics (EGRIS), led by JIPS, with support from the UN Statistics Division (UNSD), Statistics Norway and the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC). The recommendations have been developed in close cooperation between experts from governments and regional and international organisations, ensuring a wide array of perspectives.
Good-quality statistics on displacement are a requirement for monitoring and implementing a number of international agendas and agreements, including the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Agenda 2063 for Africa, the New Urban Agenda, and more. Credible and comprehensive statistics on internal displacement are also needed for monitoring progress towards the UN Secretary-General’s ambitious call to reduce new and protracted internal displacement by at least 50 % by 2030. Thus, the UN Statistical Commission (UNSC) has recognised the need for improved practice using an internationally agreed statistical framework for internally displaced people.
Building on insights from the Expert Group’s report on statistical quality issues as part of its stocktake of IDP statistics, the IRIS provide clarity on conceptual challenges and enable consistency internally and over time as well as comparability between regions and countries, allowing the organisations of a country’s statistical system to make joint use of related data from different sources.
