/ Turning the Tide on Internal Displacement: A development approach to solutions / Assessing the impact of displacement on IDPs and host communities in Nigeria

Assessing the impact of displacement on IDPs and host communities in Nigeria

Conflict and violence led to 376,000 new displacements in 2021 and more than 3.2 million people were living in displacement at the end of the year, an increase from 2020.^[1] Boko Haram and other non-state armed groups triggered significant displacement in the north-east of the country since 2009. Ethno-religious tensions, crime, cattle rustling, land disputes, tensions over scarce resources, and violent clashes between farmers and herders also escalated in the central, north-central and north-west regions of Nigeria during 2020, prompting thousands to flee their homes.^[2] The impacts of climate change are also thought to be exacerbating tensions and conflicts over resources.^[3] Many of those fleeing violence in the state settle in the state capital of Jos, which hosted about 12,000 IDPs as of February 2021.^[4]

This preliminary analysis starts to piece together the impact and potential policies to support IDPs beyond humanitarian support. It analyzes data collected by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) in the state capital of Jos in February 2021 from 300 individuals – 150 internally displaced individuals and 150 people from within the host communities. Women make up 51% of respondents in IDP households and 49% in hosts households. The sample size while relatively small, provides a starting point to understand progress in reaching different development outcomes based only on the households sampled. While effort was made for the sample to be representative, the representativeness does not capture the entire population of IDPs or hosts in the country.