Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department is taking to support internally displaced people (a) unilaterally and (b) working with the United Nations.

The UK is committed to meeting the needs of displaced populations, including internally displaced persons (IDPs). For example, we support, through core and bilateral funding, some of the key UN agencies involved in IDP response, including the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, and the International Organisation for Migration. In addition, the UK has large bilateral programmes in countries such as Syria, Iraq, Nigeria, South Sudan and Yemen that support IDPs and the communities that host them.

Several Member States, including the UK, are also actively exploring options with the UN to mark the 20^th anniversary of the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement this year - including the idea of launching a UN High Level Panel on Internally Displaced Persons, which presents one way of galvanising further political and operational attention and action on IDPs.